tail, and then throwing the water over his back and wings 
with his head, as he clung for safety to the edge of his bath 
tub. Edward had called her one stormy June evening to 
watch a mother house wren coax and drive her brood of 
babies back into the box in the gable for shelter. At another 
time they had seen the wren gather the youngsters into a 
deserted robin’s nest above them, and, after the last one was 
quiet, the little Parent sat on the eae of the nest to guard 
them. 
Once they had watched a pair of ewallows circle sro 
their young brood, getting them near to the barn door. 
Finally in went the whole group, but, in an instant, out flew — 
the little imps through an open window on the other side. 
The twittering parents fluttered about in a distracted way 
for awhile, but, as the darkness rose, tried the same game 
again succeessfully. 
When Edward and she beueht ‘the big mine, and — 
decided to have only enough gold taken out of the ground 
each year so that they might live here, there were almost 
no birds in the valley, but now they are abundant. This 
year, for the first time, a Cassin Vireo’s beautiful nest hangs | 
in a fir in the chicken yard and in the next tree, an oak, 
swings the mossy basket of a Western Warbling Vireo. 
The delight of a visitor was great when she followed 
the Cassin’s “Richard! Sweetheart! Come here!” varied with 
“Jimmie” or “Mary! Dearie! Come here!” right to the 
swaying branch of nestlings. There she could plainly see 
the white streak running from his, or her, nose to the white 
—eye-ring, the two white wing bands, and the greenish gray 
and white of his five inch body, as he tucked insect after 
insect into the gaping mouths which stuck above the basket 
rim. ) 
- The song of the “teakettle” bird, as Esma persists in 
calling the Western Warbling Vireo (although he really 
says “I see it! I see it! Here it is!’’), continually rolling 
out from the oak tree had hinted that his nest was some-_ 
—-186 
