nothing beyond an admirable motherly solici-
tude; but P. said, she would have bitten sharp-
ly enough, had he caught her.
We chased her about for some time and made her
fly many times. It was a truly remarkable per-
formance. She would invariably run nimbly up
the trunk to a hight of fifteen to twenty feet,
then launch out will tail and feet spread.
  Her flight was down an inclined plane and
as swift and direct as an arrows, rising
sharply just before she reached her objective
point. Once she scaled for at least thirty
yards close to the ground and for most of 
the distance nearly on a level. During this 
flight, I distinctly saw her turn aside to avoid
a twig. As she did this it looked as if her 
speed was abruptly checked and then resumed
again. I could not see the slightest motion of
her tail or "wings" other than that their inclina-
tion was slightly changed to direct her course.
Her manner of passing from tree to tree remind-
ed me of the Brown Creepers, and she struck
the objective trunk in a precisely similar [delete]peculiar[/delete] man-
ner. As soon as we ceased persecuting her 
she flew back to her nest.  We had broken open
the hole, nearly to the bottom, exploring the ball
of fine dry grass in the which the young were
nestled. The mother inspected this nervously
and with apprehension, then she rooted
her way directly into it and disappeared.
For a moment, the mass quivered and pulsated
as she worked her way  through it, the next,