130 WOOD NOTES AND NEST HUNTING. 



cavity, by chinking the fissures and openings with 

 willow down. On this hard bed are laid three 

 eggs, elliptical in form, and very light blue, as if 

 the sun had faded them out. Evidently the setting 

 fever is already upon her, yet her full complement 

 has not been laid. The habit of laying while incu- 

 bating is peculiar to this bird, so that eggs and 

 nestlings in various stages of development, in the 

 same nest, are often seen. 



Partly concealed by the thick shrubbery, not 

 twenty feet away, the male anxiously watches, his 

 red eye glistening in the light like a round bit of 

 colored glass, while his long tail continually moves 

 up and down, as if he was trying to maintain his 

 balance on the twig. Occasionally he gives me a 

 specimen of his ventriloquism ; opening wide his 

 beak, he vomits out his harsh notes, like the turkey 

 gobbler. 



It is a queer sound and, though not sharp, can 

 be heard even clearer a half-mile away, than when 

 you are quite near him. 



How many of the birds build near wood-roads 

 and cow-paths ! Even those that are secluded and 

 love the deep woods, prefer to locate their houses 

 where man or beast occasionally passes by, as if 

 there was some law or impulse that drew them 



