XII 

 Saucy Jays and Polypores 



To arched walks of twilight groves, 

 And shadows brown, that Sylvan loves. 

 Of pine, or monumental oak, 

 Where the rude axe, with heaved stroke, 

 Was never heard the nymphs to daunt, 

 Or fright them from their hallowed haunt. 



Mii^TON, // Penseroso. 



IFOIyl^OWED down one of those sun-dried brook 

 beds that melting snows from the hillsides had ero- 

 ded during past ages. It proved a short journey to 

 the Glen of Comus, descending northward toward 

 Ball Brook in the vale below. I had not proceeded far 

 when I discovered what at first sight seemed a robin's 

 nest, built high in the branches of the American Horn- 

 beam, — or, as it is locally known, the Iron-Wood tree 

 {Carpinus Caroliiiiand) . It is the only American species 

 of this genus in the Birch Family. Several saplings 

 stood about fifteen feet high, two having so interlaced 

 their branches as to form a strong crotch about eight 

 feet from the ground. The nest was fashioned roughly, 

 built of small sticks, and fastened in the crotch-like loft 

 of these trees. I^ooking more closely, I perceived the 

 nest was a third larger than the robin's, and was not 

 plastered with mud. I soon discovered that the bird 



149 



