272 VIRGINIA 



dant in West Virginia) had been found 

 without so much as a five-minute search. 



The next thing, of course, was to find the 

 nest, and so establish the fact of the birds' 

 breeding. For that I had one day left ; and 

 it may be said at once that I spent the 

 greater share of the next forenoon in the 

 vicinity of the grapevine thicket, before 

 mentioned, on Lincoln Heights. A male 

 cerulean was there, — I both heard and saw 

 him, — but no female showed herself; and 

 when at last my patience ran out, I gave up 

 the point for good. She had been seen in 

 the diligent collection of building materials, 

 and that, considered as evidence, was nearly 

 the same as a discovery of the nest itself. 

 With that I must be content. The com- 

 fortable way of finding birds' nests is to 

 happen upon them. A regular hunt — a 

 "dead set," as we call it — is apt to be a 

 discouraging business. 



My present attempt, it is true, was a 

 quiet, inactive piece of work, little more 

 than an idle waiting for the lady of the nest 

 to "give herself away;" and even that was 

 relieved by much looking at mountain pro- 

 spects and frequent turns in the surround- 



