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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A-Birding on a Bronco, by Florence A. Merriam
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A-Birding on a Bronco
+
+Author: Florence A. Merriam
+
+Release Date: August 11, 2010 [EBook #33410]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Emmy and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Books by Florence A. Merriam.
+
+
+          BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. In Riverside Library
+          for Young People. Illustrated. 16mo, 75 cents.
+
+          MY SUMMER IN A MORMON VILLAGE. 16mo, $1.00.
+
+          A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO. Illustrated. 16mo, $1.25.
+
+
+          HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.
+          BOSTON AND NEW YORK.
+
+[Illustration: MOUNTAIN BILLY UNDER THE GNATCATCHER'S OAK]
+
+
+
+
+A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO
+
+BY FLORENCE A. MERRIAM
+
+
+                  I do invite you ... to my house ...
+          after, we'll a-birding together.
+                     SHAKESPEARE.
+
+_ILLUSTRATED_
+
+[Illustration: The Riverside Press.]
+
+
+          BOSTON AND NEW YORK
+          HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
+          The Riverside Press, Cambridge
+          1896
+
+
+
+
+          Copyright, 1896,
+
+          By FLORENCE A. MERRIAM.
+
+
+          _All rights reserved._
+
+
+          _The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A._
+
+          Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company.
+
+
+
+
+PREFATORY NOTE.
+
+
+THE notes contained in this book were taken from March to May, 1889, and
+from March to July, 1894, at Twin Oaks in southern California. Twin Oaks
+is the post-office for the scattered ranch-houses in a small valley at
+the foot of one of the Coast Ranges, thirty-four miles north of San
+Diego, and twelve miles from the Pacific.
+
+As no collecting was done, there is doubt about the identity of a few
+species; and their names are left blank or questioned in the list of
+birds referred to in the text. In cases where the plumage of the two
+sexes is practically identical, and only slight mention is made of the
+species, the sexes have sometimes been arbitrarily distinguished in the
+text.
+
+Several of the articles have appeared before, in somewhat different
+form, in 'The Auk,' 'The Observer,' and 'Our Animal Friends;' all the
+others are published here for the first time.
+
+The illustrations are from drawings of birds and nests by Louis Agassiz
+Fuertes, and from photographs taken in the valley; together with some
+of eucalyptus-trees from Los Angeles, for the use of which I am indebted
+to the courtesy of Dr. B. E. Fernow, Chief of the Division of Forestry
+of the U. S. Department of Agriculture.
+
+In the preparation of the book I have been kindly assisted by Miss
+Isabel Eaton, and have received from my brother, Dr. C. Hart Merriam,
+untiring criticism and advice.
+
+                                                    FLORENCE A. MERRIAM.
+
+  LOCUST GROVE, N. Y.,
+  July 15, 1896.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+                                                      PAGE
+              I. OUR VALLEY                             1
+             II. THE LITTLE LOVER                      20
+            III. LIKE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT             38
+             IV. WAS IT A SEQUEL?                      48
+              V. LITTLE PRISONERS IN THE TOWER         65
+             VI. HINTS BY THE WAY                      81
+            VII. AROUND OUR RANCH-HOUSE                86
+           VIII. POCKET MAKERS                        103
+             IX. THE BIG SYCAMORE                     112
+              X. AMONG MY TENANTS                     123
+             XI. AN UNNAMED BIRD                      140
+            XII. HUMMERS                              147
+           XIII. IN THE SHADE OF THE OAKS             159
+            XIV. A MYSTERIOUS TRAGEDY                 171
+             XV. HOW I HELPED BUILD A NEST            175
+            XVI. IN OUR NEIGHBOR'S DOOR-YARD          184
+           XVII. WHICH WAS THE MOTHER BIRD?           189
+          XVIII. A RARE BIRD                          194
+            XIX. MY BLUE GUM GROVE                    211
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+                                                               PAGE
+
+    Mountain Billy under the Gnatcatcher's Oak.    _Frontispiece_
+    Our Valley                                                  4
+    Head of Black-headed Grosbeak                               8
+    Head of Rose-breasted Grosbeak                              8
+    In Hot Pursuit (Brewer's Blackbird and Bee-birds)          13
+    The Little Lover (Western House Wren)                      20
+    A Trying Moment (Western House Wren)                       32
+    Nest of Western Gnatcatcher                                39
+    Head of California Woodpecker                              66
+    Head of Red-headed Woodpecker (Eastern)                    66
+    Jacob and Bairdi visiting the Old Nest Tree                78
+    Head of Arizona Hooded Oriole                              89
+    Head of Baltimore Oriole (Eastern)                         89
+    Head of California Chewink                                 93
+    Head of Eastern Chewink                                    93
+    Valley Quail and Road-runner                               99
+    Nest of the Bush-tit                                      104
+    Pocket Nest in an Oak                                     108
+    The Big Sycamore                                          114
+    Along the Line of Sycamores                               124
+    Head of Black Phœbe                                       129
+    Head of Eastern Phœbe                                     129
+    The Little Hummer on her Bow-knot Nest                    148
+    The Swing Nest of the Hummer                              157
+    A Shady Bower                                             160
+    Head of Green-tailed Chewink                              163
+    The Nosebag Nest (Vigors's Wren)                          173
+    The Plain Titmouse in her Doorway                         176
+    Which was the Mother Bird? (Wren-tit and Lazuli Buntings) 189
+    The Phainopeplas on the Pepper-tree                       194
+    The Phainopepla's Nest in the Oak Brush Island            198
+    Eucalyptus Avenue, showing Pollarded Trees on the Right   212
+    Eucalyptus Wood stored for Market in a Eucalyptus Grove   214
+    Mountain Billy Deserted                                   220
+
+
+
+
+BIRDS REFERRED TO IN THE TEXT.[1]
+
+  White Egret. _Ardea egretta._
+  Green Heron. _Ardea virescens anthonyi._
+  Spotted Sandpiper. _Actitis macularia._
+  Valley Quail. _Callipepla californica vallicola._
+  Mourning Dove. _Zenaidura macroura._
+  Turkey Vulture. _Cathartes aura._
+  Hawk. _Buteo ----._
+  Sparrow Hawk. _Falco sparverius deserticolus._
+  American Barn Owl. _Strix pratincola._
+  Western Horned Owl. _Bubo virginianus subarcticus._
+  Burrowing Owl. _Speotyta cunicularia hypogæa._
+  Road-runner. _Geococcyx californianus._
+  California Woodpecker. _Melanerpes formicivorus bairdi._
+  Red shafted Flicker. _Colaptes cafer._
+  Dusky Poor-will. _Phalænoptilus nuttalli californicus._
+  Black-chinned Hummingbird. _Trochilus alexandri._
+  Rufous Hummingbird. _Selasphorus rufus._
+  Arkansas Kingbird. _Tyrannus verticalis._
+  Cassin's Kingbird. _Tyrannus vociferans._
+  Black Phœbe. _Sayornis nigrescens._
+  Western Wood Pewee. _Contopus richardsonii._
+  Flycatcher. _Empidonax ----._
+  Horned Lark. _Otocoris alpestris chrysolæma._
+  California Jay. _Aphelocoma californica._
+  American Crow. _Corvus americanus._
+  Yellow-headed Blackbird. _Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus._
+  Red-winged Blackbird. _Agelaius phœnicius ----._
+  Arizona Hooded Oriole. _Icterus cucullatus nelsoni._
+  Bullock's Oriole. _Icterus bullocki._
+  Brewer's Blackbird. _Scholocophagus cyanocephalus._
+  Western House Finch. _Carpodacus mexicanus frontalis._
+  Goldfinch. _Spinus ----._
+  White-crowned Sparrow. _Zonotrichia leucophrys gambeli (?)._
+  Golden-crowned Sparrow. _Zonotrichia coronata._
+  Heerman's Song Sparrow. _Melospiza fasciata heermanni (?)._
+  Spurred Towhee or Chewink. _Pipilo maculatus megalonyx._
+  Green-tailed Towhee. _Pipilo chlorurus._
+  California Towhee. _Pipilo fuscus crissalis._
+  Black-headed Grosbeak. _Habia melanocephala._
+  Western Blue Grosbeak. _Guiraca cærulea eurhyncha._
+  Lazuli Bunting. _Passerina amœna._
+  Louisiana Tanager. _Piranga ludoviciana._
+  Cliff Swallow. _Petrochelidon lunifrons._
+  Phainopepla. _Phainopepla nitens._
+  White-rumped Shrike. _Lanius ludovicianus excubitorides._
+  Warbling Vireo. _Vireo gilvus (?)._
+  Hutton's Vireo. _Vireo huttoni (?)._
+  Least Vireo. _Vireo bellii pusillus (?)._
+  Long-tailed Chat. _Icteria virens longicauda._
+  American Pipit. _Anthus pensilvanicus._
+  California Thrasher. _Harporhynchus redivivus._
+  Vigors's Wren. _Thryothorus bewickii spilurus._
+  Western House Wren. _Troglodytes ædon aztecus._
+  Plain Titmouse. _Parus inornatus._
+  Wren-tit. _Chamæa fasciata._
+  California Bush-tit. _Psaltriparus minimus californicus._
+  Western Gnatcatcher. _Polioptila cærulea obscura._
+  Varied Thrush or Oregon Robin. _Hesperocichla nævia._
+  Western Bluebird. _Sialia mexicana occidentalis._
+
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[1] In classification and nomenclature this list conforms to the
+American Ornithologists' Union 'Check-List of North American Birds,'
+Second Edition, 1895. L. S. Foster, New York.
+
+
+
+
+A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+OUR VALLEY.
+
+
+"CLIMB the mountain back of the house and you can see the Pacific," the
+ranchman told me with a gleam in his eye; and later, when I had done
+that, from the top of a peak at the foot of the valley he pointed out
+the distant blue mountains of Mexico. Then he gave me his daughter's
+saddle horse to use as long as I was his guest, that I might explore the
+valley and study its birds to the best advantage. Before coming to
+California, I had known only the birds of New York and Massachusetts,
+and so was filled with eager enthusiasm at thought of spending the
+migration and nesting season in a new bird world.
+
+I had no gun, but was armed with opera-glass and note-book, and had
+Ridgway's Manual to turn to in all my perplexities. Every morning, right
+after breakfast, my horse was brought to the door and I set out to make
+the rounds of the valley. I rode till dinner time, getting acquainted
+with the migrants as they came from the south, and calling at the more
+distant nests on the way. After dinner I would take my camp-stool and
+stroll, through the oaks at the head of the valley, for a quiet study of
+the nearer nests. Then once more my horse would be brought up for me to
+take a run before sunset; and at night I would identify my new birds and
+write up the notes of the day. What more could observer crave? The world
+was mine. I never spent a happier spring. The freedom and novelty of
+ranch life and the exhilaration of days spent in the saddle gave added
+zest to the delights of a new fauna. In my small valley circuit of a
+mile and a half, I made the acquaintance of about seventy-five birds,
+and without resort to the gun was able to name fifty-six of them.
+
+My saddle horse, a white bronco who went by the musical name of Canello,
+had been broken by a Mexican whose cruelty had tamed the wild blood in
+his veins and left him with a fear of all swarthy skins. Now he could be
+ridden bareback by the little girls, with only a rope noose around his
+nose, and was warranted to stand still before a flock of birds so long
+as there was grass to eat. He was to be relied on as a horse of ripe,
+experience and mature judgment in matters of local danger. No power of
+bit or spur could induce him to set foot upon a piece of 'boggy land,'
+and to give me confidence one of the ranchman's sons said, "Wherever
+I've killed a rattlesnake from him he'll shy for years;" and went on to
+cite localities where a sudden, violent lurch had nearly sent him over
+Canello's head! What greater recommendation could I wish?
+
+If the old horse had had any wayward impulses left, his Mexican bit
+would have subdued them. It would be impossible to use such an iron in
+the mouth of an eastern horse. They say the Mexicans sometimes break
+horses' jaws with it. From the middle of the bit, a flat bar of iron,
+three quarters of an inch wide, extended back four inches, lying on the
+horse's tongue or sticking into the roof of his mouth, according to the
+use of the curb--there was no other rein. The bit alone weighed sixteen
+ounces. The bridle, which came from Enseñada in Lower California, then
+the seat of a great gold excitement, was made of braided raw-hide. It
+was all hand work; there was not a buckle about it. The leather quirt at
+the end of the reins was the only whip necessary. When I left the ranch
+the bridle was presented to me, and it now hangs behind my study door, a
+proud trophy of my western life, and one that is looked upon with
+mingled admiration and horror by eastern horsemen.
+
+Canello and I soon became the best of friends. I found in him a valuable
+second--for, as I had anticipated, the birds were used to grazing
+horses, and were much less suspicious of an equestrian than a foot
+passenger--and he found in me a movable stake, constantly leading him
+to new grazing ground; for when there was a nest to watch I simply hung
+the bridle over the pommel and let him eat, so getting free hands for
+opera-glass and note-book. To be sure, there were slight causes of
+difference between us. He liked to watch birds in the high alfalfa under
+the sycamores, but when it came to standing still where the hot sun beat
+down through the brush and there was nothing to eat, his interest in
+ornithology flagged perceptibly. Then he sometimes carried the rôle of
+grazing horse too far, marching off to a fresh clump of grass out of
+sight of my nest at the most interesting moment; or when I was intently
+gazing through my glass at a rare bird, he would sometimes give a sudden
+kick at a horsefly, bobbing the glass out of range just as I was making
+out the character of the wing-bars.
+
+[Illustration: OUR VALLEY]
+
+From the ranch-house, encircled by live-oaks, the valley widened out,
+and was covered with orchards and vineyards, inclosed by the low
+brush-grown ridges of the Coast Mountains. It was a veritable paradise
+for the indolent field student. With so much insect-producing verdure,
+birds were everywhere at all times. There were no long hours to sit
+waiting on a camp-stool, and only here and there a treetop to 'sky' the
+wandering birds. The only difficulty was to choose your intimates.
+
+Canello and I had our regular beat, down past the blooming quince and
+apricot orchard, along the brush-covered side of the valley where the
+migrants flocked, around the circle through a great vineyard in the
+middle of the valley, past a pond where the feathered settlers gathered
+to bathe, and so back home to the oaks again.
+
+I liked to start out in the freshness of the morning, when the fog was
+breaking up into buff clouds over the mountains and drawing off in veils
+over the peaks. The brush we passed through was full of glistening
+spiders' webs, and in the open the grass was overlaid with disks of
+cobweb, flashing rainbow colors in the sun.
+
+As we loped gayly along down the curving road, a startled quail would
+call out, "Who-are-you'-ah? who-are-you'-ah?" and another would cry
+"quit" in sharp warning tones; while a pair would scud across the road
+like little hens, ahead of the horse; or perhaps a covey would start up
+and whirr over the hillside. The sound of Canello's flying hoofs would
+often rouse a long-eared jack-rabbit, who with long leaps would go
+bounding over the flowers, to disappear in the brush.
