WOOD NOTES AND NEST HUNTING. IO3 



Two small birds, with ashen heads and oliva- 

 ceous backs, and breasts of reddish-yellow, flutter 

 down as noiselessly as butterflies, close to my 

 rather uncomfortable position in a patch of green- 

 briers and blackberry vines. They have taken me 

 by surprise, and almost before that feeling has 

 been replaced by inquiry they have moved off 

 again in their nervous way, flying in all kinds of 

 places, now down to the ground, or zigzagging 

 among the shrubs, or smacking with their bills 

 among the leaves, as they glean in the highest 

 branches of the elms and wUlows. At length one, 

 with undulating flight, wings its way to a small 

 cedar, and hides in the thick fohage. The move- 

 ment is so different from the usual manner of pro- 

 ceeding from bush to tree, that one suspects a 

 subject of great importance possesses the bird, and 

 watches sharply for developments. Sure enough, 

 there in the horizontal fork of a Umb, not fifteen 

 feet high, the American redstart QSetophaga ruti- 

 eilla), the red-tailed insect eater, has laid the foun- 

 dation for a nest. From a human standpoint, the 

 locality is not well chosen ; situated as it is quite 

 near a wood-path, and in full view of every young 

 rambler who may feel disposed to rob. Though 

 placed in this opening, how nicely the general 



