62 THE CROSS-BILL AND THE LITTLE WARBLER. 
near ; but contrived to keep the inside of the 
nest perfectly round. In about a week their 
task was finished ; and when the traveller put 
in his finger, he found that an egg had been 
laid there. 
CHAPTER VI. 
THE CROSS-BILL AND THE LITTLE WARBLER. 
When I speak of the forest, you must not 
always think of the tropical forest, with its 
fantastic beauty, its peacocks, its humming 
birds, and its birds of Paradise. Nor must 
you always picture to yourself the bread-fruit 
tree, and the palms, rising in all their 
dignity. 
In the northern parts of America, where the 
heat of the tropics does not extend, lie other 
forests, vast, gloomy, and profound. There 
the loud hammering of the woodpecker, and 
the notes of summer songsters are heard, and 
the squirrels play about, and collect their 
stores of nuts against the winter. And some- 
times the forest is intersected by a river ; and 
