BIKDS OF KANSAS 49 



sharp claws are admirably adapted to climbing, and their 

 stiff tails keep them erect as they ascend. 



They are not wild, but rather shy, and manage to keep 

 on the opposite side of the tree from the intruder. Their 

 presence would seldom be noticed were it not for their oft- 

 repeated, feeble, but sharp, creaky " Cree-cree-cree-cree," 

 and occasional soft, lisping " Chip." 



I am unacquainted with their breeding habits, and there- 

 fore take pleasure in quoting the following description of 

 their song and nests, from Mr. Wm. Brewster's observa- 

 tions during the months of May and June, in the tim- 

 bered regions of Lake Umbagog, in western Maine: 



. . " He is a frequent, but scarcely a persistent 

 singer, and his voice, though one of the sweetest that ever 

 rises in the depths of the northern forests, is never a very 

 conspicuous sound in the woodlands where he makes his 

 home. This is due to the fact that his song is short, and 

 by no means powerful, but its tones are so exquisitely pure 

 and tender, that I have never heard it without a desire to 

 linger in the vicinity until it has been many times re- 

 peated. It consists of a bar of four notes — the first of 

 moderate pitch, the second lower and less emphatic, the 

 third rising again, and the last abruptly falling, but dying 

 away in an indescribably plaintive cadence, like the soft 

 sigh of the wind among the pine boughs. I can compare it 

 to no other bird voice that I have ever heard. In the pitch 

 and succession of the notes it somewhat resembles the song 

 of the Carolina Titmouse (Parus carolineiisis) , but the 

 tone is infinitely purer and sweeter. Like the wonderful 

 melody of the Winter Wren, it is in perfect keeping with 

 the mysterious gloom of the woods; a wild, clear voice, 

 —4 



