112 EVERYDAY ADVENTURES 



rows from being starved to death by their ugly 

 foster-brother. The white-throat is a dear, gentle, 

 little bird. Even its alarm-notes are soft, instead of 

 being harsh and disagreeable like those of most other 

 sparrows. 



The next day I found a song sparrow 's nest and a 

 catbird's nest, and then in the midst of dark, cool 

 woods, where an icy brown trout-brook ran through 

 a mass of rhododendron, a thrush suddenly slipped 

 away ahead of me out of a clump of rhododendron 

 bushes. The light color of the bird and the lighter 

 spotted breast marked it as a veery or Wilson 

 thrush. On looking at the bush, I saw the nest, a 

 rough one made of hemlock twigs matted together, 

 and lined with pine-needles with a basis of leaves. 

 Inside were four small eggs of a heavenly blue. 

 They are among the smallest of all of our pure-blue 

 eggs. 



That same day the Artist found a beautiful nest 

 of a black-throated-blue warbler, also set in a rhodo- 

 dendron bush. The nest was made of the light inner 

 bark of the rhododendron, which was of a bright yel- 

 low. Inside, it was lined with black and tan rootlets 

 so fine that they look almost like horse-hair. These 

 are the same rootlets which the magnolia warbler 

 uses to line its nest, and up to the present time no 

 ornithologist whom I have met has been able to 

 identify them. 



"Can you go to Maryland to-day on a bird-trip?" 

 telephoned the Banker. 



