notes of tbe 



to a far greater extent than the facts allow. Some 

 of them are strictly diurnal, and not one but re- 

 quires more light than is common to an ordinary 

 starlit evening ; on the other hand, while the birds 

 of the day generally go to their roosts soon after 

 sunset, some of them are quite active during and 

 even after the gloaming. Opportunity favoring, 

 I carefully watched the birds of an orchard and 

 wooded hillside during an entire summer, and was 

 surprised at the number that were active after the 

 light had so far faded that I could only distinguish 

 the species when they were clearly outlined upon 

 the western sky. Though the robins kept chirp- 

 ing long after they had settled for the night, they 

 did not appear to move about voluntarily, and the 

 last bird to give up food-hunting was the wood- 

 peewee. How it could detect insects in the dim 

 light is a puzzle to me ; yet it darted from its perch, 

 flew with the same confidence, and snapped its 

 beak as suggestively when I could scarcely see the 

 bird as it did in the blazing noontide of a mid- 

 summer day. Night after night I watched this 

 same bird, and in no instance found it outstayed 

 by any other. To my surprise the red-start and 

 Maryland yellow-throat were close seconds. A 

 red-start had its nest in a cedar-tree in my yard. 

 I found the birds when the nest was first begun, 

 and saw them daily until the young had left it. 

 These active little fly-catchers did not cease hunt- 

 ing until the last glimmer of rosy light had faded 

 19 



