THE RETURN OF THE NATIVES. 73 



piece of velvet of that shape and color had been 

 pasted there. 



What an odd chap is this creeper, clinging to 

 the trunks of trees and running round them as 

 easily as if he were climbing a spiral stairway ! 

 He is as much at home on the side of a trunk as 

 on a bough. I wonder if he roosts perpendicu- 

 larly ! No bird in these parts, with the exception 

 of the black-polled warbler, is marked nearly like 

 him, with black and white streaks so mixed, and 

 yet so distinct. He is a mixture of the creepers 

 and warblers, with a voice not unpleasing in the 

 general concert. I suspect the cow-buntings are 

 looking to see where this bird chooses his building 

 site, for a small flock — two males and two females 

 — have just flown into a cedar near by. These 

 tramps have the characteristics of the human 

 variety, roaming about from place to place, wait- 

 ing to break into and forestall the homes of the 

 creepers and other birds smaller than themselves. 

 They are dressed elegantly, are these vagabonds; 

 the wives with the spring pattern of drab so neatly 

 fitting their trim forms, that they dislike to dis- 

 arrange them in the common household drudgery 

 of incubation. Their movements are whimsical 

 and ignoble, as though they were half-ashamed of 



