I02 WOOD NOTES AND NEST HUNTING. 



both night and day, for just such morsels as the 

 nests of these ground-builders offer. 



The general intelligence of birds, considering 

 their comparatively low position in the scale of 

 creation, seems to me remarkable. How alert they 

 have learned to be on account of these surround- 

 ing dangers ! How many little schemes they invent 

 to deceive you! This same golden-crowned is a 

 curious bird. He likes to be near you, though he 

 does not want you to be aware of it ; so he flies 

 swiftly past, far enough, he probably thinks, for 

 you to lose sight of him, when he makes a detour, 

 and finally comes back again along another air 

 line, and flits behind a rock a few yards away, with 

 the probable satisfaction that he has completely 

 outwitted his vexatious follower, and can watch 

 you at his leisure without being observed himself. 



It is amusing also to observe the acuteness of 

 these crows, whose young are nested in a tall pine 

 near by. Only a stifled suppressed scolding croak 

 escapes them now, as though it was hard for them 

 to keep in so long. If they could give a few loud 

 disagreeable caws it would be such a relief ; but it 

 behooves them to be silent, that their enemies' 

 attention may not be directed to this one place on 

 earth wherein is centered all of their affection. 



