138 BIRDS'-NESTS. 



friendly whispers, suddenly appeared the rival, and a 

 violent rencontre ensued, so that one of the females 

 appeared to be greatly agitated, and fluttered with 

 spreading wings as if considerably hurt. The male 

 though prudently neutral in the contest, showed his 

 culpable partiality by flying off with his paramour, 

 and for the rest of the evening left the tree to his 

 pugnacious consort. Cares of another kind more 

 imperious and tender, at length reconciled, or at 

 least terminated these disputes with the jealous fe- 

 males ; and by the aid of the neighboring bachelors, 

 who are never wanting among these and other birds, 

 peace was at length completely restored, by the res- 

 titution of the quiet and happy condition of monog- 

 amy." 



Let me not forget to mention the nest under the 

 mountain ledge, the nest of the common pewee, a 

 modest mossy structure, with four pearl white eggs, 

 looking out upon some wild scene and overhung 

 by beetling crags. After all has been said about the 

 elaborate, high-hung structures, few nests perhaps 

 awaken more pleasant emotions in the mind of the 

 Beholder than this of the pewee, the gray, silent 

 rocks, with caverns and dens where the fox and the 

 wolf lurk, and just out of their reach, in a little niche, 

 as if it grew there, the mossy tenement ! 



Nearly every high projecting rock in my range has 

 one of these nests. Following a trout stream up a 

 wild mountain gorge, not long since, I counted five 

 o the distance of a mile, all within easy reach, but 



