BIKDS'-NESTING 181 



•with one or two others, was still wanting to make 

 the history of our warblers complete. The woods 

 were extensive, and full of deep, dark tangles, and 

 looking for any particular nest seemed ahout as hope- 

 less a task as searching for a needle in a haystack, 

 as the old saying is. "Where to begin, and how? 

 But the principle is the same as in looking for a 

 hen's nest, — first find your bird, then watch its 

 movements. 



The bird is in these woods, for I have seen him 

 scores of times, but whether he builds high or low, 

 on the ground or in the trees, is all unknown to me. 

 That is his song now, — "twe-twea-twe-e-e-a," with 

 a peculiar summer languor and plaintiveness, and 

 issuing from the lower branches and growths. Pres- 

 ently we — for I have been joined by a companion 

 — discover the bird, a male, insecting in the top of 

 a newly-fallen hemlock. The black, white, and blue 

 of his uniform are seen at a glance. His movements 

 are quite slow compared with some of the warblers. 

 If he will only betray the locality of that little domi- 

 cile where his plainly-clad mate is evidently sitting, 

 it is all we will ask of him. But this he seems in 

 no wise disposed to do. Here and there, and up 

 and down, we follow him, often losing him, and as 

 often refinding him by his song ; but the clew to his 

 nest, how shall we get it ? Does he never go home 

 to see how things are getting on, or to see if his 

 presence is not needed, or to take madam a morsel 

 of food 1 No doubt he keeps within ear-shot, and a 

 cry of distress or alarm from the mother bird would 