+
+The narrow road wound through the dense bushy undergrowth known as
+'chaparral,' and as Canello galloped round the sharp curves I had to
+bend low under the sweeping branches, keeping alert for birds and
+animals, as well as Mexicans and Indians that we might meet.
+
+This corner of the valley was the mouth of Twin Oaks Canyon, and was a
+forest of brush, alive with birds, and visited only by the children
+whose small schoolhouse stood beside the giant twin oak from which the
+valley post-office was named. Flocks of migrating warblers were always
+to be found here; flycatchers shot out at passing insects; chewinks
+scratched among the dead leaves and flew up to sing on the branches;
+insistent vireos cried _tu-whip' tu-whip' tu-whip' tu-wee'-ah_, coming
+out in sight for a moment only to go hunting back into the impenetrable
+chaparral; lazuli buntings sang their musical round; blue jays--blue
+squawkers, as they are here called--went screaming harshly through the
+thicket; and the clear ringing voice of the wren-tit ran down the scale,
+now in the brush, now echoing from the bowlder-strewn hills above. But
+the king of the chaparral was the great brown thrasher. His loud
+rollicking song and careless independent ways, so suggestive of his
+cousin, the mockingbird, made him always a marked figure.
+
+There was one dense corner of the thicket where a thrasher lived, and I
+used to urge Canello through the tangle almost every morning for the
+pleasure of sharing his good spirits. He was not hard to find, big brown
+bird that he was, standing on the top of a bush as he shouted out
+boisterously, _kick'-it-now, kick'-it-now, shut'-up shut'-up, dor'-a-thy
+dor'-a-thy_; or, calling a halt in his mad rhapsody, slowly drawled out,
+_whoa'-now, whoa'-now_. After listening to such a tirade as this, it
+was pleasant to come to an opening in the brush and find a band of
+gentle yellow-birds leaning over the blossoms of the white
+forget-me-nots.
+
+There were a great many hummingbirds in the chaparral, and at a certain
+point on the road I was several times attacked by one of the pugnacious
+little warriors. I suppose we were treading too near his nest, though I
+was not keen-eyed enough to find it. From high in the air, he would come
+with a whirr, swooping down so close over our heads that Canello started
+uneasily and wanted to get out of the way. Down over our heads, and then
+high up in the air, he would swing back and forth in an arc. One day he
+must have shot at us half a dozen times, and another day, over a spot in
+the brush near us,--probably, where the nest was,--he did the same thing
+a dozen times in quick succession.
+
+In the midst of the brush corner were a number of pretty round oaks, in
+one of which the warblers gathered. My favorite tree was in blossom and
+alive with buzzing insects, which may have accounted for the presence of
+the warblers. While I sat in the saddle watching the dainty birds decked
+out in black and gold, Canello rested his nose in the cleft of the tree,
+quite unmindful of the busy warblers that flitted about the branches,
+darting up for insects or chasing down by his nose after falling
+millers.
+
+One morning the ranchman's little girl rode over to school behind me on
+Canello, pillion fashion. As we pushed through the brush and into the
+opening by the schoolhouse, scattered over the grass sat a flock of
+handsome black-headed grosbeaks, the western representative of the
+eastern rose-breast, looking, in the sun, almost as red as robins. They
+had probably come from the south the night before. As we watched, they
+dispersed and sang sweetly in the oaks and brush.
+
+[Illustration: Black-headed Grosbeak.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+[Illustration: Rose-breasted Grosbeak.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+In the giant twin oak under whose shadow the the little schoolhouse
+stood was an owl's nest. When I stopped under it, nothing was to be seen
+but the tips of the ears of the brooding bird. But when I tried to hoot
+after the manner of owls, the angry old crone rose up on her feet above
+the nest till I could see her round yellow eyes and the full length of
+her long ears. She snapped her bill fiercely, bristled up, puffing out
+her feathers and shaking them at us threateningly. Poor old bird! I was
+amused at her performances, but one of her little birds lay dead at the
+foot of the tree, and I trembled for the others, for the school-children
+were near neighbors. Surely the old bird needed all her devices to
+protect her young. One day I saw on one side of the nest, below the big
+ears of the mother, the round head of a nestling.
+
+It was pleasant to leave the road to ride out under the oaks along the
+way. There was always the delightful feeling that one might see a new
+bird or find some little friend just gone to housekeeping. One morning I
+discovered a bit of a wren under an oak with building material in her
+bill. She flew down to a box that lay under the tree and I dismounted to
+investigate. A tin can lay on its side in the box, and a few twigs and
+yellowish brown oak leaves were scattered about in a casual way, but the
+rusted lid of the can was half turned back, and well out of sight in the
+inside was a pretty round nest with one egg in it. I was
+delighted,--such an appropriate place for a wren's nest,--and sat down
+for her to come back. She was startled to find me there, and stopped on
+the edge of the board when just ready to jump down. She would have made
+a pretty picture as she stood hesitating, with her tail over her back,
+for the sun lit up her gray breast till it almost glistened and warmed
+her pretty brown head as she looked wistfully down at the box. After
+twisting and turning she went off to think the matter over, and,
+encouraged perhaps by my whistle, came back and hopped down into the
+little nest.
+
+Two weeks later I was much grieved to find that the nest had been broken
+up. A horse had been staked under the tree, but he could not have done
+the mischief; for while the eggs were there, the nest itself was all
+jumbled up in the mouth of the can. I could not get it out of my mind
+for days. You become so much interested in the families you are watching
+that you feel as if their troubles were yours, and are haunted by the
+fear that they will think you have something to do with their accidents.
+They had taken me on probation at first, and at last had come to trust
+me--and then to imagine that I could deceive them and do the harm
+myself!
+
+When Canello and I left the brushy side of the canyon and started across
+the valley, the pretty little horned larks, whose reddish backs matched
+the color of the road, would run on ahead of us, or let the horses come
+within a few feet of them, squatting down ready to start, but not taking
+wing till it seemed as if they would get stepped on. Sometimes one sat
+on a stone by the roadside, so busy singing its thin chattering song
+that it only flitted on to the next stone as we came up; for it never
+seemed to occur to the trustful birds that passers-by might harm them.
+
+One of our most interesting birds nested in holes in the open
+uncultivated fields down the valley,--the burrowing owl, known
+popularly, though falsely, as the bird who shares its nest with prairie
+dogs and rattlesnakes. Though they do not share their quarters with
+their neighbors, they have large families of their own. We once passed a
+burrow around which nine owls were sitting. The children of the ranchman
+called the birds the 'how-do-you-do owls,' from the way they bow their
+heads as people pass. The owls believe in facing the enemy, and the
+Mexicans say they will twist their heads off if you go round them times
+enough.
+
+One of our neighbors milked his cows out in a field where the burrowing
+owls had a nest, and he told me that his collie had nightly battles with
+the birds. I rode down one evening to see the droll performance, and
+getting there ahead of the milkers found the bare knoll of the pasture
+peopled with ground squirrels and owls. The squirrels sat with heads
+sticking out of their holes, or else stood up outside on their hind
+legs, with the sun on their light breasts, looking, as Mr. Roosevelt
+says, like 'picket pins.' The little old yellowish owls who matched the
+color of the pasture sat on the fence posts, while the darker colored
+young ones sat close by their holes, matching the color of the earth
+they lived in. As I watched, one of the old birds flew down to feed its
+young. A comical little fellow ran up to meet his parent and then
+scudded back to the nest hole, keeping low to the ground as if afraid of
+being seen, or of disobeying his mother's commands. When the ranchman
+came with his cows the small owls ducked down into their burrows out of
+sight.
+
+Romulus, the collie, went up to the burrows and the old owls came
+swooping over his back screaming shrilly--the milkers told me that they
+often struck him so violently they nipped more than his hair! When the
+owls flew at him, Romulus would jump up into the air at them, and when
+they had settled back on the fence posts he would run up and start them
+off again. The performance had been repeated every night through the
+nesting season, and was getting to be rather an old story now, at least
+to Romulus. The ranchman had to urge him on for my benefit, and the owls
+acted as if they rather enjoyed the sport, though with them there was
+always the possibility that a reckless nestling might pop up its head
+from the ground at the wrong moment and come to grief. It would be
+interesting to know if the owls were really disturbed enough to move
+their nest another year.
+
+When Canello and I faced home on our daily circuit of the valley, we
+often found the vineyard well peopled. In April, when it was being
+cultivated, there was a busy scene. All the blackbirds of the
+neighborhood--both Brewer's and redwings--assembled to pick up grubs
+from the soft earth. A squad of them followed close at the plowman's
+heels, others flew up before his horse, while those that lagged behind
+in their hunt were constantly flying ahead to catch up, and those that
+had eaten all they could sat around on the neighboring grape-vines. The
+ranchman's son told me that when he was plowing and the blackbirds were
+following him, two or three 'bee-birds,' as they call the Arkansas and
+Cassin's flycatchers, would take up positions on stakes overlooking the
+flock; and when one of the blackbirds got a worm, would fly down and
+chase after him till they got it away, regularly making their living
+from the blackbirds, as the eagles do from the fish hawks.
+
+[Illustration: In Hot Pursuit.
+
+(Brewer's Blackbird and Bee-birds.)]
+
+One day in riding by the vineyard, to my surprise and delight I saw one
+of the handsome yellow-headed blackbirds sitting with dignity on a
+grape-vine. Although his fellows often flock with redwings, this bird
+did not deign to follow the cultivator with the others, but flew off and
+away while I was watching, showing his striking white shoulder patches
+as he went. The distinguished birds were sometimes seen assembled
+farther down the valley; and I once had a rare pleasure in seeing a
+company of them perched high on the blooming mustard.
+
+The son of the ranchman told me an interesting thing about the ordinary
+blackbirds. He said he had seen a flock of perhaps five hundred fly down
+toward a band of grazing sheep, and all but a few of the birds light on
+the backs of sheep. The animals did not seem to mind, and the birds flew
+from one to another and roosted and rode to their heart's content. They
+would drop to the ground, but if anything startled them, fly back to
+their sheep again. Sometimes he had seen a few of the blackbirds picking
+out wool for their nests by bracing themselves on the backs of the
+sheep, and pulling where the wool was loose. He had also seen the birds
+ride hogs, cattle, and horses; but he said the horses usually switched
+them off with their tails.
+
+On our way home we passed a small pond made by the spring rains. Since
+it was the only body of water for miles around, it was especially
+refreshing to us, and was the rendezvous of all our feathered
+neighbors--how they must have wished it would last all through the hot
+summer months! As I rode through the long grass on the edge of the pond,
+dark water snakes often wriggled away from under Canello's feet; but he
+evidently knew they were harmless, for he paid no attention to them,
+though he was mortally afraid of rattlers. I did not like the feeling
+that any snake, however innocent, was under my feet, so would pull him
+up out of the grass onto a flat rock overlooking the pond.
+
+In the fresh part of the morning, before the fog had entirely melted
+away, the round pool at our feet mirrored the blue sky and the small
+white clouds. If a breath of wind ruffled the water into lines, in a
+moment more it was sparkling. Along the margin of the water was a border
+of wild flowers, pink, purple, and gold; on one side stood a group of
+sycamores, their twisted trunks white in the morning sun and their
+branches full of singing birds; while away to the south a line of dark
+blue undulating hills was crowned by the peak from which we had looked
+off on the mountains of Mexico. The air was ringing with songs, the
+sycamores were noisy with the chatter of blackbirds and bee-birds, and
+the bushes were full of sparrows.
+
+There was an elder on the edge of the pond, and the bathers flew to this
+and then flitted down to the water; and when they flew up afterwards,
+lighted there to whip the water out of their feathers and sun themselves
+before flying off. I never tired watching the little bathers on the
+beach. One morning a pipit came tipping and tilting along the sand,
+peeping in its wild, sad way. Another time a rosy-breasted linnet
+stepped to the edge of the pond and dipped down daintily where the water
+glistened in the sunshine, sending a delicate circle rippling off from
+its own shadow. Then the handsome white and golden-crowned sparrows came
+and bathed in adjoining pools. When one set of birds had flown off to
+dry their feathers, others took their places. A pair of blackbirds
+walked down the sand beach, but acted absurdly, as if they did not know
+what to do in water--it was a wonder any of the birds did in dry
+California! Two pieces of wood lay in the shallows, and the blackbirds
+flew to them and began to promenade. The female tilted her tail as if
+the sight of herself in the pond made her dizzy, but the male finally
+edged down gingerly and took a dip or two with his bill, after which
+both flew off.
+
+On the mud flats on one side of the pond, bee-birds were busy
+flycatching, perching on sticks near the ground and making short sallies
+over the flat. Turtle doves flew swiftly past, and high over head hawks
+and buzzards circled and let themselves be borne by the wind.
+
+Swallows came to the pond to get mud for their nests. A long line of
+them would light on the edge of the water, and then, as if afraid of
+wetting their feet, would hold themselves up by fluttering their long
+pointed wings. They would get a little mud, take a turn in the air, and
+come back for more, to make enough to pay them for their long journeys
+from their nests. Sometimes they would skim over the pond without
+touching the surface at all, or merely dip in lightly for a drink in
+passing; at others they would take a flying plunge with an audible
+splash. Now and then great flocks of them could be seen circling around
+high up against a background of clouds and blue sky.
+
+One day I had a genuine excitement in seeing a snow-white egret perched
+on a bush by the water. I rode home full of the beautiful sight, but
+alas, my story was the signal for the ranchman's son to seize his gun
+and rush after the bird. Fortunately he did not find him, although he
+did shoot a green heron; but it was probably a short reprieve for the
+poor hunted creature.
+
+Canello was so afraid of miring in the soft ground that it was hard to
+get him across some places that seemed quite innocent. He would test the
+suspicious ground as carefully as a woman, one foot at a time; and if he
+judged it dangerous, would take the bits, turn around and march off in
+the opposite direction. I tried to force him over at first, but had an
+experience one day that made me quite ready to take all suggestions in
+such matters. This time he was deceived himself. We were on our homeward
+beat, off in the brush beyond the vineyard. I was watching for chewinks.
+We came to what looked like an old road grown up with soft green grass,
+and it was so fresh and tender I let Canello graze along at will; while
+keeping my eyes on the brush for chewinks. Suddenly Canello pricked up
+his ears and raised his head with a look of terror. Rattlesnakes or
+miring--it was surely one or the other! When I felt myself sinking, I
+knew which. I gave the horse a cut with the quirt to make him spring off
+the boggy ground, and looked off over his side to see how far down he
+was likely to go, but found myself going down backwards so fast I had to
+cling to the pommel. I lashed Canello to urge him out, and he struggled
+desperately, but it was no use. We were sinking in deeper and deeper,
+and I had to get off to relieve him of my weight. By this time his long
+legs had sunk in up to his body. On touching the ground I had a horrible
+moment thinking it might not hold me; but it bore well. Seizing the
+bridle with one hand and swinging the quirt with the other, I shouted
+encouragement to Canello, and, straining and struggling, he finally
+wrenched himself out and stepped on _terra firma_--I never appreciated
+the force of that expression before! The poor horse was trembling and
+exhausted when I led him up to high ground to remount, and neither of
+us had any desire to explore boggy lands after that.
