BY THE WAYSIDE 
64 
I found a Crow’s nest this year and 
found the female sitting. The male 
stood on guard nearby for one hour with¬ 
out changing his position. 
Our Phoebe has started her nest, so has 
a Robin. 
Westminster School, Simsbury, Conn. 
May 22, 1906. 
I thought as I had found quite a num¬ 
ber of interesting nests I ought to write 
you. I will enclose my latest notes. 
I took a canoe trip along the river and 
in that way covered a great deal ofground. 
I saw the Cliff Swallow for the first time 
and found the nest of that pretty little 
bird, the Tree Swallow. , These birds 
buttered near my head uttering little 
cries. I also saw for the first time the 
nests of the Red-winged Blackbird. 
I am keeping very careful notes and 
by watching pairs of birds get the nests 
pretty well located and then just find 
them. It seems to be a knack with me 
to put my foot within an inch of the nest 
thus flushing the bird from it. I have 
done it three times in the last three days. 
What surprises me is that birds which 
are not common West are common here: 
such as Scarlet Tanagers, Chestnut-sided ' 
Warblers (they nest here), Grouse and 
Chickadees, and Tree and Clift* Swallows. 
I hear from father that you have 
adopted some young Red-tail Hawks. 
Please write me about them and send me 
your latest notes. I want to hear from 
vou very much. 
I must close now. With hopes that 
the Hawks will be a success, etc. 
NOTES 
Sunday, May 20th, Indigo Bird; nests 
of Field Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, two 
of Bluebirds, and Mourning Dove (last on 
burnt stump, one and one-half feet from 
ground, nest of pine needles). Monday, 
May 21st, Black-billed Cuckoo (pair 
quite fearless). Tuesday, May 22nd, 
nests of two song sparrows (one young 
one, two eggs and one half-hatched bird); 
Kingbird (just building); Tree Swallow 
(came within foot of me when I ap¬ 
proached the nest and made pitiful cries); 
Chickadee (would not budge from the 
nest even when poked, five eggs); three 
Red-winged Blackbirds (five eggs in two 
nests, one I could not see into); two Rob¬ 
ins’ nests (one within six inches of Tree 
Swallows); saw also Clift*Swallow for first 
time; manv Barn and Tree Swallows. 
June 2, 1906. 
I got vour nice letter a few davs ago 
and now I am going to answer it. It 
won’t be very long before I can talk to 
you about birds again. 
I have tried very hard to find an Oven- 
bird’s nest, but have failed principally 
because the birds have evinced no excite¬ 
ment and don’t seem to care, no matter 
how hard I try to find them. I gener¬ 
ally make the bird tell me where the 
nest is, provided I neither stumble on 
nor find it after a careful search, by either 
pretending to go away or keeping still 
and watching the bird. 
My latest find has been the nest of the 
Chestnut-sided Warbler, containing four 
eggs and built in a blackberry shoot. 
The male was sitting and came quite close 
to me when I was inspecting his home. 
The nest was like the Yellow Warbler’s 
with the absence of any down or willow- 
fuzz and made rather roughly of bark and 
small strips of weeds. 
The Song Sparrows, at least some of 
them, are able to fly and so are a few 
Chippies. There are lots of Yireos here 
and lots of old nests, but I haven’t seen 
any new ones yet. One brood of Song 
Sparrows and a Tree Swallow’s nest were 
