146 CITIZEN BIRD 



when we heard u ricli ringing song, something like a 

 House Wren's, but h:)uder and stronger, and very quick, 

 as if the bird were in a great hurry to get through. 

 But he wasn't, fm- he kept saying the same thing over 

 and over again. Presently we spied him, on the tip- 

 top of a i)ile of stones, standing quite still, with his 

 head thrown back and his bill pointing straight up. 

 He looked gray, dusted over with pepper-and-salt dots 

 on the back, and liis bill was very straight and sliarp 

 — almost an inch long, it looked. This was a Rock 

 Wren." 



'' He must have had a nest somewhere in those rocks," 

 said Rap. '' Wrens most always have nests near where 

 they sing.*' 



''No doubt he had, as it was the nesting season — 

 June," answered the Doctor ; '^ but it was growing late 

 in tlie day, we had a long scramble down the mountain 

 before us, and could not wait to hunt for it. Most 

 likely, too, if we had found the very place where it was, 

 we should not have been able to see it, for probably it 

 was tucked away too far in a crooked passage under a 

 shelving rock. 



" When we were half-way down the mountain we 

 passed a miner's cabin. He was at home, and we sat 

 down on a bench by the door to rest. Thinking he 

 might know^ about the nest of the Rock Wren, — for an 

 old miner knows a great many things he never thinks 

 of makino- a book about, — I asked him if there were 

 any Wrens around there. 



" ' Wall, I should smile, stranger ! Lots on 'em — 

 more'n one kind, too — but mostly not the reg'lar kind 

 they have where you tenderfoots live — bigger, and 



