800 RIVERBY 



mass of down and feathers, regarding us ! The doves 

 had been so sly about their nesting that I had never 

 suspected them for a moment. The next tree held a 

 robin's nest, and the nest of a purple finch is prob- 

 ably near by. One usually makes a mistake in going 

 away from home to look for birds' nests. Search the 

 trees about your door. 



The blue jay is a cruel nest-robber, but this pair 

 had spared the doves in the same tree, and I think 

 they have made their peace with the robins, as I do 

 not see the latter hustling them about any more. 

 Probably they want to stand well with their neigh- 

 bors, and so go away from home to commit their 

 robberies. 



IV 



If a new bird appears in my neighborhood, my 

 eye or ear reports it at once. One April several of 

 those rare thrushes Bicknell's or Slide Mountain 

 thrush stopped for two days in my currant-patch. 

 How did I know? I heard their song as I went 

 about the place, a fine elusive strain unlike that of 

 any other thrush. To locate it exactly I found very 

 difficult. It always seemed to be much farther off 

 than it actually was. There is a hush and privacy 

 about its song that makes it unique. It has a mild, 

 fluty quality, very sweet, but in a subdued key. It 

 is a bird of remote northern mountain-tops, and its 

 song seems adjusted to the low, thick growths of 

 such localities. 



The past season a solitary great Carolina wren 

 took up its abode in a bushy land near one corner of 



