GREAT-CRESTS AT HOME. 167 



to see the little folk that chattered and whis- 

 pered and " dee-dee'd " overhead, and though 

 we were absolutely certain a party of tufted tits 

 and chickadees and black and white creepers, 

 who always seemed to travel in company, were 

 frolicking about, we could not distinguish them 

 from the dancing and fluttering leaves. 



When the day was favorable, and the wren 

 had gone his way, foraging in silence over the 

 low ground at our back, and an old stump that 

 stood there, and the sitter had settled herself in 

 her nest for another half hour, we could look 

 about at whoever happened to be there. Thus 

 I made further acquaintance with the great- 

 crested flycatcher. Hitherto I had known these 

 birds only as they travel through a neighbor- 

 hood not their own, appearing on the tops of 

 trees, and crying out in martial tones for the 

 inhabitants to bring on their fighters, a chal- 

 lenge to all whom it may concern. It was a 

 revelation, then, to see them quietly at home like 

 other birds, setting up claims to a tree, driving 

 strangers away from it, and spending their time 

 about its foot, seeking food near the ground, 

 and indulging in frolics or fights, whichever 

 they might be, with squealing cries and a rush- 

 ing flight around their tree. In the latter part 

 of our study, the great-crest babies were out, 

 noisy little fellows, who insisted on being fed as 



