60 A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO. 



I got to the oak it was all in a hubbub, and the 

 vireo was scolding loudly at a blue jay. When 

 the giant pitched into the brush the wren-tit chat- 

 tered, and I thought perhaps the jay was teaching 

 him how it feels to have a shoe pinch. A few 

 moments later I was amazed to see a gnat jab at 

 the wall till it got a bill full of material and then 

 fly off to the brush with it ! My little birds had 

 moved! Evidently the neighborhood was too 

 exciting for them. More than ten days of hard 

 work — no one can tell how hard until after watch- 

 ing a gnatcatcher build — had been spent in vain 

 on this nest ; and if, as suspected, this was their 

 second, how much more work did that mean? 

 It was a marvel that the birds could get courage 

 to start in again, especially if they had had two 

 homes broken up already. 



From my position at the big oak I could see 

 that the gnats were carrying the frame of the 

 old house to a small oak in the brush. The 

 wood pewee had moved too, and to my surprise 

 and pleasure I found it had begun its nest on a 

 branch under the gnats, so that both families could 

 be watched at the same time. I nearly got 

 brushed off the saddle promenading through the 

 stiff chaparral to find a place where the nests 

 could be seen from the ground ; but when at last 

 successful, I too, like the rest of the old oak's float- 

 ing population, moved to pastures new. Hanging 

 my chair on the saddle, I made Billy carry it 