+
+On our morning round, Canello and I attended strictly to business,--he
+to grazing, I to observing; but on our afternoon rides I, at least, felt
+that we might pay a little more heed to the beauties of the valley and
+the joys of horsebacking. Sometimes we would be overtaken by the night
+fog. One moment the mustard would be all aglow with sunshine; at the
+next, a sullen bank of gray fog would have risen over the mountain,
+obscuring the sun which had warmed us and lighted the mustard; and in a
+few moments it would be so cold and damp that I would urge Canello into
+a lope to warm our blood as we hurried home.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+THE LITTLE LOVER.
+
+
+[Illustration: The Little Lover.
+
+(Western House Wren.)]
+
+ON my second visit to California, I spent the winter in the Santa Clara
+valley, riding among the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, where
+flocks of Oregon robins were resting from the labors of the summer and
+passing the time until they could fly home again; but when the first
+spring wild flowers bloomed on the hills I shipped my little roan
+mustang by steamer from San Francisco to San Diego, and hurried south to
+meet him and spend the nesting season in the little valley of the Coast
+Mountains which, five years before, had proved such an ideal place to
+study birds.
+
+I went down early in March, to be sure to be in time for the nesting
+season; but spring was so late that by the last of April hardly a nest
+had been built, and it seemed as if the birds were never coming back.
+The weather was gloomy and the prospect for the spring's work looked
+discouraging, when one morning I rode over to the line of oaks and
+sycamores at the mouth of Ughland canyon I had not visited before. In
+this dry, treeless region of southern California only a little water is
+needed to cover the bare valley bottoms with verdure. The rushing
+streams that flow down the canyons after the winter rains fill their
+mouths with rich groves of brush, oaks and sycamores; while lines of
+trees border the streams as far as they extend down the valleys. Before
+the streams go far, the thirsty soil drinks them up, leaving only dry
+beds of sand bordered by trees, until the rains of the following winter.
+In April, the water in this particular canyon mouth had already
+disappeared, and the wide sand bed under the trees alone remained to
+tell of the short-lived stream. But the resulting verdure was enough to
+attract the birds. Apparently a party of travelers had just arrived. The
+brush and trees were full of song--yellowbirds, linnets, chewinks,
+doves, wrens, and, best of all, a song sparrow,--bless his
+heart!--singing as if he were on a bush in New York state. It was more
+cheering than anything I had heard in California.
+
+When able to listen to something besides song sparrows, I realized that
+from the trees in front of me was coming the rippling merry song of a
+wren. Wrens are always interesting,--droll, individual little
+scraps,--and having found their nests in sycamore holes before, I let my
+horse, Mountain Billy, graze nearer to the tree from which the sound
+came. Before long the small brown pair flew away together across the oat
+field that spread out from the mouth of the canyon. While they were
+gone, I took the opportunity to inspect the tree, and found a large hole
+with twigs sticking out suggestively. Presently, back flew one of the
+wrens with more building material. But this line of sycamores was off
+from the highway, and the bird was not used to prying equestrians; so
+when she found Mountain Billy and me planted in front of her door, she
+doubted the wisdom of showing us that it was her door. Chattering
+nervously, she would back and fill, flying all but to the door and then
+flitting off again. She could not make up her mind to go inside. But
+soon her mate came and--unmindful of visitors, ardent little lover that
+he was--sang to her so gayly that it put her in heart; and before I knew
+it she had slipped into the tree.
+
+Here was a nest, at last, right over my eye. To encourage myself while
+waiting for something to happen, I began a list with the heading NESTS,
+when something caught my eye overhead, and glancing up, behold, a
+goldfinch walked down a branch and seated herself in a round cup! A few
+moments later--buzz--whirr--a hummingbird flew to a nest among the brown
+leaves of one of the low-hanging oak sprays not ten feet away! I simply
+stared with delight and astonishment. No need of a list for
+encouragement now. From Billy's back I could look down into the little
+cup, which seemed the tiniest in the world. Forgetting the little lover
+and his mate, I sat still and watched this small household.
+
+The young were out of the eggs, though not much more, and their mother
+sat on the edge of the nest feeding them. She curved her neck over till
+her long bill stood up perpendicularly, when she put it gently into the
+gaping bills of her young; the smallest of bills, not more than an
+eighth of an inch long, I should judge. I never saw hummingbirds fed so
+gently. Probably the small bills and throats were so delicate the mother
+was afraid they would not bear the usual jabbing and pumping.
+
+When the little ones were fed, the old bird got down in the nest,
+fluffing her feathers about her in a pretty motherly way and settling
+herself comfortably to rest, apparently ignoring the fact that Billy was
+grazing close beside her. She may have had her qualms, but no mother
+bird would leave her tender young uncovered on such a cold morning.
+
+While she was on the nest, there was an approaching whirr, followed by a
+retreating buzz--had the father bird started to come to the nest and
+fled at sight of me? Remembering the evidence Bradford Torrey collected
+to prove that the male bird is rarely seen at the nest, I wondered if
+his absence might be explained by his usually noisy flight, for it would
+attract the notice of man or beast.
+
+Two days later I carefully touched the tip of my finger to the back of
+one of the tiny hummingbirds,--it was very skinny, I regret to
+state,--and at my touch the little thing opened its wee bill for food.
+That day the mother fed the birds in the regulation way, when we were
+only four feet distant. I was near enough to see all the horrors of the
+performance. She thrust her bill down their throats till I felt like
+crying out, "For mercy's sake, forbear!" She plunged it in up to the
+very hilt; it seemed as if she must puncture their alimentary canals.
+
+While waiting for the wrens, I buckled Billy's bridle around the
+sycamore and threw myself down on the warm sand under the beautiful
+tree. The little horse stood near, outlined against the blue sky, with
+the sunlight dappling his back, while I looked up into the light green
+foliage of the white sycamore overhead. There seemed to be a great deal
+of light stored in these delicate trees. The undersides of the big,
+soft, white leaves looked like white Canton flannel; the sunlight
+mottled the whitish bark of the trunks and branches; and a great limb
+arched above me, making a high vaulted chamber whose skylights showed
+the deep blue above.
+
+But there were the little lover and his mate, and I must turn my glass
+on them. She came first, with long streamers hanging from her bill, and
+at sight of me got so flustered that one of her straws slipped out and
+went sailing down to the ground. When the pair had gone again, two
+linnets came along. The female saw the wren's doorway, and being in
+search of apartments flew up to look at the house. When she came out she
+and her mate talked it over and, apparently, she told him something that
+aroused his curiosity--perhaps about the wren's twigs she found
+inside--for he flew into the dark hole and looked around as she had
+done. Then both birds went off to inspect other holes in the tree. The
+master of the wren cottage came back in time to see them on their
+rounds, and taking up his position in front of his door sang out loudly,
+with wings hanging and a general air of, "This is _my_ house, I'd have
+you understand!"
+
+When the lord of the manor had flown away, his lady came. I thought
+perhaps he had told her of the visitors and she had come to see if they
+had disturbed any of her sticks, for she brought no material. She was
+afraid to go to the nest in my presence, but flew to a branch near by
+and leaned down so far it was a wonder she didn't tip over as she stared
+anxiously at the hole--a bad way to keep a secret, my little lady! I
+thought. When her merry minstrel came, his song again gave her courage
+and she flew inside, turning in the doorway, however, to look out at me.
+
+But what with horses grazing under her windows and linnets making free
+with her nest, the poor wren was unsettled in her mind. Possibly it
+would be wiser to take out her sticks and build elsewhere. She went
+about looking at vacant rooms and examined one opening in the side of
+the trunk where I could see only her profile as she hung out of the
+hole.
+
+For some time the timid bird would not accept Mountain Billy and me as
+part of her immediate landscape, and I watched the premises a number of
+days, getting nothing but my labor for my pains, as far as wrens were
+concerned.
+
+One day when she did not come, I thought it was a good chance to get a
+study of the hummingbird's nest; but alas!--the delicate little
+structure hung torn and dangling from the twig, with nothing to tell
+what had become of the poor little hummers. I moralized sadly upon the
+mutability of human affairs as I took the tattered nest and tied it up
+in a corner of my handkerchief; for it was all that was left of the
+little home built with such exquisite care and brooded over so
+tenderly.
+
+The yellowbird's nest came to an untimely end, too, although its start
+was such a bright one. It was a disappointment, for the goldfinches are
+such trustful birds and so affectionate and tender in their family
+relations that they always win one's warm interest. At first, when this
+mother bird went to the nest, her mate stationed himself on the nest
+tree, leaning over and looking down anxiously at Billy and me; but
+before their home was broken up the watchful guardian fed his pretty
+mate at her brooding when we were below.
+
+We had a great many visitors while waiting for the wrens: neighbors came
+to sit in our green shade, young housekeepers came looking for rooms to
+rent, and old birds who were leading around their noisy families came to
+dine with us. Once a pair of flickers started to light in the tree, but
+they gave a glance over the shoulder at me and fled. Later I found their
+secret--down inside an old charred stump up the canyon. Occasionally I
+got sight of gay liveries in the green sycamore tops. A Louisiana
+tanager in his coat of many colors stopped one day, and another time,
+when looking up for dull green vireos, my eye was startled by a flaming
+golden oriole. The color was a keen pleasure. Lazuli buntings, relatives
+of our eastern indigo-bird, sang so much within hearing that I felt sure
+they were nesting in the weeds outside the line of sycamores--I did find
+a pair building in the malvas beyond; a pair of bush-tits, cousins of
+the chickadees, came with one of their big families; California towhees
+often appeared sitting quietly on the branches; linnets were always
+stopping to discuss something in their emphatic way; clamorous blue jays
+rushed in and set the small birds in a panic, but seeing me quickly took
+themselves off; and a pair of wary woodpeckers hunted over the sycamore
+trunks and worked so cautiously that they had finished excavating a nest
+only just out of my sight on the other side of the wren tree trunk
+before I seriously suspected them of domestic intentions.
+
+One day, when watching at the tree, a great brown and black lizard that
+the children of the valley call the 'Jerusalem overtaker' came worming
+down the side of an oak that I often leaned against. The rough bark
+seemed such a help to it that I imagined the wrens had done wisely in
+choosing a smooth sycamore to build in. I looked narrowly at their nest
+hole with the thought in mind and saw that the birds had another point
+of vantage in the way the trunk bulged at the hole--it did not seem as
+if a large lizard could work itself up the smooth slippery rounding
+surface, however much given to eggs for breakfast. But in the West
+Indies lizards walk freely up and down the marble slabs, so it is
+dangerous to say what they cannot do.
+
+Billy had a surprise one day greater than mine over the lizard. He was
+grazing quietly near where I sat under the wren tree, when he suddenly
+threw up his head. His ears pointed forward, his eyes grew excited, and
+as he gazed his head rose higher and higher. I jumped from the ground
+and put my hand on the pommel ready to spring into the saddle. As I did
+so, across the field I caught a glimpse of a great fawn-colored animal
+with a white tip to its tail, bounding through the brush--a deer! Then I
+heard voices through the trees and saw the red shawl of a woman in a
+wagon rumbling up the road the deer must have crossed.
+
+When Mountain Billy and I pulled ourselves together and started after
+the deer, the poor horse was so unstrung he made snakes of all the
+sticks he saw and shied at all imaginable bugaboos along the way. We
+were too late to see the deer again, but found the marks of its hoofs
+where it had jumped a ditch and sunk so deep in the fine sand on the
+other side that it had to take a great leap to recover itself.
+
+The sight of the deer made Billy as nervous as a witch for days. Every
+time we went to visit the wrens he would stand with eyes glued to the
+spot where it had appeared, and when a jack-rabbit came out of the brush
+with his long ears up, Billy started as if he thought it would devour
+him. I was perplexed by his nervousness at first, but after much
+pondering reasoned it out, to my own satisfaction at least. His name
+was Mountain Billy, and in the days when he had been a wayward bucking
+mustang he lived in the Sierra. Now, even in the hills surrounding our
+valley, colts were killed by mountain lions. How much more in the
+Sierra. Mountain lions are large fawn-colored animals: that was it:
+Mountain Billy was suffering from an acute attack of association of
+ideas. The sight of the deer had awakened memories of the nightmare of
+his colthood days.
+
+We made frequent visits to the wren tree, and both my nervous little
+horse and I had a start one morning, for as we rode in, a covey of quail
+flew up with a whirr from under the tree in front of us.
+
+When the wren had become reconciled to us she worked rapidly, flying
+back and forth with material, followed by her mate, who sang while she
+was on the nest and chased away with her afterwards. Often when she
+appeared in the doorway ready to go, his song, which had been just a
+merry round before, at sight of her would suddenly change to a most
+ecstatic love song. He would sit with drooping tail, his wings sometimes
+shaking at his sides, at others raised till they almost met over his
+back, trembling with the excitement of his joy. This peculiar tremulous
+motion of the wings was marked in both wrens; their emotions seemed too
+large for their small bodies.
+
+I found the wrens building, the last of April. The third week in May
+the little lover was singing as hard as ever. I wrote in my
+note-book--"Wrens do not take life with proper seriousness, their duties
+certainly do not tie them down." When the eggs were in the nest, if her
+mate sang at her door, the mother bird would fly out to him and away
+they would go together; for it never seemed to occur to the care-free
+lover that he might brood the eggs in her absence.
+
+When the young hatched, however, affairs took a more serious turn.
+Mother wren at least was kept busy looking for spiders, and later, when
+both were working together, if not hunting among the green treetops, the
+pretty little brown birds often flew to the ground and ran about under
+the weeds to search for insects. Once when the mother bird had flown up
+with her bill full, she suddenly stopped at the twig in front of the
+nest, looking down, her tail over her back wren fashion, the sun on her
+brown sides, and her bill bristling with spiders' legs.
+
+[Illustration: A Trying Moment.]
+
+On June 7 I noticed a remarkable thing. For more than five weeks, all
+through the building and brooding, the little lover had been acting as
+if on his honeymoon--as if the nest were a joke and there were nothing
+for him to do in the world but sing and make love to his pretty mate--as
+if life were all 'a-courtin'.' On this day he first came to the tree
+with food, sang out for his spouse, gave her the morsel, and flew off.
+Later in the morning he brought food and his mate carried it to the
+young. But afterwards, when she started to take a morsel from him,
+behold! he--the gay, frivolous little beau, the minstrel lover--actually
+acted as if he didn't want to give it up, as if he wanted to feed his
+own little birds himself. With wings trembling at his sides he turned
+his back on his mate and started to walk down the branch away from her!
