BiBDS OF Indiana. 977 



"When golden pippin trees are white 



Some mellow, liquid, notes are heard. 

 That mingle in one brief delight 



The thought of man, the soul of bird. 

 Sing on, my redbird ! Strains that speak 



A tenderer hope than words can tell ; 

 The boor who named thee for thy beak 



Had never felt the witching spell 

 Of wild-bird music, such as cleaves 



The crust of pride and wafts the soul 

 From hate that blinds, ahd care that grieves 



To love-taught art's divinest goal." 



— Hoosier Sards, p. 14. 



Tte song period continues until the end of August and sometimes 

 well into September (September 10, 1891). I found the nest and 

 eggs April 18, 1888.. Mr. J. 0. Snyder found a nest with two fresh 

 eggs at Waterloo, May 30, 1883. They frequently build their nests 

 in shrubs, vines and young trees in towns. Several pairs build every 

 year within the town of Brookville, sometimes in vines that drape 

 the walls and screen the windows of residences. The spring of 1897 a 

 pair attempted to nest in a yard adjoining mine, but their hopes were 

 blighted, for, during a storm, a heavy wind blew the nest and eggs 

 from the Syringa bush where it was built, and the birds did not at- 

 tempt to rebuild. I first saw the female carrying the fibrous bark of 

 a last year's morning glory vine from my yard to the nest May 16. 

 These were hanging in a cherry tree, and after much pulling she 

 would get a bill full and carry it to my neighbor's bush. The female 

 did all the work. The male accompanied her every trip to or from 

 the nest. While she collected the nest-material hei flew to the top of 

 a ehimne;^, the tip of the lightning-rod, the topmost limb of an apple 

 or fir tree, sometimes a hundred feet away, and poured forth a lively. 

 Joyous song in earnest appreciation of the efforts of his mate. She 

 could not start towards the nest but he instantly darted to her side 

 and escorted her all the way; then, flying to the top of the neighboring 

 house, or to a telephone wire, while the female arranged her material, 

 he rejoiced in whistling song. A gay beau is the male! He is afraid 

 of soiling his bright, new coat. He carries the style and is the chief 

 musician. He lets his mate bear the burdens and encourages her by 

 his presence. Some men do not as well. For several years a pair 

 has built in a Virginia creeper against the side of another neighbor's 

 house. 



Often two broods, and sometimes three, are reared in a summer. 

 Mrs. Jane L. Hine informs me that a pair nested near that place 

 three times in the summer of 1891. The female was sitting August 



