122 A TINY TILTER. 



bluish-white tint, speckled with chestnut. Did I 

 do wrong in yielding to the temptation to take 

 one of them between my finger and thumb, just to 

 see how pretty it was and how smooth it felt ? I 

 think no harm was done, for no sooner had I 

 reached the ground than the female was again on 

 the nest. 



These birds are a charming sight as they trip, 

 fairylike, from twig to twig, pose in various atti- 

 tudes, dart out into the air with expanded tail, 

 seize a winged insect, clicking their mandibles 

 viciously, and then flit gracefully back to a spray. 

 I have often seen them hanging to the under side 

 of a leaf, hunting for tidbits, so light and airy are 

 they. Every movement is the poetry of grace. 

 They are, with scarcely an exception, the most 

 dexterous tilters of the woods. Sometimes when 

 the insect they are pursuing is very agile, they 

 have quite a wing-contest before it is secured, but 

 they seldom fail to bear the trophy away in 

 triumph. 



Their little lisp has been called "a miniature 

 imitation of the catbird's well-known note." Early 

 in the spring, before most other migrants have 

 arrived from the South, I have found these hardy 

 creatures in the trees that skirt the river, singing 



