276 GLEANINGS FEOM NATURE. 



sumcd, I espied the songster sitting atilt of a splinter 

 which extended upward from the center of the stump 

 of a freshly cut tree. . His tail was bent downward, 

 his head raised heavenward, while the rich rolling 

 notes were issuing forth with a force and energy 

 seemingly wholly at variance with the size of the 

 bird. 



Unfortunately he saw me too, and instantly the call 

 was hushed, and with a headlong dive he went into 

 the depths of an adjacent brush heap. I stepped 

 behind a tree and waited, for the Carolina wren shares 

 the restlessness and prying curiosity of all his tribe, 

 being continually on the go- fidgety all starts and 

 jerks like some people we know in whom the nerv- 

 ous tissue largely predominates. 



Sure enough he soon appeared on the side of the 

 brush pile nearest me, peering from among the dead 

 leaves with an inquisitive air, jumping from twig'to 

 twig of the brush all the time teetering his body in 

 a peculiar wrerinish fashion, and performing other 

 odd, nervous antics as if possessed with the very spirit 

 of unrest. Finally he reached the topmost twig of 

 the pile of brush from which commanding situation 

 he resented my intrusion upon his domain with a 

 series of scolds prr prr prr for twenty or more 

 times, emphasizing each utterance with a quivering 

 shake of his whole body and especially of his tajl. 

 Then another dive into the brush a flitter and a 

 flutter close to the earth and he was hopping beneath 

 a fallen beech which, a few rods away, was supported 

 on its branches some feet above the ground. There 

 let us leave him for a short time while we make known 



