4 BULLETIN OF THE NUTTALL 



the liarvcst-tirae for the oiilogist, and rarities wore in order. But 

 how brief it all was ! A dozen or so days only, and the young 

 were hatched out ; the woods swarmed with mosquitoes, black flies, 

 and other bloodthirsty insects, and " the season " was at an end. 

 Nothing remained biit,to pack upthe accumulated treasures, and get 

 them safely home for future comparison and investigation. 



Before taking out our cabinet specimens, however, arid diving 

 into the dry details of description, let us return to the woods, and 

 bontcmplate for a few moments the undisturbed nest. We shall be 

 most likely to find one along this old wood-road, for the removal of 

 the taller trees has let in the sunlight a little, and birds love such 

 places. 



You will rarely find the interior of a forest so well peopled as 

 the edges and little openings, and the birds are not singular in this 

 respect. Men always choose the shores of rivers, ponds, or the sea, 

 for their first settlements in a new country, and I fancy it is not 

 entirely from considei-ations of utility, but partly because they 

 crave an adjacent breathing-space, where the sun and wind may 

 have fair sweep. -There ai-e some exceptions to the rule among the 

 l)irds, of course, there being some morbidly disposed individuals 

 that can find no place too dark or too secluded. 



As we follow the old wood-path, you shall take one side while I 

 make good the other. These little clumps of fir and spruce shrubs are 

 the likely places, and, judging from the numbers of Black-and-Yellow 

 Warblers that I hear singing, our chances are good, but you must 

 remember that not above one male in three or four of this species 

 is blessed w'th a mate, so do not let your hopes rise too high. They 

 are a gay lot of bachelors, though, ai-e they not 1 chasing one another 

 through the branches, more in sport than anger appai-ontly, and ut- 

 tering their queer, emphatic little songs on all sides. She knew she 

 tvas right ; yes, she hieiv she teas ri(/hf, they seem to say ; but what all 

 this means I never could imagine. Some idle gossip of theirs j)rob- 

 ably,- which it will not profit us to inquire into. Ha ! I have it, 

 even so soon. 1 thought yon fellow, singing so gayly in the fallen 

 tree-top had more the air of a Benedict than any we have pre- 

 viously seen, and here, almost inider my hand, sits his modest 

 little wife on her nest. Be careful how you shake that branch, for 

 I woidd have you take a good long look ere we disturb her. See how 

 her dark little eye glistens, and note the rapid pulsating motion of 

 her. back. Underneath those puffed-up. feathers a poor little heart 



