and her soft mouse-colored coat. She seemed perfectly 
gentle and showed nothing beyond an admirable motherly soli¬ 
citude; but P. said, she would have bitten sharply enough, 
had he caught her.We chased her about for some time and made 
her fly many times. It was a truly remarkable performance, 
She would invariably run nimbly up the trunk to a height 
of fifteen to twenty feet, then launch out with tail and 
feet spread. 
Her flight was down an inclined plane and as 
swift and direct as an arrow, rising sharply just before 
she reached her objective point. Once she scaled for at 
least thirty yards close to the ground and for most of the 
distance nearly on a level . During this flight, I distinct¬ 
ly saw her turn aside to avoid a twig. As she did this, it 
looked as if her speed was abruptly checked and then re¬ 
sumed again. I could not see the slightest motion of het 
tail or "wings" other than that their inclination was 
slightly changed to direct the course. Her manner of passing 
from tree to tree reminded me of the Brown Creepers, and 
she struck the objective trunk in a precisely similar man¬ 
ner. As soon as we ceased persecuting her, she flew back 
to her nest .44 We had broken oj&en the hole, nearly to the 
bottom, exploring the ball of fine dry grass in which the 
young were nestled. The mother inspected this nervously 
