I 
_ Pletely 
1884.] Wood Notes and Nest Hunting. 157 
sprightly as in the morning. There appears to be a dragging of 
the notes, as though the little songster was worn out with the 
heat, and although he may be very near you in shade, the first 
syllables seem to come from a distance, showing his great powers 
of ventriloquism, gradually sounding nearer and louder, until he 
reaches the climax. This is his commonplace humming after all, 
for Mr. Boardman, a close observer of the birds, says he ħas 
another song at times, so rare and beautiful that but few know it | 
as from that bird. 
His nest is not far from here, for when I happen in this vicinity 
his song is sure to be heard. He likes just sucha place as this, 
shaded slopes near a stream. As you walk along you see hun- 
dreds of depressions, little hollows under the roots, crevices in 
the ledges, and hide-away places generally in which you would 
choose to locate a nest, but thus far it has escaped my search. 
How shrewd these birds are in concealing their homes, not only 
from the sight of man, but often, as they must, from the sharper 
cow bunting, whose special instinct it is to intrude upon them, and 
from the numerous greedy prowlers that go nosing round, both 
night and day, for just such morsels as the nests of these ground 
builders offer. 
The general intelligence of birds, considering their compara- 
tively low position in the scale of creation, seems to me remark- 
able. How alert they have learned to be on account of these 
Surrounding dangers. How many little schemes they invent to 
deceive you. This same golden-crowned is a curious bird. He | 
*€s 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 
back again along another air line, and flits behind a rock 
yards away, with the probable satisfaction that he has com- 
Cutwitted his vexatious follower, and can watch you at 
leisure without being observed himself. 
lt is amusing also to observe the cuteness of these crows, 
__ young are nested in a tall pine near by. Only a stifled 
iy, ed scolding croak escapes them now, as though it was 
: ‘for them to keep in so long. If they could give a few loud 
oc ble caws it would be such a relief ; but it behooves them 
this silent, that their enemies’ attention may not be directed to 
e place on earth, wherein is centered all of their affection. 
