OVEN-BIRD. 137 



quiet, and we had not moved since the first alarm, 

 she made a detour and risked an examination of 

 the place where the little birds had disappeared. 



In watching the oven-bird I have been surprised 

 to find how irregular individuals are in their time 

 of nesting. On June 11 I found a family of full- 

 grown young being fed in the branches of a ma- 

 ple-tree. The same day I found a nest full of 

 eggs. June 12 three of these eggs hatched, and 

 I found a nest of young a quarter grown. June 

 13 I found the family that I have just described 

 well out of their nest. These could hardly have 

 been first and second broods, as they were in all 

 stages of development. This same difference I 

 have since found in the nesting of robins, vireos, 

 chipping birds, song sparrows and others. 



When I considered myself well acquainted 

 with the oven-bird and its notes, I was much sur- 

 prised to be told that it had a beautiful song dis- 

 tinct from the usual trill. The trill seems to be 

 used for all its commonplace thoughts and feel- 

 ings, but, as Mr. Bicknell says, " on occasion, as 

 if sudden emotion carried it beyond the restric- 

 tions that ordinarily beset its expression, it bursts 

 forth with a wild outpouring of intricate and 

 melodious song. This song is produced on the 

 wing, oftenest when the spell of evening is com- 

 ing over the woods. Sometimes it may be heard 

 as an outburst of vesper melody carried above the 

 foliage of the shadowy forest and descending and 

 dying away with the waning twilight." 



