1888
June 17
Winchendon, Massachusetts.
Clear and hot with light S. W. wind. A perfect June day.
  Rising early we got off about 7 A. M. while the grass was
still drenched with dew, the thickets cool with the damp
night air, the birds in full song. It was a wonderfully
beautiful morning, the sky without a cloud, the air clear
and with almost no haze on the distant mountains.
  Crossing the "mowing" we made directly for the hemlock-
clad hillside where we finished yesterday. On its steep
slopes we quickly found all the birds left there last evening
(except the Juncos), and in addition a D. maculosa singing
in white pines thickly sprinkled with young spruces. We
searched for the nest but could not find it and then went
directly to the spot where we left the Kinglets last evening.
They were both in the same hemlock but the [male] was not
building. We had not watched them over two minutes
however when the [male] flew into the spruce that D. climbed
yesterday and hopping nimbly out along a branch
went directly to the nest which was suspended under a
dense cluster of terminal twigs. It was lined and crowned
beautifully with feathers.
  Our next find was the nest of a D. virens containing four
young. It was placed low down (about 15 ft.) directly against
the trunk of a hemlock (of about 10 inches diameter at this
point) supported on a few dead twigs & in no way
concealed save by its general resemblance in color to
the bark & twigs. The young were only just hatched. The
[female] was feeding them & betrayed the nest by flying to it
as we were watching her. In a similar manner & not
30 yds. away we found the nest of a Solitary Vireo with
four newly hatched young. It was at the extremity of a
long, slender, hemlock branch at least 30 ft above
[margin]Nest of
D. virens[/margin]
[margin]Nest of
Vireo solitarius[/margin]