IO aty? UarbUr 



seen if once von come into its neighborhood in the forbidding- thickets and 

 swamps. Nests as large as a hat — a man's " derby " — a thick mass of twigs, 

 mosses and bark shreds, with deep cnp-shaped hollow, thickly lined with 

 feathers of Owl or Grouse, are these late-winter homes for the growing 

 young " Meat Hawks " or Canada Jays. 



Hours and hours, day after day, spent in the wet alder swamps; where 

 always were Snipe, failed to yield a nest of these elusive, long billed, ooze 

 probers. 



On May 15th I found the first interesting set of eggs for the season — 

 that of the Rusty Grackle. In a low spruce, 5 ft. up, at the edge of forest 

 fringing a bog-margined lake, this nest was placed on the horizontal limbs 

 — a firm structure of twigs and moss, cemented with mud and lined with fine, 

 dried, green grasses. Five fresh eggs were its contents — as large as a Robin's, 

 green-gray, beautifully marked with black and dark lavender. 



On the 17th of the month, a real surprise in the form of the nest and 

 eggs of the Canada or " Spruce Grouse" was my good fortune. Traversing 

 an almost barren rocky knoll, some two acres in extent, situated like an is- 

 land in a sea of dense spruce forests and bush-grown bog, I happened to 

 note the dusting wallow of birds, around which were feathers from the Can- 

 ada Grouse. A little later from under my very feet, came the startling 

 whirl and clatter of wings as a hen Grouse left her eggs. Alighting but a 

 few yards away, she began a low clucking, as with drooping wings and head, 

 she slowly walked toward and around me. The nest, a mere hollow in the 

 gravel under the low branch of a spruce, was lined with dead leaves of birch 

 and some feathers from the bird's own breast — it contained six eggs, evident- 

 ly a full complement, since two days later, visiting the nest again, I still 

 found but six. Two more nests of the Canada Grouse were discovered 

 within a few miles of the one just referred to — one on the 18th and another 

 on the 25th. Both of these were similarly situated in the dry, open " barrens " 

 near bogs and densely wooded swamps, concealed under low spruce bushes, 

 and each contained six eggs. Besides the three hens found on the nests, 

 but one other Spruce Grouse was seen during the season, a male near the 

 first nest, and so absurdly tame that he allowed me to push him with a 

 walking stick, resisting that action in a manner almost pugnacious. , 



On May 15th, both Ruby and Golden-Crowned Kinglets were observed 

 carrying material with which to build nests, though it was June 1st before 

 eggs were laid by either. 



Ruby- crowned Kinglets are almost a characteristic summer bird of the 

 spruce and fir thickets bordering the lakes and bogs of this region, their 

 sprightly song and chatter everywhere greeting the ears during the spring 

 and early summer. Their nests are not readily found — not at all so — in- 

 deed, except the bird be traced while carrying building material to the nest, 



