178 THE CLERK OF THE WOODS 



a height of perhaps twenty feet, and as the 

 blows continued it " took wing " and came 

 to the ground safely, and more or less grace- 

 fully, alighting at the foot of another tree 

 some distance away. At all other times I 

 have seen the flight from outside nests, as 

 they may be called bulky aggregations of 

 leaves and twigs placed in the bare tops of 

 moderately tall, slender trees, preferably gray 

 birches, and mostly in swampy woods. 



On the present occasion my friend told 

 me that he knew of no nests now in use, but 

 that if I would come to his house the next 

 morning he would go with me in search 

 of some. I called for him at the hour 

 appointed. Squirrels or no squirrels, it is 

 always worth while to take a walk in good 

 company. 



He led me along the highway for a quar- 

 ter of a mile, and then struck into a wood- 

 road, which presently brought us into a 

 swampy forest, with here and there a bit of 

 pond, which we must go out of our way to 

 cross on the ice (a light snow had covered 

 it within twenty-four hours), on the look- 

 out for fox tracks and what not. We were 



