io Gbe Warbler 



one of two or three conspicuous holes in the rock-walls. Like many an- 

 other ignoramus the writer looked forward to nesting Rock Wrens as a pal- 

 pably "easy" prey; in the days wherein he dreamed of full-note books and 

 complete series of photographs concerning the bird-life of that most fascinat- 

 ino- remote- West. But the writer is humbler, now ! 



Naturally anxious to establish the time of egg-laying for this species, in 

 Wyoming, he spent many a weary and hot half-hour in delving under sun- 

 dry slabs of sand-stone beneath whose entrance a nice, neat paved walk of 

 sticks and stones was visible, just above him, on the talus of steep hill-sides. 

 Many and many a pair of manifestly-anxious birds were watched and fol- 

 lowed with most vigilant care and untiring patience. Yet no nest with eggs 

 was ever found in three seasons of hard work among the canyons and mor- 

 aines. (The nearest approach to discovery came, one late-June afternoon, 

 when I toiled among vast boulders on a very steep canyon-side; looking for 

 a stray young bubo. As I rested, beneath the shadow of a great rock, for 

 a brief moment, I suddenly saw a male Rock Wren whom I had long been 

 hear ing y dive down from the heights above, with a few unknown somethings 

 in his beak; and disappear beyond the surface of a giant boulder. I con- 

 fess, I gave a yell that might have been heard clear to the canyon's bottom, 

 for, — I just had him this time ! But he, rather, had me\ beneath a great 

 slab, beyond an entrance not yet paved, there was found just a rude scratch- 

 ed hole, and the semblance of a rootlet nest. I am wondering, even yet, 

 whether the lifting of that boulder put an end to the home-making; or wheth- 

 er the work so rudely interrupted by a man was just the result of ir-restrain- 

 able energy, on the male Wren's part.) 



And yet the finding of occupied nests is no great task: after the eggs are 

 hatched. A filled-beak and a noisy anxiety betray the nest-vicinity; and the 

 rest is not hard. An hour of watching will usually suffice; if the man who 

 searches be a cunning hider. Such, in any case, he will liave to be; for, 

 with the exception of the Audubon and the Mourning Warblers I know of 

 no small bird more cunningly successful in finesse than this same fussy, bow- 

 ing, antic-indulging Rock Wren. The moment Man appears in the region 

 of the nest both Rock Wrens are feeding young under every rock within 

 eye-reach. Yet parental anxiety betrays all, at last. The rarely-beautiful 

 site pictured with this article, under canyon-side flags of sandstone, was found 

 by hiding amid a clump of small bullpines, along the canyon bottom; at the 

 very instant when a Rock Wren appeared on the slopes bearing food for the 

 young in its beak. Dashing under cover before he had betrayed his presence, 

 the searcher had the rare satisfaction of seeing the parent disappear among 

 the talus at least a hundred yards away. By scurrying to another vantage- 

 point, while the parent was again away after food, and thus more-nearly 

 locating the exact rock where-under the young lay hidden, it became pos- 



