NEAR VIEWS OF WILD LIFE 



color makes him a shining mark, and he keeps far 

 away from the nest, singing at all hours of the clay 

 in a circle around it, the radius of which must be 

 more than fifty yards. In one instance the nest 

 was near the house, almost under the clothes-line, 

 in a low blackberry-bush, partly masked by tall- 

 growing daisies and timothy. I chanced to pass 

 near it, when off went the little brown bird v/ith her 

 sharp, chiding manners. She is a very emphatic 

 creature. It is yea and nay with her every time. 



The male seems like a bit of the tropics. He is 

 not a very pleasing singer, but an all-day one and 

 an all-summer one. He is one of our rarer birds. 

 In a neighborhood where you see scores of sparrows 

 and goldfinches you will see only one pair of indigo- 

 birds. Their range of food is probably very lim- 

 ited. I have never chanced to see them taking 

 food of any kind. 



How crowded with life every square rod of the 

 fields and woods is, if we look closely enough! 

 Beneath my leafy canopy on the edge of the beech 

 woods where I now and then seek refuge from a hot 

 wave, reclining on a cushion of dry leaves or sitting 

 with my back against a cool, smooth exposure of the 

 outcropping place rock, I am in a mood to give 

 myseK up to a day of little things. And the httle 

 things soon come trooping or looping along. 



I see a green measuring-worm taking the di- 

 mensions of the rim of my straw hat which lies on 



91 



