172 
NATURE NOTES 
mountain was whitened with fresh hail. The early-nesting 
birds, with eggs already laid, scarcely sang at all ; and even the 
new-come migrants, with courtship on hand, were almost silent. 
The wood warbler left his trill untried, and called instead his 
plaintive call : the. redstart broke short off when he had but just 
begun his strophe. For never, indeed, was there a worse spring 
than this for redstart-singing ! 
Yet, despite these chilling airs, our flycatcher showed his 
high spirits by the happiest, liveliest bustle. He had clearly 
found the exact thing he wanted in the way of a house ; and 
this, at the end of a possibly thousand-mile journey, made with 
an express view to immediate matrimony, is something to be 
proud of, and to be talked over. Also, as it presently appeared, 
he had a mate all ready in the back-ground. So here was life 
propitious for him, at its supreme moment, and his tiny, feathered 
body, by sound and motion, showed his state of exuberant 
happiness. 
Soon the gentle hen was seen, appearing mysteriously from 
some distant shade, possibly of the adjacent wooded banks, and 
at once the cock gave up his aimless flittings and proceeded 
to business. He led her to the box, which was constructed of 
rough bark, and placed ten feet high on the trunk, just below 
a small shielding branch : then entered it, as if to give her courage 
for the hazard, and when she followed, came out and hung to the 
edge of the hole, with flattened, spread-out tail. For this is the 
peculiar manner of the species, that loves to hang swallow-wise 
to the nest-rim. By-and-bye the excitement subsided, or perhaps 
the traffic beginning on the adjacent highway suggested greater 
prudence, for during the later part of the day they were less 
seen, having apparently withdrawn to a more secluded spot. 
The next morning, however, the same joy and bustle pre- 
vailed, the same enticing manoeuvres were repeated, and the 
two circled in a close chase. Whereupon, while the cock sang 
his short strain excitedly round and about, the practical hen set 
at once to work upon a provision for the future nursery. Scanning 
the ground for bits, she began to carry them up to the box. 
Perhaps a morsel of straw was secured from the manure-heap, or 
a fragment of root from the bed ; or a large dead oak-leaf (for the 
scarlet oak bears very large leaves, which excite the cupidity of 
building birds like this species and the redstart) was borne up by 
the stalk, and after many attempts and struggles finally relin- 
(juished at the too narrow doorway. This casualty happening 
several times hampered our little builder a good deal, so that she 
had to take up fine, ^mall bits only. The fibrous bark of an old 
honeysuckle bush attracted her, as it has done other birds, and 
there, clinging to it — while her mate, intensely interested in all 
her doings, perched close by to watch— she would tug and tug 
in order to break off a ribbon from it. These labours, begun 
intermittently with an air of charmed leisure, grew each day 
more persistent and absorbed. They were doubtless started at 