+But he was too fond of her to even seem to refuse her anything, and so,
+coming back, gave her the morsel. She probably divined his thought, and,
+let us hope, was glad to have him show an interest in his children at
+last; at all events, when he came again with food and clung to the tip
+of a drooping twig waiting although she first lit above him and came
+down toward him with bill wide open and wings fluttering in the pretty,
+helpless, coquettish way female birds often tease to be fed; suddenly,
+as if remembering, she flew off, and--he went in to the nest himself! It
+was a conquest; the little lover was not altogether lacking in the
+paternal instinct after all! I looked at him with new respect.
+
+On June 12 I wrote: "The wrens seem to have settled down to business."
+It was delightful to find the small father actually taking turns feeding
+the young. I saw him feed his mate only once or twice, and noticed much
+less of the quivering wings, though after leaving the nest he would
+sometimes light on a branch and move them tremulously at his sides for a
+moment. June 15 I wrote: "The birds are feeding rapidly to-day. I hear
+very little song from the male; probably he has all he can attend to.
+I'd like to know how many young ones there are in that hole." At all
+events, the voices of the young were getting stronger and more
+insistent, and it is no bagatelle to keep half a dozen gaping mouths
+full of spiders, as any mother bird can tell. This particular mother
+wren, however, seemed to enjoy her cares. She often called to the young
+from a branch in front of the nest before going in, and stopped to call
+back to them with a motherly-sounding _krup-up-up_ as she stood in the
+entrance on leaving.
+
+One day as one of the old birds stood in the doorway its mate flew into
+the nest right over its head. The astonished doorkeeper was so startled
+that it took to its wings.
+
+Before this, in watching the wrens, I had looked off across a sunny
+field of golden oats, against the background of blue hills. On June 14,
+when I went to the nest, the mowers had been at work around the
+sycamores and the oat-field was full of cocks. Just as the wren was most
+anxious for peace and quietness, for a safe world into which to launch
+her brood, up came this rout of haymakers with all their clattering
+machines, laying low the meadows to her very door.
+
+No wonder the little bird met me with nerves on edge. When the eggs had
+first hatched, she had objected to me, but mildly. To be sure, once when
+she found me staring she flew away over my head, scolding as much as to
+say, "Stop looking at my little birds," and finding me there when she
+came back, shook her wings at her sides and scolded hard, though her
+bill was full; but still her disapproval did not trouble me; it was too
+sociable. But now, for some time, affected by the shadow of coming
+events, she had been growing more and more fidgety under my gaze,
+darting inside, then whisking back to the door to look at me, in again
+to her brood and out to me, over and over like a flash--or, like a poor
+little troubled mother wren, distracted lest her unruly youngsters
+should pop out of the hole in the tree trunk when I was below to catch
+them.
+
+On this day, when the wren came up from the dark nest pocket and found
+me below, she called back to her little ones in such distress that I
+felt reproached. By gazing fixedly through my glass into the dark hole I
+could see the head of a sprightly nestling pop up and turn alertly from
+side to side as if returning my inspection. The old wren's calls made me
+think of a human mother who can no longer control her big wayward
+offspring and has to entreat them to do as she bids. It was as if she
+said, "Oh, _do_ be good children, _do_ keep still; _do_ put your heads
+back; you _naughty_ children, you _must_ do as I tell you!"
+
+On June 16, six weeks after I had found the birds building, I wrote in
+my note-book: "I am astonished every morning when I come and find the
+wrens still here, but perhaps it's easier feeding them in one spot than
+it would be chasing around after them in half a dozen different places."
+
+The young were chattering inside the nest. They all talked at once as
+children will, but one small voice assumed the tones of the mother;
+probably the oldest brother speaking with the air of authority
+featherless children sometimes assume with the weaker members of the
+family. When a parent came, I saw the big brother's head pop up from
+behind the wall,--the nest was in a pocket below,--and by the time the
+old bird got there with food the big throat blocked the way for the
+little ones down behind. Sometimes I could see a flutter of small wings
+and tails, when the birds were being fed.
+
+As nothing happened, I went off to watch another nest, but in an hour
+was back to make sure of seeing the small wrens when they left the nest.
+A loud continuous scolding met me on approaching, and one of the old
+wrens, with bill full of insects, flew--not up to the nest--but down in
+among the weeds! In less than an hour that whole brood of wrens had
+flown, and were three or four rods away in the high weeds--safe! I was
+taken aback. They had stolen a march on me. Surely I had not been
+treated as was fit and proper, being one of the family!
+
+It was amusing to see the young ones fly. They whirled away on their
+wings as if they had been flitting around in the big world always; but
+their stubby tails sadly interfered with their progress, and they came
+to earth before they meant.
+
+Weak cries came from the young hidden in the weeds. They could fly, but
+it was different from being safe inside a tree trunk! I hardly
+recognized their weak appealing voices, after the stentorian tones that
+had issued from the old nest.
+
+The weeds were a most admirable cover, and the dead stalks sticking up
+through them served as sentry posts, from which the old birds scolded me
+when I followed too close on their heels. The youngsters sometimes
+appeared on the stalks, and looked very pert on their long legs with
+their short tails cocked over their backs.
+
+In the afternoon I went again to see the little family to which I had
+become so much attached and which were now slipping away from me. They
+had been led farther up the canyon, where, at a turn in the dry bed of
+the stream, the thick cover of weeds was still more protected by brush
+and overhanging trees, and the whole thicket was warmed by the afternoon
+sunshine. The old birds were busily flying back and forth feeding their
+invisible young. They scolded me as they flew past, but kept right on
+with their work.
+
+There was little use trying to keep track of the brood after that, and I
+thought I had given them up quite philosophically, reflecting that it
+was pleasant to leave them in such a sunny protected place. Still, day
+after day in riding along the line of sycamores on my way to other
+nests, it gave me a pang of loneliness to pass the old deserted wren
+tree where I had spent so many happy hours; and though the sycamores
+were silent, I could always hear and see the little lover singing to his
+pretty mate.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+LIKE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT.
+
+
+WHEN watching the little lover and his brood, I heard familiar voices
+farther down the line of oaks, voices of little friends I had made on my
+first visit to California, and had always remembered with lively
+interest as the jauntiest, most individual bits of humanity I had ever
+known in feathers. So, when Mountain Billy and I could be spared by the
+other bird families we were watching, we set out to hunt up the little
+bluish gray western gnatcatchers.
+
+The (sand) stream that widened under the wren's sycamores narrowed up
+the canyon to a--dry ditch, I should say, if it were not disrespectful
+to speak that way of a channel that once a year carries a torrent which
+excavates canals in the meadows. Billy and I started up this sand ditch,
+so narrow between its weed-grown banks that there was barely room for
+us, and so arched over in places by chaparral that we could get through
+only when Billy put down his ears and I bowed low on the saddle.
+
+[Illustration: Nest of Western Gnatcatcher.
+
+(From a photograph.)]
+
+We had not gone far before we heard the gnatcatchers, bluish gray mites
+with heads that are always cocked on one side or the other to look down
+at something, and long tails that are always flipping about as their
+owners flaunt gayly through the bushes: At sound of their voices I
+pulled Billy up out of the ditch, and, slipping from his back, sat down
+on the ground to wait for the birds. Eureka! there, in a slender young
+oak on the edge of the stream not a rod away, one of the pair was
+gliding off its nest, a beautiful lichen-covered, compact little
+structure such as I had admired years before. I was jubilant. What a
+relief! I had fully expected it to be inside the dense brush, where no
+mortal could tell what was going on; and here it was out in the plain
+light of day. What a delightful time I should have watching it! Before
+leaving the spot, in imagination I had followed the brood out into the
+world and filled a note-book with the quaint airs and graces of the
+piquant pair.
+
+When insinuating yourself into the secrets of the bird world, it is not
+well to be too obtrusive at first: it is a mistake to spend the day when
+you make your first call; so contenting myself with thinking of the
+morrow, and fixing the small oak in my memory, I took myself off before
+the blue-gray should tell on me to her mate. As I rose to go, a dove
+flew out of the oak--she had been brooding right over my head. Another
+nest, and a mourning dove's, one of the most gentle and winning of
+birds! Surely my good star was in the ascendent!
+
+The next day, forgetful of this second nest, I rode Billy right up under
+the oak, and was startled to find the pretty dove sitting quietly over
+our heads, looking down at us out of her gentle eyes. It was a pleasant
+surprise. She let me talk to her, but when I had dismounted Billy
+tramped around so uneasily that the saddle caught in the oak branches
+and scared the poor bird away. I had hardly seated myself when the
+jaunty little gnatcatcher came flying over and lit in an upper branch
+of the tree. What a contrast she was to the quiet dove! With many flirts
+of the tail she hopped down to the nest, jumping from branch to branch
+as if tripping down a pair of stairs. When she dropped into her deep cup
+her small head stuck up over one edge, her long tail pointed over the
+other.[2]
+
+I looked away a moment, and on glancing back found the nest empty.
+On the  instant, however, came the sound of my small friend's voice.
+Such a talkative  little person!--not one of your
+creep-in-and-out-of-the-nest-without-anybody's-knowing-it kind of a
+bird, not she! Her remarks sounded as if made over my head, and when
+Billy stamped about the brush and rapped the saddle trying to switch off
+flies, I imagined guiltily that they were addressed to me; but while I
+wondered if she would keep away all the rest of the morning because she
+had discovered me, back she came, talking to herself in complaining
+tones and whipping her tail impatiently, even after she stood on the
+edge of the nest, evidently absorbed in her own affairs, quite to the
+exclusion of the person down in the brush who thought herself so
+important!
+
+My doves were attending to me, however, altogether too much. The
+brooding bird was anxious to go to her nest. After flying out where she
+could see me, she whizzed toward it; but, fearful, hesitated and talked
+it over with her mate--both birds cooed with inflated breaths. After
+that the branches rattled overhead, but even then, though my back was
+turned, the timid bird dared not stay. She must make another inspection.
+From an opposite oak she peered through the branches, moving her head
+excitedly, and calling out her impressions to her mate. Meanwhile, he
+had flown down the sand stream and called back quite calmly. I, also,
+cooed reassuringly to her, and soon she quieted down and began to plume
+her feathers on the sunny branch. As the gnatcatchers did not honor us
+with their attention even when Billy stalked around in plain sight, I
+moved a little closer to their nest to give the dove more freedom; and
+soon the gentle bird slipped back to her brooding.
+
+Before leaving I went to see the dove in the oak, and spoke caressingly
+to her, admiring her soft dove-colored feathers and shining iridescent
+neck. She was on her own ground there, and felt that she could safely be
+friends, so she only winked in the sun, paying no heed to her mate when
+he called warningly. It was especially pleasant to watch this reserved
+lady-like bird, after the flippant tell-all-you-know little gnat.
+
+On going away, Billy and I took a run up the canyon. Billy was in high
+spirits, and went racing up the narrow road, winding and turning
+through the chaparral, brushing me against the the stiff scrub oak and
+loping under low branches so fast that the sharp leaves snapped back,
+stinging my cheeks. We had a gay ride, with a spice of excitement thrown
+in; for on our way home, in the thick dust across our path, besides the
+pretty quail tracks that made wall-paper patterns on the road, were the
+straight trails of gopher snakes, and the scalloped one of a rattlesnake
+we had been just too late to meet.
+
+At our next session with the blue-grays, when she was on the nest, her
+mate came back to relieve her and cried in his quick cheerful way, "Here
+I am, here I am!" Either she was taking a nap or didn't want to stir,
+for she didn't budge till he called insistently, "_Here_ I am, _here_ I
+am!" Then he hopped down in her place, and raising his head above the
+nest, remarked again, as if commenting upon the new situation, "Here I
+am!"
+
+It was quite a different matter when she came back to work. She only
+called "hello," not even hinting that he should make way for her, but he
+hopped off at the first sound of her voice, flying away promptly to
+another tree and calling back like a gleeful boy let out of school,
+"Here I am!"
+
+She was no more eager to go to the nest than he, however, and once when
+she came flirting leisurely along from twig to twig, she stopped a long
+time on the edge of the nest and leaned over, presumably to arrange the
+eggs; perhaps she and her mate had different views as to their proper
+positions. The next time I visited the gnats, she acted as if she really
+could not make up her mind to settle down to brooding on such a
+beautiful morning. The fog had cleared away and the air was fresh and
+full of life; goldfinches and lazuli buntings were singing merrily, and
+light-hearted vireos were shouting _chick-a-de-chick'-de-villet'_ from
+the brush. How much pleasanter it would be for such an airy fairy to go
+off for a race with her mate than to settle down demurely tucked into a
+cup! "Tsang," she cried impatiently as she flew up to catch a fly. She
+flirted about the branches, whipped up in front of the nest, couldn't
+make up her mind to go in, and flounced off again. But the eggs would
+get cold if she didn't cover them, so back she came, hopped up on the
+edge of the nest, and stood twisting and turning, glancing this way and
+that as though for a fly to chase, till she happened to look down at the
+eggs; then she whipped her tail, dropped in and--jumped out again!
+
+During the morning when she was away and her mate was waiting for her to
+come back to 'spell' him, he too got impatient. He hopped out of the
+nest crying, "Now here I am, quick, come quick!" and as he flew off,
+sang out in his funny little soliloquizing way, "Well, here I go; here I
+go!"
+
+His restless spouse had only just settled down when a wren-tit--a
+wren-like bird with a long tail--flew into a bush near her oak, and she
+darted out of the nest to snap her bill over his head. I thought it
+merely an excuse to leave her brooding. Calling out "tsang," she again
+flew at the brown bird who was hopping around in the bush, so
+innocently, as I thought. Conqueror for the moment, she flaunted back to
+the nest, and after much ado finally settled down.
+
+For a time all was quiet. Hearing the low cooing of doves, I went to
+talk to the pretty bird in the oak, and she let me come near enough to
+see her bluish bill and quiet eyes. As I returned to the gnatcatchers, a
+chewink was hoeing in the sand stream. Again the wren-tit approached
+stealthily. I watched with languid interest till he got to the gnat's
+tree. The instant he touched foot upon her domain, she dashed down at
+him, crying loudly and snapping her bill in his face. The brown bird
+dodged her blows, held his footing in spite of her, and slowly made his
+way up to the nest. I was astonished and frightened. He leaned over the
+nest, and--what he actually did I could not see, for by that time the
+blue-gray's cries had called her mate and they were both screaming and
+diving down at him as if they would peck his eyes out; and it sounded as
+if they hit him on the back good and hard.
+
+A peaceful lazuli bunting, hearing the commotion, came to investigate,
+but when she saw what was happening held back against the side of a twig
+as though afraid of getting struck, and soon flew off, having no desire
+to get mixed up in that affray.
