1891
May 12
(No 7)
Mass.
  West Tisbury, Martha's Vineyard. the water rattling a 
little at intervals. There was also a Red-wing 
singing on an alder near the head of the pond 
and in some thickets overrun with cat-briar on its 
margin two Yellow Warblers and two Catbirds. 
Skirting the shore of the pond by a convenient 
cattle path we kept up the valley of the large 
brook which flows through the village. As we 
were crossing an opening a fine, blue-backed 
Accipiter velox passed within a few yards of us 
flying so exactly like a robin that Faxon who 
had never seen this curious performance before said 
he should not have recognized the birds at all. 
for half a mile or more we followed a wood 
path which led through alternating tracts of 
second-growth oaks and opening where the trees 
had been recently cut down. A Brown Thrasher 
singing in a sheltered hollow, an occasional Crow 
flying over, and a Flicker were the only birds 
seen or heard. 
  At length we turned fro the path to traverse a 
grove of oaks of unusually large size. there were 
several gray squirrels nests and one nest which 
looked like a Crow's, in their tops. A hole in 
the trunk of a small black oak about 8 ft above 
the ground attracted my attention. Approaching 
I saw a small quantity of down fringing its 
edges but could find no "signs" on the ground 
beneath. It had evidently been inspected by some 
one else who had reared a rude scaffold of 
sticks against the tree. Mounting on this I peeped