A NEST LIKE A DUTCH OVEN. 45 



pay little regard to your presence, and yon may have a tine chance to ob- 

 serve his motions and sand-piper-like ways, as lie wades knee-deep into 

 the water, or splashes through it in hot pursuit of some aquatic insect." 



Thus pleasantly writes William Brewster, with "whom it was my 

 privilege to climb those rugged West Virginian hills, and thread those 

 charming valleys in search of feathered friends. 



' PEBBLY SHALLOWS JUST ABOVE THE CATAEACT. 



All three members of this genus are aptly called oven-birds, because 

 of the covered, oven-like nests which they build upon the ground. That 

 of the common golden-crowned wagtail is well known to all of us. The 

 northern home of the small-billed is very similar, except that it usually 

 builds beneath a pile of drift or some such object, and so saves itself the 

 trouble of putting a roof over its nest. In the dense cedar- swamps of 

 Maine an excavation is often made under a decaying log, and a warm bed 

 of firmly woven mosses and soft fibrous materials is tucked into it. Could 

 one imagine a snugger resting-place for the red-spotted eggs? 



Although the Louisiana wagtails were so common in West Virginia, 