+
+When the wren-tit had at last been driven from his position, the
+gnatcatchers flew up into a tree and, standing near together, talked the
+matter over excitedly. Then one of them went back to the nest, reached
+down into it and brought up something that it appeared to be eating. Its
+mate went to the nest and did the same, after which one of them flew
+away with a broken eggshell. When the little creatures turned away from
+the plundered nest they broke out into cries of distress that were
+pitiful to hear. I felt indignant at the wren-tit. How could a bird with
+eggs of its own do such a cruel thing? But then, I reflected, we who
+pretend to be better folks than wren-tits do not always spare our
+neighbors because of our own troubles. When the poor birds had carried
+away their broken eggshell, one of them came and tugged at the nest
+lining till it pulled out a long horsehair and what looked like a
+feather, apparently trying to take out everything that the egg had
+soiled.
+
+When the little housekeeper was working over her nest, a brown towhee
+flew into the tree. On the instant there was a flash of wings--the gnat
+was ready for war. But after a fair look at the big peaceful bird, she
+flew to the next tree without a word--she evidently knew friends from
+enemies. I never liked the towhee so well before. But though the
+blue-gray had nothing to say against her neighbor sitting up in the tree
+if he chose, her nerves were so unstrung that when she lit in the next
+tree she cried out "tsang" in an overburdened tone. It sounded so unlike
+the usual cry of the light-hearted bird, it quite made me sad.
+
+Whether the poor little gnatcatchers did not recover from this attack
+upon their home, and took their nest to pieces to put it up elsewhere,
+as birds sometimes do; or whether the stealthy wren-tit again crept in
+like a thief in the night to plunder his neighbor's house, I do not
+know; but the next time I went to the oak the nest was demolished. It
+was a sorry ending for what had promised to be such an interesting and
+happy home.
+
+My poor dove's nest had a tragic end, too. What happened I do not know,
+but one day the body of a poor little pigeon lay on the ground under the
+nest. My sympathies went out to both mothers, but especially to the
+gentle dove, now a mourner, indeed.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[2] As this little pair dressed like twins, I could only infer which was
+which from the song and the actions of the two, which were quite
+distinct.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+WAS IT A SEQUEL?
+
+
+AFTER the wren-tit stole in like a thief in the night and broke up the
+pretty home of the gnatcatchers, I suspected that they took their house
+down to put it up again in a safer place, and so was constantly on the
+lookout to find where that safer place was. At last, one day, I heard
+the welcome sound of their familiar voices, and following their calls
+finally discovered them flying back and forth to a high branch on an old
+oak-tree; both little birds working and talking together. Mind, I do not
+stake my word on this being the same pair of gnats; but the nest
+followed closely on the heels of the plundered one, which was a point in
+its favor, and, being anxious to take up the lines with my small friends
+again, I let myself think they were the birds of the sand ditch nest. It
+was such a delight to find them that I deserted the nest I had been
+watching, and went to spend the next morning with my old friends. The
+tree they had chosen was a high oak in an open space in the brush, and
+they were building fifteen or twenty feet above the ground--so high that
+it was necessary to keep an opera-glass focused on the spot to see what
+was going on at their small cup.
+
+As the birds worked, I was filled with forebodings by seeing a pair of
+wren-tits on the premises. They went about in the casual indifferent way
+sad experience had shown might cover a multitude of evil intentions, and
+which made me suspect and resent their presence. How had they found the
+poor little gnats? It was not hard to tell. How could they help finding
+such talkative fly-abouts? But if birds are in danger from all the
+world, including those who should be their comrades and champions, why
+should not builders keep as still at the nest as brooding birds, instead
+of heedlessly giving information to observers that lurk about taking
+notes for future misdeeds? But then, could gnatcatchers keep still
+anywhere at any time? No, that was not to be hoped for. I could only
+watch the little chatterers from hour to hour and be thankful for every
+day that their home was unmolested.
+
+It was interesting to see how the jaunty indifferent gnats would act
+when settling down to plain matters of business. Strange to say, they
+proved to be the most energetic, tireless, and skillful of builders.
+Their floor had been laid--on the branch--before I arrived on the scene,
+and they were at work on the walls. The plan seemed to be twofold, to
+make the walls compact and strong by using only fine bits of material
+and packing them tightly in together; while at the same time they gave
+form to the nest and kept it trim and shipshape by moulding inside, and
+smoothing the rim and outside with neck and bill. Sometimes the bird
+would smooth the brim as a person sharpens a knife on a whetstone, a
+stroke one way and then a stroke the other. When the sides were not much
+above the floor, one bird came with a bit of material which it proceeded
+to drill into the body of the wall. It leaned over and threw its whole
+weight on it, almost going head first out of the nest, and had to
+flutter its wings to recover itself. The birds usually got inside to
+build, but there was a twig beside the nest that served for scaffolding,
+and they sometimes stood on that to work at the outside.
+
+At first they seemed to take turns at building, working rapidly and
+changing places quite regularly; but one morning when seated under the
+oak I saw that things were not as they had been. Perhaps a difference of
+opinion had arisen on architectural points, and Mrs. Gnatcatcher had
+taken matters into her own hands. At all events, this is what happened:
+instead of rapid changes of place, when one of the gnats was at work its
+mate flew up and started to go to the nest, hesitated, and backed away;
+then unwilling to give up having a finger in the pie, advanced again.
+This was kept up till the little bird put its pride in its pocket, and
+gently gave over its cherished bit of material to its mate at the nest!
+
+Now as these gnatcatchers had the bad taste to dress so nearly alike
+that I could not tell them apart, I was left to my own surmises as to
+which took the material. Still, who could it have been but Mrs. Gnat?
+Would she give over the house to Mr. Gnat at this critical moment? She
+doubtless wanted to decorate as she went along, and men aren't supposed
+to know anything about such trivial matters! On the other hand, it might
+easily be he, for, supposing he had come of a family of superior
+builders, surely he would want to see to the laying of substantial
+walls; and unquestionably a good wall was the important part of this
+nest. Alas! it was a clear case of "The Lady or the Tiger." To
+complicate matters, the birds worked so fast, so high over my head, and
+so hidden by the leaves, that I had much ado to keep track of their
+exchanges at all. If I could only catch them and tie a pink ribbon
+around one of their necks!--then, at least, I would know which was doing
+what, or if it was doing what it hadn't done before! It is inconsiderate
+enough of birds to wear the same kind of clothes, but to talk alike too,
+when hidden by the leaves--that, indeed, is a straw to break the camel's
+back. If small gray gnatcatchers up in the treetops had only been big
+black magpies low in the brush, my testimony regarding their
+performances might be of more value; but then, the magpies of my
+acquaintance were so shy they would have none of me; so although life
+and field work are full of disappointments, they are also full of
+compensations.
+
+Not being able to do anything better with the gnat problems, I guessed
+at which was which--when I saw No. 2 go to the nest and No. 1
+reluctantly make way as if not wanting No. 2 to meddle, I drew my own
+conclusions, although they were not scientifically final. I did see one
+thing that was satisfactory, as far as it went. One of the birds came
+with big tufts of stiff moss sticking out from either side of its bill
+like great mustachios, and going up to the nest, handed them to its
+mate--actually something big enough for a person to see, once! Whatever
+had been the birds' first feeling as to which should put the bricks in
+the wall, it was all settled now, and the little helpmate flew off
+singing out such a happy good-by it made one feel like writing a sermon
+on the moral effect of renunciation. After that I was sure the little
+helper fed his (?) mate on the nest, again singing out good-by as he
+flitted away. Once when he (?) brought material he found her (?) busy
+with what she had, and so went to the other end of the branch, and
+waited till she was ready for it, when he flew back and gave it to her.
+
+It was a real delight to watch the little blue-grays at their work. Once
+as one of them started to fly away--I am sure this was she--she suddenly
+stopped to look back at the nest as if to think what she wanted to get
+next; or, perhaps, just to get the effect of her work at a distance, as
+an artist walks away from his painting; or as any mother bird would stop
+to admire the pretty nest that was to hold her little brood. Another
+time one of the gnats,--I was sure this was he,--having driven off an
+enemy, flipped his tail by the nest with a paternal air of satisfaction.
+The birds made one especially pretty picture; the little pair stood
+facing each other close to the nest, and the sun, filtering through the
+green leaves over their heads, touched them gently as they lingered near
+their home.
+
+One morning when a gnat was in the nest a leaf blew down past it,
+startling it so it hopped out in such a hurry that the first I knew it
+was seated beneath the nest, flashing its tail.
+
+Back and forth the dainty pair flew across the space of blue sky between
+the oak and the brush. They went so fast and carried so little it seemed
+as if they might have made their heads save their heels--they brought so
+little I couldn't see that they brought anything; but I feel delicate
+about telling what I know about nest-making, and it may be that this was
+just the secret of the wonderfully compact solid walls of the nest; a
+little at a time, and that drilled in to stay.
+
+When one of the small builders flew down near me--within two yards--for
+material, I felt greatly pleased and flattered. Her mate warned her, but
+she paid no particular attention to him, and with jaunty twists and
+turns hopped about on the dead limbs, giving hurried jabs at the cobwebs
+she was gathering. Once she rubbed her little cheek against a twig as if
+a thread of the cobweb had gotten in her eye. She dashed in among the
+dead leaves after something, but flew back with a start as if she had
+seen a ghost. She was not to be daunted, however, and after whipping her
+tail and peering in for a moment, hopped bravely down again. Sometimes,
+when collecting cobweb, the gnat would whip its tail and snap its bill
+snip, snip, snip, as if cutting the web with a pair of scissors.
+
+I was amused one day by seeing a gnat fly down from the oak to the brush
+with what looked like a long brown caterpillar. The worm dangling from
+the tip of his beak was almost as large as the bird, and the little
+fellow had to crook his tail to keep from being overbalanced and going
+on his bill to the ground.
+
+As the nest went up, the leaves hid it; but I could still see the small
+wings and tails flip up in the air over the edge of the cup and jerk
+about as the bird moulded. I watched the workers so long that I felt
+quite competent to build a nest myself, till happening to remember that
+it required gnatcatcher tools.
+
+Ornithologists are discouraging people to wait for, and Mountain Billy
+got so restless under the gnat tree that he had to invent a new
+fly-brush for himself. On one side of the oak the branches hung low to
+the ground, and he pushed into the tangle till the green boughs rested
+on his back and he was almost hidden from view. Meanwhile I sat close
+beside the chaparral wall, where all sorts of sounds were to be heard,
+suggestive of the industries of the population hidden within the brush
+at my back. Hearing small footsteps, I peered in through the brown
+twigs, and to my delight saw a pair of stately quail walking over the
+ground, promenading through the brush avenues. Afterwards I caught sight
+of a gray animal, probably a wood rat, running down a branch behind me,
+and heard queer muffled sounds of gnawing.
+
+Suddenly, looking back, I was startled to see a big ringed brown and
+yellow snake lying like a rope at the foot of the gnat's tree, just
+where I had sat. He was about four feet long, and had twenty-three
+rings. He started to wind into the crotch of the oak as if meaning to
+climb the tree, but instead, crept to a stump and festooned himself
+about it worming around the holes as he might do if looking for nest
+holes. Imagine how a mother bird would feel to have him come stealing
+upon her little brood in that horrid way! When he crawled over the dead
+leaves I noted with a shiver that he made no sound. Thinking of the
+gnats, I watched his every movement till he had left the premises and
+wormed his way off through the brush. Though quite engrossed with the
+gnats, it was finally forced upon me that there is more than one family
+in the world. The blue-gray's oak was a favored one. A pair of
+hang-birds had built there before the gnats came, and now two more
+families had come, making four for the big oak.
+
+When first suspecting a house on the north side of the tree, I moved my
+chair over there. Presently a vireo with disordered breast feathers flew
+down on a dead twig close to the ground and leaned over with a tired
+anxious look, and craning her neck, turned her head on one side, and
+bent her eyes on the ground scrutinizingly. Then she hopped down, picked
+up something, threw it away, picked up another piece and flew back to
+her perch with it, as if to make up her mind if she really wanted that.
+Then her mate came, raised his crown and looked down at the bit of
+material with a puzzled air as if wishing he knew what to say; as if he
+felt he ought to be able to help her decide. But he seemed helpless and
+could only follow her around when she was at work, singing to her
+betimes, and keeping off friends or enemies who came too near. When the
+young hatched I noticed a still more marked difference between the
+nervous manners of the gnats, and the repose of vireos. While the gnat
+flipped about distractedly, the vireo sat calmly beside her nest, an
+exquisite white basket hanging under the leaves in the sun, or walked
+carefully over the branches looking for food for the young. Some days
+before finding out the facts, I suspected that the wood pewee perching
+on the old tree had more important business there, for the way he and
+his mate flew back and forth to the oak top was very pointed. So again I
+moved my chair. To my delight the wood pewee flew up in the tree, sat
+down on a horizontal crotch, and went through the motions of moulding.
+
+There were two birds, however, that simply used the tree as a
+resting-place, as far as I ever knew. A hummingbird perched on the tip
+of a twig, looking from below like a good sized bumblebee as he preened
+his feathers and looked off upon the world below. At the other side of
+the oak a pretty pink dove perched on a sunny branch that arched against
+the blue sky. It sat close to the branch beside the green leaves and
+dressed its feathers or dozed quietly in the sun. We had other visitors
+that the house owners did not accept so willingly. The gnatcatchers up
+the sand ditch whose nest had been broken up by the thief-in-the-night
+did not object to brown chippies, but perhaps, if this were the same
+pair, they had been made suspicious by their trouble. In any case, when
+a brown chippie lit on a limb near the nest, quite accidentally I
+believe, and turned to look at the pretty structure, quite innocently I
+feel sure, the little gnats fell on him tooth and nail, and when he hid
+under the leaves where they could not reach him they fluttered above the
+leaves, and the moment he ventured from under cover were both at him
+again so violently that at the first opportunity he took to his wings.
+There was one curious thing about this attack and expulsion; the gnats
+did not utter a word during the whole affair! I had never known them to
+be silent before when anything was going on--rarely when there wasn't.
+
+Another morning when I rode in there was a great commotion up in the
+oak. A chorus of small scolding voices, and a fluttering of little wings
+among the branches told that something was wrong, while a large form
+moving deliberately about in the tree showed the intruder to be a blue
+jay! Aha! the gossips would wag their heads. I disapprove of gossip, but
+as a truthful reporter am obliged to say that I saw the blue jay pitch
+down into the brush with something white in his bill--perhaps a
+cocoon--and that thereupon a great weeping and wailing arose from the
+little folk up in the treetop. A big brown California chewink stood by
+and watched the--robbery(?), great big fellow that he was; and not once
+offered to take the little fellows' part. I felt indignant. Why didn't
+he pitch into the big bully and drive him off before he had stolen the
+little birds' egg--if it was an egg. A grosbeak called _ick'_ from the
+treetop, but thought he'd better not meddle; and--it was a pair of
+wren-tits who looked out from a brush screen and then skulked off,
+chuckling to themselves, I dare say, that some one else was up to their
+tricks. It gave my faith in birds a great shock, this, together with the
+pillage of the gnat's nest by the thief-in-the-night. My spleen was
+especially turned against the brown chewink; he certainly was a good
+fighter, and might at least have helped to clear the neighborhood of
+such a suspicious character.
