92 HOW TO STUDY BIRDS 



Chippy builds in trees, vines, or bushes in garden, or 

 chard, or pasture, and phoebe and the barn swallow 

 like barns or old buildings, though both in wild dis- 

 tricts, particularly the former, attach their nests to 

 ledges of rocks; an old bridge delights the phoebe's 

 heart. The meadowlark chooses an open field, and 

 locates the nest at the foot of a tussock, usually with 

 grass arched over it. It is difficult to find unless one 

 can flush the bird, but ordinarily the male gives warn- 

 ing and the female slips away. Sometimes, though, 

 I have surprised her and made her reveal her secret. 

 The water thrush likes to build under the roots of 

 an upturned tree or old stump in a wooded swamp, 

 or else in a recess of the steep bank cut by a woodland 

 torrent. 



Then the flicker, downy woodpecker, chickadee, 

 purple finch, wood thrush, brown thrasher, chewink, 

 veery, oven-bird, blue-winged warbler, Baltimore ori- 

 ole, and others get busy. During the last days of 

 May the *' advanced " individuals of almost any one 

 of the species, with some few exceptions, are liable 

 to have completed their nests and begun the task of 

 incubation. By about the fifth of June nearly all 

 the birds have eggs, and some are already hatching. 



The early part of the general nesting period, when 

 so many of the birds are building, is a splendid time 

 to locate nests by watching the birds carrying material. 

 A bird with any substance in its bill becomes to the 

 bird-student a very suspicious personage, needing care- 

 ful following. In a favorable locality near home, 



