WOOD NOTES AND NEST HUNTING. 99 



beetle in the bargain. He breaks it to her very gal- 

 lantly, while she, as is her prerogative, receives it 

 with cool indifference, and bids him go for more. 

 As he stands on the branch an instant, his back 

 toward me, and the broad leaves, uplifted by the 

 wind, let in a sunbeam upon him, I note a shade of 

 dark green, and the long pointed wings, reaching 

 down half-way on his tail, which is not so deeply 

 forked as is that of the olive-sided fly-catcher, a 

 first cousin, whom he otherwise much resembles. 

 When he rises I see in this individual an exception 

 to the general dress of the under parts' of this spe- 

 cies. The pale yellowish tint of the breast is re- 

 placed by whitish ash. The song is not often 

 heard, as if he was aware of the melancholy strain, 

 and had the good sense to consider the feelings of 

 his mate during the distressed period, and worked 

 for her crop's sake instead. Resting on this slope 

 in the shade of the beech-trees, watching the gam- 

 bols of a pair of large purple-black butterflies 

 ( Vanessa antiopa') flying high up among the trunks, 

 attracted there, no doubt, by the nectar that exudes 

 from the bark, I hear the energetic notes of the 

 oven-bird or golden-crowned thrush (^Siurus aurieor 

 pillus). Immediately after a little bunch of feath- 

 ers drops down from a low branch, and goes peck- 



