Cbe Marbler i 3 



the first nesting should be so late. All indications were for Early-June 

 nesting; which leaves a good long time for the prenuptial joust, in May. 



And it is in May that the calls are most varied, animated, fascinating. 

 There is infinite variance, even with the utterance of the same type of call; 

 and most of the songs and calls are soft and ventriloquil, always iterative 

 often exquisitely sweet. On the contrary some calls remind one of the Welsh 

 language, all consonants. One such might be written down as "Tzr-r-r- 

 r-", (four times repeated); another is just a smoothly-rolled "R-r-v-r-"; while 

 a third is a rather sweet and liquid, — "Tl-1-1-1-1": much like a certain conceit 

 of the Robin. A fourth consonantal utterance is much like the rollino-, 

 u R-r-r-d", (about six times repeated), which is a favorite trill of the Mocker. 

 There are many other vocables, varying very greatly in quality. And all 

 through the latter part of May these calls resound along every canyon and 

 upon every rock-bottomed, pine-topped hill. Most musical, perhaps, of all 

 the Rock Wrens I ever heard, was a certain male to whom I have always 

 imputed the most wonderful castle, of its kind, that I ever saw. Right where 

 a deep, narrow canyon had its masses most madly and indiscriminately heap- 

 ed together, at a point where the resulting masses were realistically castel- 

 late, there was a shattered buttress which had the appearance of having lono- 

 been the fastness of a Rock Wren. Beginning far down toward the base of 

 the buttress the bits of sandstone had been piled, one atop another; exactly 

 like the ancient fabrications of the cliff-dwellers. The resulting mass of 

 pebbles rose to the top of the narrow cliff which it filled; and its continuation 

 paved the cavity, just above the cleft. The pavings ran in as far as I could 

 see or probe. And enough of sticks were present to prove the Rock Wren 

 origin of the work. Near this fortification, always, during two successive 

 Summers, was to be found a most-sweet singer. He seemed always alone; 

 and, while ever near the cavity, so wonderfully modified with an industry 

 so amazing, I never actually found him at the spot but once. And even 

 then he seemed uncaring. To have counted all the bits of stone in this 

 wonderful, camera-defying structure would have been impossible. The num- 

 ber must have reached far into the thousands. And if the work were, in- 

 deed, the result of the activity of one bird, the industry of that one was even 

 more wonderful than his voice. 



I can hear him yet, even as I can yet see his home, in memory. There 

 was one soft, resounding, "Ee — oh, ee — oh", sung out, again and again; var- 

 ied with a blither, more animated, "Tsa — ree". Occasionally there was a 

 laconic, " lit," six or seven times deliberately repeated. This might be fol- 

 lowed by a resounding, "Eve, — eve, — eve". (This was usually drawled into 

 a nasal "Ee-uv"). But the oddest note of all was a mincing, affected, "ti 



ti — ti — ti ": (short i). In this and in several other notes of the sort 



one was often reminded of the more deliberate utterances of the Mockers 



