18 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 



now seems somewhat scarce. Warblers also maintain 

 their footing. Redbreasts are as numerous as ever, but 

 the field sparrow is more sparse than it was of old. 

 But I should mention, by the way, that the gold-crested 

 wren has done more than maintain its numbers, for it 

 has increased considerably within the last fifty years. I 

 have often found its nest, and in every instance this 

 was found on the outer point of a spruce tree branch, 

 some six or eight feet from the ground. The nest is 

 placed on the under side of the branch, and is pretty 

 well covered above by the foliage of the tree. It is 

 a beautiful nest, and in windy weather both old and 

 young birds must get a deal of tossing to and fro and 

 up and down in it. 



Brown Wren. — A peculiarity of the brown wren, 

 the kittie — " that little fowl with voice so big " — is its 

 love of nest building. During the time the hen bird 

 is sitting on eggs the male bird spends much of his 

 time in building additional nests. These are built in 

 the near neighbourhood of the first nest, and are fixed 

 in the places where wrens generally build. The nests 

 so built are all properly finished, but are never feathered 

 inside, and consequently are never occupied for breeding. 

 The boj's in my time called them cock nests. 



I shall conclude by now giving an example or two of 

 word painting, connected with what some of the song 

 birds say ; but you will, I am afraid, find it difficult to 

 hunt up many of the words in any dictionary. Some 

 of the poets of the Elizabethan period tried in this 

 way to convey in peculiar words what the nightingale 

 musically poured forth, but without success, in my 

 opinion. 



The missel thrush insists in singing out to all con- 

 cerned, " trio trio trio, do do do, trio trio." One of 

 the warbler family occasionally replies with " twee twee 



