AN IDLER ON MISSIONARY RIDGE. 13 



and - white creepers, redstarts (have we 

 anything handsomer ?), Maryland yellow- 

 throats, blue golden-wings, chats, and Ken^ 

 tuckies. Here were blue-gray gnatcatchers, 

 bluebirds, wood thrushes, veeries, an olive- 

 backed thrush, catbirds, thrashers, Carolina 

 wrens, tufted titmice, a Carolina chickadee, 

 summer tanagers uncounted, orchard orioles, 

 field sparrows, chippers, a Bachman sparrow 

 (unseen), a cardinal, a chewink, flocks of 

 indigo-birds and goldfinches, red-eyed vireos, 

 white-eyed vireos, a yellow-throated vireo, 

 kingbirds, and a crested flycatcher. 



In an oak at the corner of Aunt Tilly's 

 cabin a pair of gnatcatchers had built a nest ; 

 an exquisite piece of work, large and curi- 

 ously cylindrical, not tapering at the base, 



set off with a profusion of gray lichens, 

 and saddled upon one limb directly under 

 another, as if for shelter. If the gnatcatcher 

 is not a great singer (his voice is slender, 

 like himself), he is near the head of his pro- 

 fession as an architect and a builder. Twice, 

 in the most senseless manner, one of the 

 birds the female, I had no doubt, in spite 

 of the adjective just applied to her conduct 



stood beside the nest and scolded at me ; 