+
+Where did the egg--if it was an egg--come from? The vireos and pewees
+and gnats were still building, I reflected thankfully, though trembling
+for their future; and fortunately the hangbird had young. Perhaps the
+jay had found a nest that I could not discover.
+
+After that, things went on quietly for several days. The gnats got
+through with their building, and went off for a holiday until it should
+be time to begin brooding. They flitted about the branches warbling, as
+if having nothing special to do; dear little souls, at work as at play,
+always together. One of them unexpectedly found himself near me one day;
+but when he saw it was only I, whipped his tail and exclaimed "_Oh, it's
+you'. I'm' not afraid._"
+
+This peace and quietness, however, did not last. The gnats' house was
+evidently haunted, and they did not like--blue--ghosts. One morning
+when I got to the oak it was all in a hubbub, and the vireo was
+scolding loudly at a blue jay. When the giant pitched into the brush the
+wren-tit chattered, and I thought perhaps the jay was teaching him how
+it feels to have a shoe pinch. A few moments later I was amazed to see a
+gnat jab at the wall till it got a bill full of material and then fly
+off to the brush with it! My little birds had moved! Evidently the
+neighborhood was too exciting for them. More than ten days of hard
+work--no one can tell how hard until after watching a gnatcatcher
+build--had been spent in vain on this nest; and if, as suspected, this
+was their second, how much more work did that mean? It was a marvel that
+the birds could get courage to start in again, especially if they had
+had two homes broken up already.
+
+From my position at the big oak I could see that the gnats were carrying
+the frame of the old house to a small oak in the brush. The wood pewee
+had moved too, and to my surprise and pleasure I found it had begun its
+nest on a branch under the gnats, so that both families could be watched
+at the same time. I nearly got brushed off the saddle promenading
+through the stiff chaparral to find a place where the nests could be
+seen from the ground; but when at last successful, I too, like the rest
+of the old oak's floating population, moved to pastures new. Hanging my
+chair on the saddle, I made Billy carry it for me; then I buckled the
+reins around the trunk of the oak and withdrew into the brush to watch
+my birds. It was a cozy little nook, from which Billy could be heard
+stamping his feet to shake off the flies. The little crack in the
+chaparral was a pleasant place to sit in, protected as it was from the
+wind, with the sun only coming in enough to touch up the brown leaves on
+the ground and warm the fragrant sage, bringing out its delicious spicy
+aromatic smell.
+
+The pewee did not altogether relish having us established under its vine
+and fig-tree. When it saw Billy under the tree it whistled, and the bit
+of grass it had brought for its nest went sailing down to the brush
+disregarded. It did not think us as bad as the blue jay, however, for it
+came back with a long stem of grass in its bill, and, lighting on a high
+branch, called _pee-ree_. To be sure, when it had gone to the nest and I
+was inconsiderate enough to turn a page in my note-book, it dashed off.
+But if murder will out, so will good intentions; and before long the
+timid bird was brooding its nest with Billy and me for spectators.
+
+The gnat's nest here was so much lower than the other one that it was
+much easier to watch. The first day the birds built rapidly. One of them
+got his spider's web from beside the pewee's nest, when the pewee was
+away. He started to go for it once after the owner had returned, caught
+sight of him, stopped short, and much to my amusement concluded to sit
+down and preen his feathers! The pewee had one special bare twig of his
+own that he used for a perch, and when the gnat seated himself there in
+his neighbor's absence he looked so small that I realized what a mite of
+a bird he really was. He sometimes sat there and talked while his mate
+moulded the nest.
+
+When the gnats got to brooding, many of the same pretty performances
+were repeated that had marked the first nest of all, up in the sand
+ditch. When the bird on the nest hopped out and called, "Come, come,"
+its mate, who had been wandering around in the sunny green treetop,
+called out in sweet tones, "Good-by, good-by."
+
+When waiting for the gnats to do something, I heard a little sound in
+the oak brush by my side, and, looking through the brown branches, saw a
+wren-tit come hopping toward me. It came up within three feet of me,
+near enough to see its bright yellow eyes. I began to wonder if it had a
+nest near by, and felt my prejudices melting away and my heart growing
+tender. Some thieves are very honest fellows; it is largely a difference
+in ethical standards! I began to feel a keen interest in the bird and
+its affairs, for the wren-tit was really a most original bird, and one I
+was especially anxious to study.
+
+My newly awakened interest was not chilled by any second tragedy; all
+went well with the little blue-grays. The day the gnat's eggs hatched,
+the old folks performed most ludicrously. Perhaps they were young
+parents, and this being their first brood, maternal and paternal love
+had not yet blinded their eyes to the ridiculous; so that they looked
+down on these skinny, squirming, big-eyeballed prodigies with mingled
+emotions. It looked very much as if they were surprised to find that
+their smooth pretty eggs had suddenly turned into these ugly, weak,
+hungry things they did not know what to do with. At first it seemed that
+something must be wrong at the nest; the little gnat shook her wings and
+tail beside it as if afraid of soiling herself; and when she hopped into
+it, jerked out again and flitted around distractedly. Every time the
+birds looked into the nest they got so excited that, had they been
+girls, they surely would have hopped up and down wringing their hands. I
+laughed right out alone in the brush, they acted so absurdly.
+
+They began feeding the nestlings in the most remarkable way I had ever
+witnessed. When the young mother was on the nest her mate came and
+brought her the food, whereupon, instead of jumping off the nest and
+feeding the young in the conventional way, she simply raised up on her
+feet and, apparently, poked the food backwards into the bills of the
+young under her breast! Even when the gnats got to feeding more in the
+ordinary way, they did it nervously. They fed as if expecting the young
+to bite them. They would fly up on the branch beside the nest, give a
+jab down at the youngsters, whip tails and flee. You would have thought
+the young parents had been playing house before, and their dolls had
+suddenly turned into live hungry nestlings.
+
+I watched this family till the house was deserted, and I had to ride
+along a line of brush before finding them. The young were now pretty
+silvery-breasted creatures who sat up in a small oak while the old birds
+hunted through the brush for food for them. Though I rode Billy into the
+chaparral after them, and got near enough to see the black line over the
+bill of the father bird, they did not mind, but hunted away quite
+unconcernedly; for we had been through many things together, and were
+now old and fast friends.
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+LITTLE PRISONERS IN THE TOWER.
+
+
+I HAD not spent many days in The Little Lover's door-yard before
+realizing that there was something in the wind. If an inoffensive person
+fancies sitting in the shade of a sycamore with her horse grazing
+quietly beside her, who should say her nay? If, at her approach,
+a--feathered--person steals away to the top of the highest, most distant
+oak within sight and, silent and motionless, keeps his eye on her till
+she departs; if, as she innocently glances up at the trees, she
+discovers a second--feathered--person's head extended cautiously from
+behind a trunk, its eyes fixed on hers; or if, as she passes along
+a--sycamore--street, a person comes to a window and cranes his neck to
+look at her, and instantly leaves the premises; then surely, as the
+world wags, she is quite justified in having a mind of her own in the
+matter. Still more, when it comes to finding chips under a window--who
+could do aught but infer that a carpenter lived within? Not I. And so it
+came about that I discovered that one of the apartments in the back of
+the wren sycamore had been rented by a pair of well-meaning but
+suspicious California woodpeckers, first cousins of the eastern
+red-heads.
+
+[Illustration: California Woodpecker.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+[Illustration: Red-headed Woodpecker--Eastern.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+It is unpleasant to be treated as if you needed detectives on your
+track. It strains your faith in human nature; the rest of the world must
+be very wicked if people suspect such extremely good creatures as you
+are! And then it reflects on the detectives; it shows them so lacking in
+discernment. Nevertheless, "A friend should bear his friend's
+infirmities," and I was determined to be friends with the woodpeckers.
+One of them kept me waiting an hour one morning. When I first saw it, it
+was on its tree trunk, but when it first saw me, it promptly left for
+parts unknown. I stopped at a respectful distance from its tree--several
+rods away--and threw myself down on the warm sand in the bed of the dry
+stream, between high hedges of exquisite lemon-colored mustard. Patient
+waiting is no loss, observers must remember if they would be consoled
+for their lost hours. In this case I waited till I felt like a
+lotus-eater who could have stayed on forever. A dove brooded her eggs on
+a branch of the spreading sycamore whose arms were outstretched
+protectingly above me; the sun rested full on its broad leaves, and bees
+droned around the fragrant mustard, whose exquisite golden flowers waved
+gently against a background of soft blue California sky.
+
+But that was not the last day I had to wait. It was over a month before
+the birds put any trust in me. The nest hole was excavated before the
+middle of May; on June 15 I wrote in my note-book, "The woodpecker has
+gotten so that when I go by she puts her head out of the window, and
+when I speak to her does not fly away, but cocks her head and looks down
+at me."[3] That same morning the bird actually entered the nest in my
+presence. She came back to her sycamore while I was watching the wrens,
+and flew right up to the mouth of the nest. She was a little nervous.
+She poked in her bill, drew it back; put in her head, drew that back;
+then swung her body partly in; but finally the tip of her tail
+disappeared down the hole.
+
+The next morning, in riding by, I heard weak voices from the woodpecker
+mansion. If young were to be fed, I must be on hand. Such luxurious
+observing! Riding Mountain Billy out into the meadow, I dismounted, and
+settled myself comfortably against a haycock with the bridle over my
+arm. It was a beautiful quiet morning. The night fog had melted back and
+the mountains stood out in relief against a sky of pure deep blue. The
+line of sycamores opposite us were green and still against the blue; the
+morning sun lighting their white trunks and framework. The songs of
+birds filled the air, and the straw-colored field dotted with haycocks
+lay sunning under the quiet sky. In the East we are accustomed to speak
+of "the peace of evening," but in southern California in spring there is
+a peculiar interval of warmth and rest, a langorous pause in the growth
+of the morning, between the disappearance of the night fog and the
+coming of the cool trade wind, when the southern sun shines full into
+the little valleys and the peace of the morning is so deep and serene
+that the labor of the day seems done. Nature appears to be slumbering.
+She is aroused slowly and gently by the soft breaths that come in from
+the Pacific. On this day I watched the awakening. Up to this time not a
+grass blade had stirred, but while I dreamed a brown leaf went whirling
+to the ground, the stray stalks of oats left from the mowing began to
+nod, and the sycamore branches commenced to sway. Then the breeze
+swelled stronger, coming cool and fresh from the ocean; the yellow
+primroses, around which the hummingbirds whirred, bowed on their stately
+stalks, and I could hear the wind in the moving treetops.
+
+Mountain Billy grazed near me till it occurred to him that stubble was
+unsatisfactory, when he betook him to my haycock. Though I lectured him
+upon the rights of property and enforced my sermon with the point of the
+parasol, he was soon back again, with the amused look of a naughty boy
+who cannot believe in the severity of his monitor; and later, I regret
+to state, when I was engrossed with the woodpeckers, a sound of munching
+arose from behind my back.
+
+The woodpeckers talked and acted very much like their cousins, the
+red-heads of the East. When they went to the nest they called
+_chuck'-ah_ as if to wake the young, flying away with the familiar
+rattling _kit-er'r'r'r'_. They flew nearly half a mile to their regular
+feeding ground, and did not come to the nest as often as the wrens when
+bringing up their brood. Perhaps they got more at a time, filling their
+crops and feeding by regurgitation, as I have seen waxwings do when
+having a long distance to go for food.
+
+I first heard the voices of the young on June 16; nearly three weeks
+later, July 6, the birds were still in the nest. On that morning, when
+I went out to mount Billy, I was shocked to find the body of one of the
+old woodpeckers on the saddle. I thought it had been shot, but found it
+had been picked up in the prune orchard. That afternoon its mate was
+brought in from the same place. Probably both birds had eaten poisoned
+raisins left out for the gophers. The dead birds were thrown out under
+the orange-trees near the house, and not many hours afterward, when I
+looked out of the window, two turkey vultures were sitting on the
+ground, one of them with a pathetic little black wing in his bill. The
+great black birds seemed horrible to me,--ugly, revolting creatures. I
+went outside to see what they would do, and after craning their long red
+necks at me and stalking around nervously a few moments they flew off.
+
+Now what would become of the small birds imprisoned in the tree trunk,
+with no one to bring them food, no one to show them how to get out, or,
+if they were out, to feed them till they had learned how to care for
+themselves? Sad and anxious, I rode down to the sycamore. I rapped on
+its trunk, calling _chuck'-ah_ as much like the old birds as possible.
+There was an instant answer from a strong rattling voice and a weak
+piping one. The weak voice frightened me. If that little bird's life
+were to be saved, it was time to be about it. The ranchman's son was
+pruning the vineyard, and I rode over to get him to come and see how we
+could rescue the little prisoners.
+
+On our way to the tree we came on a gopher snake four feet long. It was
+so near the color of the soil that I would have passed it by, but the
+boy discovered it. The creature lay so still he thought it was dead; but
+as we stood looking, it puffed itself up with a big breath, darted out
+its tongue, and began to move off. I watched to see how it made the
+straight track we so often saw in the dust of the roads. It bent its
+neck into a scallop for a purchase, while its tapering tail made an S,
+to furnish slack; and then it pulled the main length of its body along
+straight. It crawled noiselessly right to the foot of the woodpecker
+tree, but was only hunting for a hole to hide in. It got part way down
+one hole, found that it was too small, and had to come backing out
+again. It followed the sand bed, taking my regular beat, from tree to
+tree! To be sure, gopher snakes are harmless, but they are suggestive,
+and you would rather their ways were not your ways.
+
+Although the little prisoners welcomed us as rescuers should be
+welcomed, they did it by mistake. They thought we were their parents. At
+the first blow of the axe their voices hushed, and not a sound came from
+them again. It seemed as if we never should get the birds out.
+
+It looked easy enough, but it wasn't. The nest was about twelve feet
+above the ground. The sycamore was so big the boy could not reach around
+it, and so smooth and slippery he could not get up it, though he had
+always been a good climber. He clambered up a drooping branch on the
+back of the tree,--the nest was in front,--but could not swing himself
+around when he got up. Then he tried the hollow burned at the foot of
+the tree. The charred wood crumbled beneath his feet, but at last, by
+stretching up and clinging to a knothole, he managed to reach the nest.
+
+As his fingers went down the hole, the young birds grabbed them,
+probably mistaking them for their parents' bills. "Their throats seem
+hot," the boy exclaimed; "poor hungry little things!" His fingers would
+go through the nest hole, but not his knuckles, and the knothole where
+he steadied himself was too slippery to stand on while he enlarged the
+hole. It was getting late, and as he had his chores to do before dark I
+suggested that we feed the birds and leave them in the tree till
+morning; but the rescuer exclaimed resolutely, "We'll get them out
+to-night!" and hurried off to the ranch-house for a step-ladder and axe.
