158 Wood Notes and Nest Hunting. [ February, 
Two small birds, with ashen heads and olivaceous backs, and 
breasts of reddish-yellow, flutter down as noiselessly as butterflies, 
close to my rather uncomfortable position, in a patch of greet 
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and almost before that feeling has been replaced by inquiry they 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 i 
the highest branches of the elms and willows. At length on, 
with undulating flight, wings its way to a small cedar, and hides 
in the thick foliage. The movement is so different from the usul _ 
manner of proceeding from bush to tree, that one suspects as 
ject of great importance possesses the bird, and watches sharp? — 
for developments. Sure enough, there in the horizontal fork ofa | 
limb, not fifteen feet high, the American redstart (Setophaga rile 
cilla), the red-tailed insect eater, has laid the foundation for? 
nest. From a human standpoint, the locality is not well chose 
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 1 
this opening, how nicely the general colors of the material i 
which it is composed harmonize with that of the bark of the! q 
No one without the aid of the bird would discover it, it is such 3 
wee bit of a construction, and so accurately fitted among w 
smaller twigs. How busy the little worker is. Though taking | 
observations quite near, she does not appear in any way discon- ] 
sf 
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pletion of the nest in a given period of time. Here she tugs fot 
4 
4 
last year’s plant-stem, to suit a certain defective place in the sf : 
stops, and having secured a fast hold with her beak, gives #°" 
upward pull, which evidently requires all her strength to re" 
the bleached strip, and flies with it to her home. 
She always builds from the inside, never placing material 0 
the nest while standing outside of it. The cavity must be joked ai 
