524 LAND BIRDS 
woods and the silver cadence of the mountain brook, he 
is “an April poem that God has dowered with wings.” 
He is seldom or never alone, but travels with a merry 
band of his fellows, from the southern valleys where he 
feeds in winter to the northern mountain heights. There 
among the pine forests where the yellow lichen clings 
to the rugged trunks, he will build his nest and rear 
his brood. And now you discover the reason for his 
greenish yellow coloring; for, as he flits here and 
there among the lichen tufts, picking up bits to line or 
decorate his nest, you are struck with the way in which 
he becomes invisible. So, in cases where the lichens 
are used in the nest-building, it is difficult to tell whether 
or not the bird is brooding. The lichens are seldom 
used, however, unless the nest is placed in a fir or 
pine tree. When built in a willow, rootlets and finely 
shredded strips of bark take its place. Whether this 
material is chosen because of convenience or with an 
eye to protective coloring no one may say, but I believe 
it is only a matter of whatever is most easily obtained. 
Both sexes assist in the nest-building and in gathering 
material, which is moulded into shape by a turning 
about of the bird’s body after the manner of the black- 
headed grosbeak. The only nest I have ever seen was 
entirely inaccessible, in the top of a fir tree at least 
thirty-five feet from the ground. The tree stood on the 
side of a cafion, and it was possible from a point above 
it and a hundred feet away, by means of field glasses, to 
watch the birds at work. But at this distance one 
could only observe in a very unsatisfactory degree and 