+
+The ladder did not reach up to the first knothole, four or five feet
+below the nest; but the boy cut a notch in the top of the knot and stood
+in it, practically on one foot, and held on to a small branch with his
+right hand--the first limb he trusted to broke off as he caught
+it--while with the left hand he hacked away at the nest hole. It was a
+ticklish position and genuine work, for the wood was hard and the
+hatchet dull.
+
+I stood below holding the carving-knife,--we hadn't many tools on the
+ranch,--and as the boy worked he entertained me with an account of an
+accident that happened years before, when his brother had chopped off a
+branch and the axe head had glanced off, striking the head of the boy
+who was watching below. I stood from under as he finished his story, and
+inquired with interest if he were sure his axe head was tight! Before
+the lad had made much impression on the hard sycamore, he got so tired
+and looked so white around the mouth that I insisted on his getting down
+to rest, and tried to divert him by calling his attention to the sunset
+and the voices of the quail calling from the vineyard. When he went up
+again I handed him the carving-knife to slice off the thinner wood on
+the edge of the nest hole, warning him not to cut off the heads of the
+young birds.
+
+At last the hole was big enough, and, sticking the hatchet and knife
+into the bark, the lad threw one arm around the trunk to hold on while
+he thrust his hand down into the nest. "My, what a deep hole!" he
+exclaimed. "I don't know as I can reach them now. They've gone to the
+bottom, they're so afraid." Nearly a foot down he had to squeeze, but at
+last got hold of one bird and brought it out. "Drop him down," I cried,
+"I'll catch him," and held up my hands. The little bird came fluttering
+through the air. The second bird clung frightened to the boy's coat,
+but he loosened its claws and dropped it down to me. What would the
+poor old mother woodpecker have thought had she seen these first flights
+of her nestlings!
+
+I hurried the little scared brothers under my jacket, my best substitute
+for a hollow tree, and called _chuck'-ah_ to them in the most
+woodpecker-like tones I could muster. Then the boy shouldered the
+ladder, and I took the carving-knife, and we trudged home triumphant; we
+had rescued the little prisoners from the tower!
+
+When we had taken them into the house the woodpeckers called out, and
+the cats looked up so savagely that I asked the boy to take the birds
+home to his sister to keep till they were able to care for themselves.
+On examining them I understood what the difference in their voices had
+meant. One of them poked his head out of the opening in my jacket where
+he was riding, while the other kept hidden away in the dark; and when
+they were put into my cap for the boy to carry home, the one with the
+weak voice disclosed a whitish bill--a bad sign with a bird--and its
+feeble head bent under it so weakly that I was afraid it would die.
+
+Three days later, when I went up to the lad's house, it was to be
+greeted by loud cries from the little birds. Though they were in a box
+with a towel over it, they heard all that was going on. Their voices
+were as sharp as their ears, and they screamed at me so imperatively
+that I hurried out to the kitchen and rummaged through the cupboards
+till I found some food for them. They opened their bills and gulped it
+down as if starving, although their guardian told me afterwards that she
+had fed them two or three hours before.
+
+When held up where the air could blow on them, they grew excited; and
+one of them flew down to the floor and hid away in a dark closet,
+sitting there as contentedly as if it reminded him of his tree trunk
+home.
+
+I took the two brothers out into the sitting-room and kept them on my
+lap for some time, watching their interesting ways. The weak one I
+dubbed Jacob, which is the name the people of the valley had given the
+woodpeckers from the sound of their cries; the stronger bird I called
+Bairdi, as 'short' for _Melanerpes formicivorus bairdi_--the name the
+ornithologists had given them.
+
+Jacob and Bairdi each had ways of his own. When offered a palm, Bairdi,
+who was quite like 'folks,' was content to sit in it; but Jacob hung
+with his claws clasping a little finger as a true woodpecker should; he
+took the same pose when he sat for his picture. Bairdi often perched in
+my hand, with his bill pointing to the ceiling, probably from his old
+habit of looking up at the door of his nest. Sometimes when Bairdi sat
+in my hand, Jacob would swing himself up from my little finger, coming
+bill to bill with his brother, when the small bird would open his mouth
+as he used to for his mother to feed him. Poor little orphans, they
+could not get used to their changed conditions!
+
+They did other droll things just as their fathers had done before them.
+They used to screw their heads around owl fashion, a very convenient
+thing for wild birds who cling to tree trunks and yet need to know what
+is going on behind their backs. Once, on hearing a sudden noise, one of
+them ducked low and drew his head in between his shoulders in such a
+comical way we all laughed at him.
+
+I often went up to the ranch to visit them. We would take them out under
+a big spreading oak beside the house, where the little girl's mother sat
+with her sewing, and then watch the birds as we talked. When we put them
+on the tree trunk, at first they did not know what to do, but soon they
+scrambled up on the branches so fast their guardian had to climb up
+after them for fear they would get away. Poor little Jacob climbed as if
+afraid of falling off, taking short hops up the side of the tree,
+bending his stiff tail at a sharp angle under him to brace himself
+against the bark. Bairdi, his strong brother, was less nervous, and
+found courage to catch ants on the bark. Jacob did a pretty thing one
+day. When put on the oak, he crept into a crack of the bark and lay
+there fluffed up against its sides with the sun slanting across,
+lighting up his pretty red cap. He looked so contented and happy it was
+a pleasure to watch him. Another time he started to climb up on top of
+my head and, I dare say, was surprised and disappointed when what he had
+taken for a tree trunk came to an untimely end. When we put the brothers
+on the grass, one of them went over the ground with long hops, while the
+other hid under the rocking-chair. One bird seemed possessed to sit on
+the white apron worn by the little girl's mother, flying over to it from
+my lap, again and again.
+
+The woodpeckers had brought from the nest a liking for dark, protected
+places. Bairdi twice clambered up my hair and hung close under the brim
+of my black straw hat. Another time he climbed up my dress to my black
+tie and, fastening his claws in the silk, clung with his head in the
+dark folds as if he liked the shade. I covered the pretty pet with my
+hand and he seemed to enjoy it. When I first looked down at him his eyes
+were open, though he kept very still; but soon his head dropped on my
+breast and he went fast asleep, and would have had a good nap if Jacob
+had not called and waked him up.
+
+Jacob improved so much after the first few days--and some doses of red
+pepper--that we had to look twice to tell him from his sturdy brother.
+He certainly ate enough to make him grow. The birds liked best to be
+fed with a spoon; probably it seemed more like a bill. After a little,
+they learned to peck at their food, a sign I hailed eagerly as
+indicative of future self-support; for with appetites of day laborers
+and no one to supply their wants, they would have suffered sorely, poor
+little orphans! Sometimes, when they had satisfied their first hunger,
+they would shake the bread from their bills as if they didn't like it
+and wanted food they were used to.
+
+[Illustration: JACOB AND BAIRDI VISITING THE OLD NEST TREE]
+
+When one got hungry he would call out, and then his brother would begin
+to shout. The little tots gave a crooning gentle note when caressed, and
+a soft cry when they snuggled down in our hands or cuddled up to us as
+they had done under their mother's wing. Their call for food was a
+sibilant chirr, and they gave it much oftener than any of the grown-up
+woodpecker notes. But they also said _chuck'-ah_ and rattled like the
+old birds.
+
+I was glad there were two of them so they would not be so lonely. If
+separated they showed their interest in each other. If Bairdi called,
+Jacob would keep still and listen attentively, raising his topknot till
+every microscopic red feather stood up like a bristle, when he would
+answer Bairdi in a loud manly voice.
+
+It was amusing to see the small birds try to plume themselves. Sometimes
+they would take a sudden start to make their toilettes, and both work
+away vigorously upon their plumes. It was comical to see them try to
+find their oil glands. Had the old birds taught them how to oil their
+feathers while they were still in the nest? They were thickly feathered,
+but when they reached back to their tails the pink skin showed between
+their spines and shoulders, giving a good idea of the way birds'
+feathers grow only in tracts.
+
+When the little princes were about a month old, I arranged with a
+neighboring photographer to have them sit for their picture. He drove
+over to the sycamore, and the lad who had rescued the prisoners took
+them down to keep their appointment. One of them tried to tuck its head
+up the boy's sleeve, being attracted by dark holes. While we were
+waiting for the photographer, the boy put Jacob in a hollow of the tree,
+where he began pecking as if he liked it. He worked away till he
+squeezed himself into a small pocket, and then, with his feathers
+ruffled up, sat there, the picture of content. Indeed, the little fellow
+looked more at home than I had ever seen him anywhere. The rescuer was
+itching to put the little princes back in their hole, to see what they
+would do, but I wouldn't listen to it, being thankful to have gotten
+them out once.
+
+When Bairdi was on the bark and Jacob was put below him, he turned his
+head, raised his red cap, and looked down at his brother in a very
+winning way.
+
+Soon the photographer came, and asked, "Are these the little chaps that
+try to swallow your fingers?" We were afraid they would not sit still
+enough to get good likenesses, but we had taken the precaution to give
+them a hearty breakfast just before starting, and they were too sleepy
+to move much. In the picture, Jacob is clinging to the boy's hand in his
+favorite way, and Bairdi is on the tree trunk.
+
+Mountain Billy pricked up his ears when he discovered the woodpeckers
+down at the sycamore, but he often saw them up at the ranch and took me
+to make a farewell call on them before I left for the East. We found the
+birds perched on the tobacco-tree in front of the ranch-house, with a
+tall step-ladder beside it so the little girl could take them in at
+night. Their cup of bread and milk stood on the ladder, and when I
+called them they came over to be fed. They were both so strong and well
+that they would soon be able to care for themselves, as their fathers
+had done before them. And when they were ready to fly, they might have
+help; for an old woodpecker of their family--possibly an unknown
+uncle--had been seen watching them from the top of a neighboring oak,
+and may have been just waiting to adopt the little orphans. In any case,
+however they were to start out in the world, it was a great satisfaction
+to have rescued them from their prison tower.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[3] The difference in the dress of the woodpeckers is so slight that the
+sexes were not distinguished at this nest.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+HINTS BY THE WAY.
+
+
+ON our way back and forth along the line of oaks and sycamores belonging
+to the little prisoners, the little lover, and the gnatcatchers,
+Mountain Billy and I got a good many hints, he of places to graze, and I
+of new nests to watch.
+
+While waiting for the woodpeckers one day I saw a small brownish bird
+flying busily back and forth to some green weeds. She was joined by her
+mate, a handsome blue lazuli bunting, even more beautiful than our
+lovely indigo bunting, and he flew beside her full of life and joy. He
+lit on the side of a cockle stem, and on the instant caught sight of me.
+Alas! he seemed suddenly turned to stone. He held onto that stalk as if
+his little legs had been bars of iron and I a devouring monster. When he
+had collected his wits enough to fly off, instead of the careless gay
+flight with which he had come out through the open air, he timidly kept
+low within the cockle field, making a circuitous way through the high
+stalks.
+
+He could be afraid of me if he liked, I thought,--for after a certain
+amount of suspicion an innocent person gets resentful; at any rate, I
+was going to see that nest. Creeping up cautiously when the mother bird
+was away, so as not to scare her, and carefully parting the mallows, I
+looked in. Yes, there it was, a beautiful little sage-green nest of old
+grass laid in a coil. I felt as pleased as if having a right to share
+the family happiness.
+
+After that I watched the small worker gather material with new interest,
+knowing where she was going to put it. She worked fast, but did not take
+the first thing she found, by any means. With a flit of the wing she
+went in nervous haste from cockle to cockle, looking eagerly about her.
+Jumping down to the ground, she picked up a bit of grass, threw it down
+dissatisfied, and turned away like a person looking for something. At
+last she lit on the side of a thistle, and tweaking out a fibre flew
+with it to the nest.
+
+When the house was done, one morning in passing I leaned down from the
+saddle, and through the weeds saw her brown wings as she sat on the
+nest. A month after the first encounter with the father lazuli, I found
+him looking at me around the corner of a cockle stalk, and in passing
+back again caught him singing full tilt, though his bill was full of
+insects! After we had turned our backs, I looked over my shoulder and
+had the satisfaction of seeing him take his beakful to the nest. You
+couldn't help admiring him, for though not a warrior who would snap his
+bill over the head of an enemy of his home, he had a gallant holiday air
+with his blue coat and merry song, and you felt sure his little brown
+mate would get cheer and courage enough from his presence to make family
+dangers appear less frightful. Even this casual acquaintance with the
+little pair gave me a new and tender interest in all of their name I
+might know in future.
+
+While watching the lazulis from the sycamores, on looking up on a level
+with Billy's ears, I discovered a snug canopied nest held by a jointed
+branch of the twisted tree, as in the palm of your hand. It was as if
+the old sycamore were protecting the little brood, holding it secure
+from all dangers. Looking at the nest, I spied a brown tail resting
+against the limb, and then a small brown head was raised to look at me
+from between the leaves. It was the little bird whose sweet home-like
+song had so cheered my heart in this far-away land, the home song
+sparrow, dearer than all the birds of California. It was such a pleasure
+to find her that I sat in the saddle and talked to the pretty bird while
+she brooded her eggs under the green leaves.
+
+The next time we went down to the sycamore the bird was away, and it
+seemed as if the tree had been deserted. It was empty and uninteresting.
+Again I came, and this time the father song sparrow sang blithely in
+the old tree, while his gentle mate went about looking for food for her
+brood. Her little birds had come! How happy and full of business she
+seemed! She ran nimbly over the ground, weaving in and out between the
+stalks of the oats and the yellow mustard, as if there were paths in her
+forest. When she had to run across the sand bed, out in open sight, she
+put up her tail, held her wings tight at her sides, and scudded across.
+Then with the sunlight through the leaves dappling her back, she ran
+around the foot of the sycamore. She had something in her bill, and with
+a happy chirp was off to her brood.
+
+There was another family abroad on our beat. When riding past the little
+lover's, I heard voices of young birds beyond, and rode out to the oak
+in the middle of the field from which they came, to see who it was. It
+was a surprise to find a family of full-fledged blue jays--a surprise,
+because the jays had been terrorizing the small birds of the
+neighborhood till it seemed strange to think they had any family life
+themselves. I had come to feel that they were great hobgoblins going
+about seeking whom they could devour; but such harsh judgments are
+usually false, whether of birds or beasts, and I was convinced against
+my will on hearing the tender tone in which the old jays called to their
+young.
+
+To be sure, they were imperative in their commands. As I rode, around
+the tree, one of them looked at me sharply and proceeded to take
+measures to protect his brood. When one of the children told me where he
+was, his parent promptly flew over and shouted in his ear, "Be quiet!"
+with such a ring of command that an unbroken hush followed. Moreover,
+when one child, probably a greedy one, teased for food, its parent ran
+down the branch to drive it off; and in some way best known to
+themselves the old birds hushed up the boisterous young ones and
+spirited them out of my sight. But all these things were in line with
+good family government and the best interests of the children, and were
+more than atoned for by the soft gentle notes the old birds used when
+they were leading around their cherished brood out of harm's way.
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+AROUND OUR RANCH-HOUSE.
