OTHER NEIGHBORS IN THE TREES. 209 



4. I soon discovered that the pair were building a nest 

 upon a low branch a few yards from me. The male flew 

 cautiously to the spot and adjusted something, and the 

 twain moved on, the female calling to her mate, at intervals, 

 love-e, love-e, with a cadence and tenderness in the tone 

 that rang in the ear long afterward. The nest was sus- 

 pended to the fork of a small branch, as is usual with the 

 vireos, plentifully lined with lichens, and bound and re- 

 bound with masses of coarse spider-webs. There was no 

 attempt at concealment except in the neutral tints, which 

 made it look like a natural growth of the dim, gray woods. 



5. Continuing my random walk, I next paused in a low 

 part of the woods, where the larger trees began to give 

 place to a thick second growth that covered an old bark- 

 peeling. I was standing by a large maple, when a small 

 bird darted quickly away from it, as if it might have come 

 out of a hole near its base. As the bird paused a few yards 

 from me, and began to chirp uneasily, my curiosity was at 

 once excited. When I saw it was the female mourning 

 ground-warbler, and remembered that the nest of this bird 

 had not yet been seen by any naturalist — that not even Dr. 

 Brewer had ever seen the eggs — I felt that here was some- 

 thing worth looking for. 



6. So I carefully began the search, exploring inch by 

 inch the ground, the base and roots of the tree, and the 

 various shrubby growths about it, till, finding nothing, and 

 fearing I might really put my foot in it, I bethought me to 

 withdraw to a distance and after some delay return again, 

 and, thus forewarned, note the exact point from which 

 the bird flew. This I did, and, retiirning, had little 

 difficulty in discovering the nest. It was placed but a 

 few feet from the maple-tree, in a bunch of ferns, and 

 about six inches from the ground. It was quite a massive 

 nest, composed entirely of the stalks and leaves of dry 

 grass, with an inner lining of fine, dark -brown roots. 



