^~/ '/•? Vo j., 
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I saw a female Chestnut-sided Warbler at work on her 
nest this afternoon (l P. M.). It was in a hazel by the 
roadside just below the house. It had evidently been begun 
to-day as there was only a thin film of snow-white tent 
caterpillar silk woven about the fork-of the slender twig. 
The bird seemed to be gathering this material only. I saw 
her tear it out of the nests which were all about on the rum 
cherry trees. 
Shortly before sunset I could hear one of the Bitterns 
pumping in Great Meadow as I stood in the road just below 
our farm-house,/j 
St rrting at about 6.30 P. M., I walked up the road 
about a mile. There are many large apple orchards in this 
direction and they were glorious this evening with their 
domed masses of white and rose-tinted blossoms. They were 
also swarming with birds — Robins, Bluebirds, Chippies, 
Orioles, Yellow W a rblers and Least Flycatchers seemed to be 
> 
the most numerous. Swifts were coursing overhead and I saw 
several Barn Swallows and a pair of White-bellied. The 
fluting of the Golden Robins was never for a full minute 
out of my ears. Several of these birds had exquisitely 
rich and mellow voices but I rarely now hear the Oriole songs 
of my boyhood days. They have quite as utterly gone out 
of fashion as the street cries of those times. From the 
pasture lands along this sweetly peaceful bit of country road 
came the songs of Song Sparrows, Field Sparrows, Grass Finches 
7 
