I heard the same or another Nuthatch piping
regularly at intervals in the tops of the trees,
(white pieces). At length it came in sight, low
down directly overhead. I made it out to be
an adult [female] and of course shot at it at once, 
but the cartridge missed fire and the bird
flying again to one of the great feathery droves
nearly a hundred feet above the ground was
lost to me again. Afterwards I heard it at intervals
for two or three hours, but a stiff and aching neck
was the only result of my long-continued scenting
of the tree tops.
  These woods are alive with birds, I have not
seen nearly as many elsewhere in this region.
Singularly I did not hear the Parulas that I
left there on the 11th although I spent at least
two hours near the spot where the [male] was singing
and the [female] building on the 11th.
  The Red-eyed vireo was the most prominent
performance (with the possible exception of the Oven bird)
in these woods today. Through the hottest hours 
it was in full song everywhere and I must have
heard thirty or forty in this one place.
  As I was eating lunch, sitting with my back
against the trunk of a giant pine, a low but 
incessant chirping attracted my attention. This
sound steadily became more distinct, and its
authors - for there were evidently several were
plainly advancing directly toward me. I soon
made out that they were Oven birds and that
they were on or near the ground, which although
free from underbrush, was nevertheless well shaded