BIRD NOTES AFIELD 



western chipping-sparrow, both migrants which have been 

 scarcely a month with us, have begun nest-building. The 

 vireo's nest is one of those exquisite bits of bird art which fill 

 us with a sense of wonder. It is a compact little basket of 

 grasses, woven together and securely lashed from its rim to a 

 fork of a slender, swaying branch. The eggs are white, with 

 a faint pinkish blush when fresh, and dotted with brown. 

 Happy must be the life of the little ones that emerge from 

 them, in that graceful hanging basket, sheltered overhead by 

 the spreading leaves and swayed by every gentlest breeze. 

 The father bird is a tireless songster, and his loud, sweet 

 warble is one of the delights of May. 



Bullock's oriole, with a still more wonderful hanging bas- 

 ket to contain the white, curiously scrawled and spotted eggs, 

 also commences the home cares late in April. The demure 

 little western flycatcher makes her mossy nest in some crevice 

 in the bank beside a stream, laying her delicate white eggs 

 dotted with reddish brown; the black pewee places hers under 

 the eaves of the veranda, building it of moss and straw plas- 

 tered with mud, and laying four or five white eggs. The 

 valley-quail has laid her numerous buff, brown spotted eggs 

 upon the ground, under a sheltering bush, and in due course 

 of time will be leading her little chicks afield, watching with 

 anxious solicitude for every sign of the approach of danger. 



During the month of May the height of the breeding sea- 

 son is reached. The western meadow-lark is nesting, although 

 I suspect it is her second brood, now first discovered in cutting 

 the grain. The lazuli-bunting lays her pale bluish eggs during 

 the early days of May, building a rather clumsy nest of 

 grasses in some low bush. About this same time the barn- and 



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