AN OWLS HEAD HOLIDAY. 269 
nest within twenty feet of the hotel), chippers, 
song sparrows, snow- birds, robins, waxwings, 
and phosbes were to be seen almost any mo- 
ment, while the hermit thrushes, as I have be- 
fore mentioned, paid us occasional visits. The 
most familiar of our door-yard friends, however, 
to my surprise, were the yellow-rumped war- 
blers. Till now I had never found them at 
home except in the forests of the White Moun- 
tains; but here they were, playing the réle 
which in Massachusetts we are accustomed to 
see taken by the summer yellow-birds, and by 
no others of the family. At first, knowing that 
this species was said to build in low evergreens, 
I looked suspiciously at some small spruces 
which lined the walk to the pier; but after a 
while I happened to see one of the birds flying 
into a rock-maple with something in his bill, and 
following him with my eye, beheld him alight 
on the edge of his nest. “About four feet 
from the ground,” the book said (the latest 
book, too); but this lawless pair had chosen a 
position which could hardly be less than ten 
times that height, — considerably higher, at all 
events, than the eaves of the three-story house. 
It was out of reach in the small topmost 
branches, but I watched its owners at my leis- 
ure, as the maple was not more than two rods 
from my window. At this time the nestlings 
