BIRD'S-NESTING 105 



headed vireo, who sang, "See, see me-e. See me, 

 you! you!" His whole song is in couplets. The 

 Artist said that my rendering was too imaginative, 

 and that what the bird really said was "Che-wee — 

 che-woo, che-wee — chu, elm," which perhaps is 

 more accurate. 



Through appalling swamps and tangled thickets of 

 rhododendron we were led by the Banker, who had 

 highly resolved not to return without a sight of the 

 golden-crowned kinglet's nest. Once we came to a 

 large spruce in which had been cut, in the living 

 wood, great square holes like those in bar-posts. 

 On one side we counted five, on another three, 

 while on the opposite side were no less than ten, 

 with a new one on the top cut right into the solid 

 heart-wood. It was a feeding-tree of the great 

 pileated woodpecker of the North, a magnificent 

 black and white bird with a scarlet crest, nearly the 

 size of a crow. All that morning we searched in vain 

 for the kinglet's nest. Only as we came back to the 

 cabin at noon for lunch, were our hopes raised. 



As we walked down the trail, not a hundred yards 

 from the cabin-entrance, in a spruce tree, the Banker 

 spied a great hanging nest made of wool and lined 

 with feathers, from the top of which flew the only 

 golden-crowned kinglet which we saw that day, with 

 the orange patch on the top of his tiny head edged 

 with black and yellow. The nest was empty, but 

 the Banker felt that he had made the great discovery 

 of his life and discoursed learnedly on the industry 

 of this tiny bird, which could find and carry such a 



