132 BIRDS'- NESTS. 



and fearing I might really put my foot in it, I be 

 thought me to withdraw to a distance and after some 

 delay return again, and, thus forewarned, note the 

 exact point from which the bird flew. This I did, 

 and, returning, had little difficulty in discovering the 

 nest. It was placed but a few feet from the maple- 

 tree, in a bunch of ferns, and about six inches from 

 the ground. It was quite a massive nest, composed 

 entirely of the stalks and leaves of dry grass, with an 

 inner lining of fine, dark-brown roots. The eggs, 

 three in number, were of light flesh color, uniformly 

 specked with fine brown specks. The cavity of the 

 nest was so deep that the back of the sitting bird sank 

 below the edge. 



In the top of a tall tree, a short distance farther 

 on, I saw the nest of the red-tailed hawk, a large 

 mass of twigs and dry sticks. The young had flown, 

 but still lingered in the vicinity, and, as I approached, 

 the mother bird flew about over me, squealing in a 

 very angry, savage manner. Tufts of the hair and 

 other indigestible material of the common meadow 

 mouse lay around on the ground beneath the nest. 



As I was about leaving the woods my hat almost 

 blushed the nest of the red-eyed vireo, which hung 

 basket-like on the end of a low, drooping branch of 

 the beech. I should never have seen it had the bird 

 kept her place. It contained three eggs of the bird's 

 own, and one of the cow-bunting. The strange egg 

 was only just perceptibly larger than the others, yet 

 three days after, when I looked into the nest again 



