AVERY BIRD COLLECTION 89 
All this time she uttered not a sound. When I moved 
towards her she ran off through the thick weeds and 
briars; and finally I pursuing she pitched upon a tree and 
began her ‘seep! seep!’ till to make identification sure I 
reluctantly shot but lost her in the dense thicket over 
which she was perched. 
“June 3. Found nest of P. ae bachmani. This nest 
was on a hill covered with loblolly pines (P. taeda) and 
tall grass, but the situation of the nest was open and 
bare except for some scattered tufts of grass and small 
Virginia creepers. The entrance to the nest was near 
the ground and very little inclined to the horizon. As in 
every case but one where I had found the nest of bach- 
mani, the noise made by the alarm of the parent at my 
presence, attracted my attention, and indicated also to 
me in this instance where I should search. 
“While looking at a ‘mimosa’ (Albizzia julibrissin) and 
wondering by what agency it had been brought to this 
unusual spot among the old field pines, a rustling a few 
feet behind me and the hiss, as I supposed, of a snake, 
disturbed my meditations. I saw the sparrow and soon 
the nest, with four young just hatched. The old bird 
did not fly, but stood ‘seeping’ about ten feet from me. 
He had changed his scold into the anxious ‘seep! seep’ of 
his vocabulary, ’till I turned towards him, when he ran 
off through the grass and did not fly until he had led me 
at least fifteen steps. He then rose and pitched upon a 
fallen tree top, bobbing up and down much after the 
fashion of a wren, and while I was examining him with 
my field glass he broke forth into song, as soft and sweet 
and full of gladness as that which at times wells from 
his throat when the shadows of evening creep over his 
sombre pines. 
“This was a beautiful structure, when compared with 
one which I found on the 23rd of May. This last was 
scarcely woven into a fabric, and fell to pieces when I 
lifted it from the ground. 
“June 6th. Found nest of P. ae. bachmant. This nest 
when found contained two eggs; it was domed as the prev- 
ious nests, but was so thin and poorly constructed that I 
