232 EVERYDAY ADVENTURES 



yellow palm warbler, who has a maroon-colored head, 

 a yellow breast, and twitches his tail like a water 

 thrush. Another new song was the " Swee, swee, swee " 

 of the bay-breasted warbler, who wears a rich sombre 

 suit of black and bay. Over on the shore we heard 

 the plaintive piping of the brownish -gray -and- 

 white piping plover, who ran ahead of us and was 

 hard to see against the sand. Right beside my foot 

 I found one of the nests, a little hollow in the warm 

 sand, lined with broken shells, containing four eggs, 

 the color of wet sand all spotted with black and gray. 

 All through the woods we heard a strange wild, 

 ringing song much like that of the Carolina wren. 

 " Chick-a-ree, chick-a-ree, chick-a-ree, chick" it 

 sounded. Then between the songs the bird sang 

 another like a rippling laugh, and then for variety 

 had a note which went "Chu, chu, chu" like a fish- 

 hawk. It was some time before we found that these 

 three songs all came from the same bird, and it was 

 much longer before we learned the singer's name. 

 For days and days we searched the woods without a 

 glimpse of him. We found at last that he was none 

 other than the ruby-crowned kinglet, that tiny 

 bird with a concealed patch of flame-colored feathers 

 on the top of his head, who sings so brilliantly as he 

 passes through the Eastern states in the spring. 

 Not once during that week did we hear the intricate 

 warble which is the kinglet 's spring song. Evidently 

 this talented performer has a different repertoire for 

 his home engagement from that which he uses while 

 on the road. 



