10 
NESTS AND EGGS OE 
females still continue feeding, as though utterly oblivions of the concert 
which is intended for their benefit. After a day or two thus spent, they 
become less absorbed in such matters, yield to the potency of song, and 
coyly emerge from obscurity to welcome and encourage their would-be 
suitors. The period of courtship is short, and unattended by any of 
those peculiar antics which characterize many sjiecies at this time. 
In the Middle and Western States mating occasionally commences as 
early as the 25th of April, when the season is remarkably forward, but 
generally about the first of May — seldom later. In the Territories, from 
some unknown cause, it is delayed to a later j^eriod. Very little time 
is wasted after this event has occurred, in celebrating the occasion, for the 
pair soon begin to look for a proper nesting-place. This is a labor not 
entered into wdthont previous care and deliberation. Ordinarily a week 
or ten days are spent in making a choice of locality. The site selected is 
usually a brier, cedar, thorn-apj)le, or a bush in the midst of a grove 
or hedge, seldom remote from a settlement. The nest is sometimes placed 
in a maple, and when such is the case, the birds take the precaution to 
build it pretty well up. During the summer of 1880, my son discovered 
one in a crotch of the red maple, at an elevation of thirty feet from the 
ground. This, however, is excejitional, as the height usually ranges from 
three to about twelve feet. It sometimes happens that an injudicious 
selection of locality has been made, and a nest has been nearly completed 
before the mistake is discovered. In this predicament, instead of “making 
the best of a bad bargain,” the birds ignore the site for another better 
suited to their purposes. The situation being finally decided upon, both 
birds work diligently during the cooler hours of the morning and evening, 
for five or six days, in the construction of their home. In some instances, 
particularly during moonlit nights, the work has been carried on long 
after twilight has faded from the earth. Unlike the case of the Cedar- 
Bird, which we have already cited, there does not seem to be any regular 
division of labor. Both birds collect the materials, as well as arrange them 
in the nest. AVlieii a suitable article has been found, the finder does not 
