BIRDS OF CHOCORUA 205 



completely. You may sit on it to rest among the 

 brown leaves in the wood and not know it is there: 

 unless the frightened escape of the brown mother 

 birds gives you a hint, and even then it is invisible, 

 so completely is it hidden in the debris dropped 

 by the previous autumn. Of dead weed stalks, 

 grasses and brown leaves it is not only built but 

 roofed, and with an entrance on one side that to 

 the uninitiated might be an entrance to the nest 

 of a field mouse, indeed, but never that to a bird's 

 nest. It is not for greater knowledge of nest 

 hiding that the oven-bird need pray to the wood 

 gods, nor may we know what further wisdom 

 he seeks, but all summer long he asks for it in no 

 uncertain tones. 



Out of the very treetops while the oven-bird 

 shouts his prayer below comes the voice of the 

 red-eyed vireo, uttering moral platitudes from 

 dawn till dusk. It is no wonder that some birds 

 go wrong with this monotonous preacher steadily 

 droning out, " Don't do this ; don't do that," to 

 them all day long. The bluejays, who have robber 

 baron blood stirring always under their gaudy 

 military coats, jeer at this prating of platitudes 



