Fay Estate, developed in the first half of the nineteenth century 
by Mr. Richard Fay, an English gentleman who bought the 
Springs Hotel, an old time tavern, and remodelled it into a 
country home. On his eight or nine hundred acres he set 
out many rare and beautiful foreign and domestic trees, but 
he died a comparatively young man with many of his plans 
for beautifying the property unfulfilled. He did succeed, 
however, in helping Nature make the place a Paradise for 
birds and bird-lovers. 
When the writer first knew Fay’s Avenue, it was bordered 
with many magnificent Norway spruces, and it was in one of 
these, on April 29, 1889, that a little Golden Crowned Kinglet 
led Mr. Elmer F. Dwyer, probably inadvertently, to where 
she was building her nest. She had chosen a spot not far 
from the end of a horizontal branch about twenty-five feet 
from the ground and the nest hung down among the drooping 
plumes of the spruce, hidden except on one side. It was 
made of fine fibrous material covered with moss and, on May 
2d, was nearly completed. On May 7th, it contained two 
eggs, but, because it was receiving too much attention from 
humans, or for some other reason, the Kinglet stopped laying 
and soon abandoned the nest. Mr. Dwyer then took the 
nest and eggs and presented them, through Mr. N. S. Vickary 
the taxidermist, to the Agassiz Museum at Harvard, where 
I presume they may still be seen. 
C. E. C. 
Watch Your Step 
July 19. Took a bicycle ride in the early morning (4 a. m.) 
While going up Gardner’s hill in Salem, I heard a kingfisher’s 
rattle, and turning to look at him, saw him go sailing by, only 
to alight on the next telephone pole; he flew to the next, and 
this performance was repeated several times. Finally, on 
account of paying too much attention to the man on the 
wheel, and too little to his own course, he ran plump into a 
pole, and fell to the ground stunned. I dismounted and 
picked the bird up, gently stroking his feathers, and holding 
him head downward, was much pleased to find him in a few 
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