BIRDS'-NESTS 



movements of the bird, could find it out ? During 

 the present season I went to the woods nearly every 

 day for a fortnight without making any discoveries 

 of this kind, till one day, paying them a farewell 

 visit, I chanced to come upon several nests. A 

 black and white creeping warbler suddenly became 

 much alarmed as I approached a crumbling old 

 stump in a dense part of the forest. He alighted 

 upon it, chirped sharply, ran up and down its 

 sides, and finally left it with much reluctance. 

 The nest, which contained three young birds nearly 

 fledged, was placed upon the ground, at the foot of 

 the stump, and in such a position that the color 

 of the young harmonized perfectly with the bits 

 of bark, sticks, etc., lying about. My eye rested 

 upon them for the second time before I made them 

 out. They hugged the nest very closely, but as I 

 put down my hand they all scampered off with 

 loud cries for help, which caused the parent birds 

 to place themselves almost within my reach. The 

 nest was merely a little dry grass arranged in a 

 thick bed of dry leaves. 



This was amid a thick undergrowth. Moving on 

 into a passage of large stately hemlocks, with only 

 here and there a small beech or maple rising up 

 into the perennial twilight, I paused to make out 

 a note which was entirely new to me. It is still 

 in my ear. Though unmistakably a bird note, it 

 yet suggested the bleating of a tiny lambkin. 

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