2-0 Till". Rri!V-CI<()\VNlil) K1\«W.ET. 



1 /;(•.•/> . Tlicse t'lupliatic notes arc also icndtTivl in a dciaclii'd form at oc- 

 casional intervals, usually after the entire song has la-en rehearsed; and thev 

 arc so loud at all times as to Ik* heard at a distance of half a mile. One indi- 

 vidual began his song with an elaljorate preliminary run of higli-piichcd, 

 winning notes of a liueness almost beyond human cognizance; then •ffected a 

 descent by a k\t\lci\' note to the /rti' /i"i' /rti' series. In his case, also, the em- 

 phatic dosing notes had a distinctly double character, as chccpy, chci'py, chci-py. 



We rans.'icked the Xewpttrt woods day after day with feverish eagerness, 

 allincd and goaded by the music, but filled also with that strange fire of 

 oological madness which will lead its possessor to bridge chasms, <langle over 

 l)recipices. brave the billows of the sea, battle with eagles on the heights, or 

 crawl on hands and knees all over a forty-acre field. The (piest was well-nigh 

 hopeless, for the woods were dense and the tamaracks were heavily drapeil 

 in brown moss, "Spanish beards," with a thousand |M>ssibilities of hiilden nests 

 to a single tree. June the Firsi was to be the last day of our stav, and it 

 opened up with a dense fog emanating from the Pend d'Oreille River hard-by. 

 Xevertheless, si.\ o'clock found us ogling thru the mi.sts on the crest of a 

 wooded hill. .\ Ruby-crown was humming fragmentary snatches of song, 

 and I ])iit the glasses on him. I was watching the flitting sjjrite with languiil 

 interest when Jack exd.iimed ])etulantly. "Now, why won't that bird visit his 

 nest?" "He did." I rci)lied. lowering the binoculars. The bird in flitting 

 about had i)ause(l but an instant near the end of a small fir branch al)out 

 thirlv-fi\e feet u|) in a sixty-foot tree, sjjringing from the hillside below 

 'I'here was nothing in the movement nor in the length of time s])ent to excite 

 susi)icion. hut it had served to reveal thru the glasses a thickening of the 

 droo|)ing foliage, clearly noticeable as it lay outlined against the fog. 



We returned at ten o'clock and the first strokes of the hand-ax. as the 

 lowermost spike hit into the live wood, sent the female flying from the nest 

 into a neighboring tree. .\s the ascent was made spike by spike, she uttered 

 a rapid coini)laint. comixised of notes similar to the prefatory notes of the 

 males song; hut dining my entire stay aloft she did not venture back into the 

 nesting tree, nor did the male once put in an appearance. The nest was only 

 five aiul a half feet out from the tree trunk, and the cont.iining branch an 

 inch in thickness at the base. Hence, it was imt a dilTicult, albeit an anxious, 

 task to support the limb midway with one han<l and to sever it with a iKickct- 

 knife held in the other, then to haul it in slowly. 



The nest was conijxised largely of the drooping brown moss, so common 

 in this region as to be almost a necessity, yet ct^ntrasting strongly with the 

 clean bright green of the yoimg fir tree. Rut, even so, it was so thorolv C">n- 

 cealed bv the draping foliage that its presence would have escaped notice 

 from anv attainable stand|Miint. save for the mere density. — a shade thicker 

 than elsewhere. .\t first sight one is tcm|)led to call it a moss-ball, but close 



