On May 16th I first saw the pair of Orioles in 
.story of 
Oriole * s nest 
Grosbeaks 
eating 
cherries 
Brood of 
young 
Flickers 
the elm where this brood have been successfully reared. 
The male was probably about the house before this, but if 
so I failed to distinguish him from migrating birds. On 
the 16th, about noon, he came into the elm with his mate 
and flying to the exact spot where the nest was afterwards 
built clung with feet wide apart between the pendant twigs 
for a minute or more, uttering a low, continuous chattering 
evidently begging the female to come and see what a pecu¬ 
liarly favorable nesting site he found, but she meanwhile 
was feeding busily in another part of the tree and turned a 
deaf ear to his entreaties. Three or four days later, how¬ 
ever, I saw her weaving the first strands in among the 
twigs. The nest was not finished until May 30 th. 
[Several Rose-breasted Grosbeaks were in the 
cherry tree by the house this afternoon and one, an old bird, 
sang a little tkis-aft-esiftoon in subdued tones. They were 
eating cherries,! 
The Flickers in the nest by the landing are 
fully feathered and on the point of flying, I should say. 
I examined them all carefully this afternoon and could see 
little individual difference, even in respect to the 
"musta.che" which is now about equally black and conspicuous 
with them all, although a few days ago it was comparatively 
pale and indistinct with two birds which I then took to be 
females. I should not now venture to attempt any separation 
of the sexes in this brood by their present external charac¬ 
ters. 
