DELAWARE VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 29 



a number of isolated hemlocks daring to venture forth into the 

 open from the protection of their neighbors of the woods. 



Birds were here in abundance. A Winter Wren was bus- 

 ily engaged in feeding a hungry brood. From down near the 

 creek came the lazy notes of Black-throated Blue Warblers, 

 and occasionally the spirited song of a Canadian. Singing 

 overhead in the hemlocks were Magnolia and Black-throated 

 Green Warblers. The clear notes of a Rose-breasted Grosbeak 

 came floating across the second growth, mingling with the songs 

 of Chestnut-sided Warblers and with that of a Tanager. From 

 deep in the forest came the sweet warble of a Solitary Vireo and 

 the droning song of a Chickadee. A Hummingbird buzzed 

 inquisitively about my head for an instant and then was gone. 

 An Olive-sided Flycatcher swooped from his perch on a dead 

 stub and returned with an insect in his bill. From every side 

 came bird notes and songs, a soft, sweet harmony of sound. 



It was not long before I saw a female Scarlet Tanager fly to a 

 horizontal branch of a hemlock, about forty feet from the 

 ground, and disappear. Ascending the tree, I found a hand- 

 some nest which contained four well fledged young. I sat 

 dangling my feet into space, watching the animated life below 

 and beside me. On every side where warblers, some singing, 

 some busily engaged in hunting insects, and it was from this 

 excellent post of observation that I caught sight of one or two 

 beautiful male Blackburnians, the first I had seen that day. 

 My attention was attracted by the excited actions of one of them 

 and he was soon joined by his more quietly garbed mate in a 

 demonstration against me. After watching the female for sev- 

 eral minutes I saw her fly to a branch of a hemlock about sixty 

 feet away. She left it at once, but quickly returned and this 

 time did not reappear. I descended and approached the iso- 

 lated hemlock among the lower branches of which she had van- 

 ished. A vigorous rap on the trunk sent her from the dense 

 mass of foliage overhead. She flew to a neighboring tree and 

 began at once to scold at me. Nervously flitting from twig to 

 twig, occasionally snatching an insect in passing, she watched 

 me intently, chipping all the while. I climbed the tree and 

 found a nest containing four young birds. The parents were 



