THE DAY WK WENT A MAYING. 7 



Phcebe called and told us her name, as did also the j-a-y 

 from the woods across the brook. 



The red-eyed vireo inquired between mouthfuls, " Here 

 I am. See me? See me?" Buzz, buzz, here flashed a 

 dainty hummingbird. Black and white warblers and red- 

 starts galore came fearlessly about us. A wood thrush 

 hopped demurely through the undergrowth out into the 

 road, where she stopped to deliberately pick up some choice 

 bits left (shall I admit it ?) by a passing garbage cart. 



Into the road also ventured a half-dozen white-throated 

 sparrows with their pretty striped heads, and the Mar^dand 

 j^ellow-throats peered out through black masks from the 

 thickets. Following a harsh " Kuk-kuk " down the 

 stream, we came upon a black-billed cuckoo sitting mo- 

 tionless in a tree. 



There were restless gay warblers — enough to turn the 

 steadiest head — the summer yellowbird (like a bit of con- 

 densed sunshine) , the magnolia warbler in green and gold, 

 the brilliant blackburnian and golden- winged warblers. 

 Flocks of goldfinches filled the treetops with golden splen- 

 dor, or festooned the air with "per-chick-oree"; then there 

 was a little fellow in golden arra\-, wearing a jaunty black 

 velvet cap, who bore the name of Wilson ; a dainty blue- 

 winged warbler caught man3'an insect napping ; the "zee- 

 zee-zee " of the prairie warbler came from the trees above, 

 and the pine warbler led us a merry chase ere we discov- 

 ered his identit5^ 



Our old acquaintance, the chickadee, was there too, and 

 a chestnut-sided warbler filled its tiny bill with bits of the 

 soft white webbing of the tent caterpillar, to line the new 

 cradle she had nearly completed. The climax was reached 

 when a rubj^-crowned kinglet — whose acquaintance we had 

 long desired — peeped out from a tree by the roadside. Do 

 you wonder that not minutes, but hours, slipped quickly 



