A Little Wood, etc. 55 



yellow. The goldfinch may readily be distinguished from most 

 other birds while on the wing by its peculiar undulating flight, 

 with an exclamatory note which sounds like the syllables /^r- 

 chick-o-pee, to mark each rise and fall. 



This bird nests late, building operations usually beginning 

 about July. The nest is one of the neatest, best shaped and 

 Avoven to be found among birds of his kind ; much resembling 

 that of the kingbird, though much smaller. It may be looked for 

 in a small tree or clump of bushes in the little woods and 

 pasture fields he frequents. This little finch has a sweet voice 

 which is no less pleasing in his call notes than in his very 

 pretty song. 



Through July, when song-birds are every day becoming 

 fewer, an untiring vocalist whose clear, but somewhat shrill notes, 

 may be heard from the tall tree-tops from morning till night, is 

 the indigo-bird. This is a very handsome little bird when in full 

 summer plumage, which for some reason or other he very often 

 is not — that is to say that whereas his entire coat, with the ex- 

 ception of the wings and tail, which are black, should be a bright 

 satiny blue, it is very often mingled with the brown feathers of 

 his winter plumage — which is, by the way, the same as that 

 which his mate wears the j^ear round. The nest of the indigo- 

 bird is not the beautifully woven thing which that of the gold- 

 finch is ; it is a little larger, made of dead leaves and grass, and 

 is placed most often in a bush not far above the ground. The 

 eggs are four, are pale blue in colour, and may be found in July. 



A bird of dazzling colour, of most gorgeous plumage, is the 

 scarlet tanager, but it is a shy bird, and does not often allow the 

 observer more than a passing glimpse of its rich scarlet and 

 black plumage. Like the greater number of birds of brilliant 

 hue, the female bird, and the young until their second year, are 

 quite different in appearance from the gaily coloured head of the 

 family, their plumage being a dull olive-green. 



The scarlet tanager builds its nest about the middle of May, 

 on the horizontal branch of a large tree, generally in the more 



