300 EIVEEBT 



mass of down and feathers, regarding us ! The doves 

 had been so sly about their nesting that I had never 

 suspected them for a moment. The next tree held a 

 robin's nest, and the nest of a purple finch is prob- 

 ably near by. One usually makes a mistake in going 

 away from home to look for birds' nests. Search the 

 trees about your door. 



The blue jay is a cruel nest-robber, but this pair 

 had spared the doves in the same tree, and I think 

 they have made their peace with the robins, as I do 

 not see the latter hustling them about any more. 

 Probably they want to stand well with their neigh- 

 bors, and so go away from home to commit their 

 robberies. 



IV 



If a new bird appears in my neighborhood, my 

 eye or ear reports it at once. One April several of 

 those rare thrushes — Bicknell's or Slide Mountain 

 thrush — stopped for two days in my currant-patch. 

 How did I know? I heard their song as I went 

 about the place, a fine elusive strain unlike that of 

 any other thrush. To locate it exactly I found very 

 difficult. It always seemed to be much farther off 

 than it actually was. There is a hush and privacy 

 about its song that makes it unique. It has a mild, 

 fluty quality, very sweet, but in a subdued key. It 

 is a bird of remote northern mountain-tops, and its 

 song seems adjusted to the low, thick growths of 

 such localities. 



The past season a solitary great Carolina wren 

 took up its abode in a bushy land near one corner of 



