102 HOW TO STUDY BIRDS 



tangle when I came face to face with the female vireo 

 carrying building material, and, looking about, I saw 

 close at hand the nearly finished nest, a pretty cup, 

 suspended from the fork of a little sapling, only two 

 feet from the ground. The male soon appeared, and 

 a great scolding and chattering ensued. 



Withdrawing, I proceeded farther back into the 

 scrub pasture, and presently, about two hundred yards 

 beyond this, what should I see but another white-eyed 

 vireo hopping about in a clump of chestnut-sprouts, 

 carrying building material. I stood perfectly still, 

 and in a short time it flew about ten yards to the be- 

 ginnings of a nest attached to a low fork, two feet up, 

 under another clump of chestnut-sprouts. 



I was back there on the twelfth of June. Both 

 birds had now finished their nests and were incubating 

 full sets, the first of four, the second of three. They 

 were very tame, and let me set up the camera and pho- 

 tograph them on the nest, though I was only four or 

 five feet away. Both nests were handsome structures, 

 but especially the second, which was a long, pointed, 

 pendant affair, like a pouch. At each nest the occu- 

 pant, probably the female, did a peculiar thing, which 

 may be characteristic. In each case I happened to ap- 

 proach the nest, after the bird had left, just as she 

 returned. Surprised on the edge of the nest, instead 

 of flying off, she assumed a crouching attitude and re- 

 mained right there perfectly still, as long as I cared 

 to wait. In one case, after photographing the bird 

 from where I stood, the idea came to me of getting 