+
+
+CLOSE up under the hills, the old vine-covered ranch-house stood within
+a circle of great spreading live oaks. The trees were full of noisy,
+active blackbirds--Brewer's blackbirds, relatives of the rusty that we
+know in New York. The ranchman told me that they always came up the
+valley from the vineyard to begin gathering straws for their nests on
+his brother's birthday, the twenty-fifth of March. After that time it
+was well for passers below to beware. If an unwary cat, or even a hen or
+turkey gobbler, chanced under the blackbirds' tree, half a dozen birds
+would dive down at it, screaming and scolding till the intruders beat an
+humble retreat. But the blackbirds were not always the aggressors. I
+heard a great outcry from them one day, and ran out to find them
+collecting at the tree in front of the house. A moment later a hawk flew
+off with a young nestling, and was followed by an angry black mob.
+
+One pair of the blackbirds nested in the oak by the side of the house,
+over the hammock. Though making themselves so perfectly at home on the
+premises, driving off the ranchman's cats and gobblers, and drinking
+from his watering-trough, if they were taken at close quarters, with
+young in their nests, the noisy birds were astonishingly timid. One
+could hardly understand it in them.
+
+One afternoon I sat down under the tree to watch them. Mountain Billy
+rested his bridle on my knee, and the ranchman's dog came out to join
+us; but the mother blackbird, though she came with food in her bill and
+started to walk down the branch over our heads, stopped short of the
+nest when her eye fell on us. She shook her tail and called _chack_, and
+her mate, who sat near, opened wide his bill and whistled _chee_. The
+small birds were hungry and grew impatient, seeing no cause for delay,
+so raised their three fuzzy heads above the edge of the nest and sent
+imperative calls out of their three empty throats. As the parents did
+not answer the summons, the young dozed off again, but when the old ones
+did get courage to light near the nest there was such a rousing chorus
+that they flew off alarmed for the safety of their clamorous brood.
+After that outbreak, it seemed as if the mother bird would never go back
+to her children; but finally she came to the tree and, after edging
+along falteringly, lit on a branch above them. The instant she touched
+foot, however, she was seized with nervous qualms and turned round and
+round, spreading her tail fan-fashion, as if distracted.
+
+To my surprise, it was the father bird who first went to the nest,
+though he had the wit to go to it from the outside of the tree, where he
+was less exposed to my dangerous glance. I wondered whether it was
+mother love that kept her from the nest when he ventured, or merely a
+case of masculine common-sense versus nerves. How birds could imagine
+more harm would be done by going to the nest than by making such a fuss
+five feet away from it was a poser to me. Perhaps they attribute the
+same intelligence to us that some of us do to them!
+
+While the blackbirds were making such a time over our heads, I watched
+the hummingbirds buzzing around the petunias and pink roses under the
+ranch-house windows, and darting off to flutter about the tubular
+flowers of the tobacco-tree by the well. One day the small boy of the
+family climbed up to the hummingbird's nest in the oak "to see if there
+were eggs yet," and the frightened brood popped out before his eyes. His
+sister caught one of them and brought it into the house. When she held
+it up by the open door the tiny creature spread its little wings and
+flew out into the vines over the window. The child was so afraid its
+mother would not find it she carried it back to its oak and watched till
+the mother came with food. The hummers were about the flowers in front
+of the windows so much that when the front door was left open they often
+came into the room.
+
+In an oak behind the barn I found a hummingbird's nest, and, yielding to
+temptation, took out the eggs to look at them. In putting them back one
+slipped and dropped on the hard ground, cracking the delicate pink shell
+as it fell. The egg was nearly ready to hatch, and I felt as guilty as
+if having killed a hummingbird.
+
+[Illustration: Arizona Hooded Oriole.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+[Illustration: Baltimore Oriole--Eastern.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+When in the hammock under the oak one day, I saw a pair of the
+odd-looking Arizona hooded orioles busily going and coming to a drooping
+branch on the edge of the tree. They had a great deal to talk about as
+they went and came, and when they had gone I found, to my great
+satisfaction, that they had begun a nest. They often use the gray
+Spanish moss, but here had found a good substitute in the orange-colored
+parasitic vine of the meadows known among the people of the valley as
+the 'love-vine' (dodder). The whole pocket was composed of it, making a
+very gaudy nest.
+
+Linnets nested in the same old tree. Indeed, it is hard to say where
+these pretty rosy house finches, cousins of our purple finches, would
+not take it into their heads to build. They nested over the front door,
+in the vines over the windows, in the oaks and about the outbuildings,
+and their happy musical songs rang around the ranch-house from morning
+till night. As I listened to their merry roundelay day after day during
+that beautiful California spring, it sounded to me as though they said,
+"_How-pretty-it-is'-out, how-pretty-it-is'-out, how-pretty-it-is'!_" The
+linnets are ardent little wooers, singing and dancing before the
+indifferent birds they would win for their mates. I once saw a rosy
+lover throw back his pretty head and hop about before his brown lady
+till she was out of patience and turned her back on him. When that had
+no effect, she opened her bill, spread her wings, and leaned toward him
+as if saying, "If you don't stop your nonsense, I'll----" But the fond
+linnets' gallantry and tenderness are not all spent in the wooing. When
+the mother bird was brooding her nest over our front door, her
+crimson-throated mate stood on the peak of the ridgepole above and sang
+blithely to her, turning his head and looking down every little while to
+make sure that she was listening to his pretty prattle.
+
+One of the birds that nested in the trees by the ranch-house was the
+bee-bird, who was soft gray above and delicate yellow below, instead of
+dark gray above and shining white below, like his eastern relative, the
+kingbird. The birds used to perch on the bare oak limbs, flycatching. It
+was interesting to watch them. They would fly obliquely into the air and
+then turn, with bills bristling with insects, and sail down on
+outstretched wings, their square tails set so that the white outer
+feathers showed to as good advantage as the white border of the
+kingbird's does in similar flights. They made a bulky untidy nest in the
+oaks by the barn, using a quantity of string borrowed from the ranchman.
+Their voices were high-keyed and shrill with an impatient emphasis, and
+at a distance suggested the shrill yelping of the coyote. _Kee'-ah,
+kee-kee' kee'-ah_, they would cry. The wolves were so often heard around
+the ranch-house that in the early morning I have sometimes mistaken the
+birds for them.
+
+One of the favorite hunting-grounds of the bee-birds was the orchard,
+where they must have done a great deal of good destroying insects. They
+were quarrelsome birds, and were often seen falling through the air
+fighting vigorously. I saw one chase a sparrow hawk and press it so hard
+that the hawk cried out lustily. The ranchman's son told me of one
+bee-bird who defended his nest with his life. Two crows lit in a tree
+where the flycatcher had a nest containing eggs. The crows had
+difficulty in getting to the tree to begin with, for the bee-birds
+fought them off; and though they lighted, were soon dislodged and chased
+down the vineyard. The man was at work there, and as the procession
+passed over his head the bee-bird dove at the crow; the crow struck back
+at him, crushing his skull, and the flycatcher dropped through the air,
+dead! The other bee-bird followed its dead mate to the ground, and then,
+without a cry, flew to a tree and let the crows go on their way.
+
+The bee-bird was one of the noisiest birds about the ranch-house, but
+commoner than he; in fact, the most abundant bird, next to the linnet
+and blackbird, was the California chewink, or, as the ranchman
+appropriately called him, the 'brown chippie;' for he does not look like
+the handsome chewink we know, but is a fat, dun brown bird with a thin
+_chip_ that he utters on all occasions. He is about the size of the
+eastern robin, and, except when nesting, almost as familiar. There were
+brown chippies in the door-yard, brown chippies around the barns, and
+brown chippies in the brush till one got tired of the sight of them.
+
+The temptations that come to conscientious observers are common to
+humanity, and one of the subtlest is to undervalue what is at hand and
+overvalue the rare or distant. Unless a bird is peculiarly interesting,
+it requires a definite effort to sit down and study him in your own
+dooryard, or where he is so common as to be an every-day matter. The
+chippies were always sitting around, scratching, or picking up seeds; or
+else quarreling among themselves. Feeling that it was my duty to watch
+them, I reasoned with myself, but they seemed so mortally dull and
+uninteresting it was hard work to give up any time to them. When they
+went to nesting, their wild instincts asserted themselves, and they hid
+away so closely I was never sure of but one of their nests, and that
+only by most cautious watching. Then for the first time they became
+interesting! To my surprise, one day I heard a brown chippie lift up his
+voice and sing. It was in a sunny grove of oaks, and though his song was
+a queer squeaky warble, it had in it a good deal of sweetness and
+contentment; for the bird seemed to find life very pleasant. The
+ranchman's son told me that up in the canyons at dusk he had sometimes
+heard towhee concerts, the birds answering each other from different
+parts of the canyon.
+
+[Illustration: California Chewink.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+[Illustration: Eastern Chewink.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+There was a nest in the chaparral which probably belonged to these
+chewinks. It was in a mass of poison ivy that had climbed up on a
+scrub-oak. I spent the best part of a morning waiting for the birds to
+give in their evidence. Brown sentinels were posted on high bare brush
+tops, where they chipped at me, and once a brown form flew swiftly away
+from the nest bush; but like most people whose conversation is limited
+to monosyllables, the towhees are good at keeping a secret. While
+watching for them, I heard a noise that suggested angry cats spitting at
+each other; and three jack-rabbits came racing down the
+chaparral-covered knoll. One of them shot off at a tangent while the
+other two trotted along the openings in the brush as if their trails
+were roads in a park. Then a cottontail rabbit came out on a spot of
+hard yellow earth encircled by bushes, and lying down on its side kicked
+up its heels and rolled like a horse; after which the pretty thing
+stretched itself full length on the ground to rest, showing a pink light
+in its ears. After a while it got up, scratched one ear, and with a kick
+of one little furry leg ran off in the brush. Another day, when I sat
+waiting, I saw a jack-rabbit's ears coming through the brush. He trotted
+up within a few feet, when he stopped, facing me with head and ears up;
+a noble-looking little animal, reminding me of a deer with antlers
+branching back. He stood looking at me, not knowing whether to be
+afraid or not, and turning one ear trumpet and then the other. But
+though smiling at him, I was a human being, there was no getting around
+that; and after a few undecided hops, this way and that, he ran off and
+disappeared in the brush. Near where he had been was a spot where a
+number of rabbit runways came to a centre, and around it the rabbit
+council had been sitting in a circle, their footprints proved.
+
+Brown chippies were not much commoner around the ranch-house than
+western house wrens were, but the big prosaic brown birds seemed much
+more commonplace. The wrens were strongly individual and winning
+wherever they were met. They nested in all sorts of odd nooks and
+corners about the buildings. One went so far as to take up its abode in
+the wire-screened refrigerator that stood outside the kitchen under an
+oak! Another pair stowed their nest away in an old nosebag hanging on a
+peg in the wine shed; while a third lived in one of the old grape crates
+piled up in the raisin shed.
+
+The crate nest was delightful to watch. The jolly little birds, with
+tails over their backs and wings hanging, would sing and work close
+beside me, only three or four feet away. They would look up at me with
+their frank fearless eyes and then squeeze down through their crack into
+the crate, and sit and scold inside it--such an amusing muffled little
+scold! The nest was so astonishingly large I was interested to measure
+it. Twigs were strewn loosely over one end of the box, covering a square
+nearly sixteen inches on a side. The compact high body of the nest
+measured eight by ten inches, and came so near the top of the crate that
+the birds could just creep in under the slats. Some of the twigs were
+ten inches long, regular broom handles in the bills of the short bobbing
+wrens. One of the birds once appeared with a twig as long as itself. It
+flew to the side of a beam with it, at sight of me, and stood there
+balancing the stick in its bill, in pretty fashion. Another time it flew
+to the peak of the shed to examine an old swallow's nest now occupied by
+linnets, and amused itself throwing down its neighbors' straws--the
+naughty little rogue!
+
+Such jolly songsters! They were fairly bubbling over with happiness all
+the time. They had an old stub in front of the shed that might well have
+been called the singing stub, for they kept it ringing with music when
+they were not running on inside the shed. They seemed to warble as
+easily as most birds breathe; in fact, song seemed a necessity to them.
+There was a high pole in front of the shed, and one day I found my
+ebullient little friend squatting on top to hold himself on while he
+sang out at the top of his lungs! Another time I came face to face with
+a pair when the songster was in the midst of his roundelay. He stopped
+short, bobbed nervously from side to side, and then, rising to his feet
+and putting his right foot forward with a pretty courageous gesture,
+took up his song again. When the pair were building in the crate, I
+stuck some white hen's feathers there, thinking they might like to use
+them. Mr. Troglodytes came first, and seeing them, instead of turning
+tail as I have known brave guardians of the nest to do, burst out
+singing, as if it were a huge joke. Then he hopped down on the rim of
+the box to scrutinize the plumes, after which he flew out. But he had to
+stop to sing atilt of an elder stem before he could go on to tell his
+spouse about them.
+
+One day, when riding back to the ranch, I saw half a dozen turkey
+buzzards soaring over the meadow--perhaps there was a dead jack-rabbit
+in the field. It was astonishing to see how soon the birds would
+discover small carrion from their great height. The ranchman never
+thought of burying anything, they were such good scavengers. A few hours
+after an animal was thrown out in the field the vultures would find it.
+They would stand on the body and pull it to pieces in the most revolting
+way. The ranchman told me he had seen them circle over a pair of
+fighting snakes, waiting to devour the one that was injured. They were
+grotesque birds. I often saw them walk with their wings held out at
+their sides as if cooling themselves, and the unbird-like attitude
+together with the horrid appearance of their red skinny heads made them
+seem more like harpies than before.
+
+They were most interesting at a distance. I once saw three of them
+standing like black images on a granite bowlder, on top of a hill
+overlooking the valley. After a moment they set out and went circling in
+the sky. Although they flew in a group, it seemed as if the individual
+birds respected one another's lines so as not to cover the same ground.
+Sometimes when soaring they seemed to rest on the air and let themselves
+be borne by the wind; for they wobbled from one side to the other like a
+cork on rough water.
+
+One of the most interesting birds of the valley is the road-runner or
+chaparral cock, a grayish brown bird who stands almost as high as a crow
+and has a tail as long as a magpie's. He is noted for his swiftness of
+foot. Sometimes, when we were driving over the hills, a road-runner
+would start out of the brush on a lonely part of the road and for quite
+a distance keep ahead of the horses, although they trotted freely along.
+When tired of running he would dash off into the brush, where he stopped
+himself by suddenly throwing his long tail over his back. A Texan, in
+talking of the bird, said, "It takes a right peart cur to catch one,"
+and added that when a road-runner is chased he will rise but once, for
+his main reliance is in his running, and he does not trust much to his
+short wings. The chaparral cocks nested in the cactus on our hills, and
+were said to live largely on lizards and horned toads.
+
+[Illustration: Valley Quail and Road-Runner.]
+
+It became evident that a pair of these singular birds had taken up
+quarters in the chaparral on the hillside back of the ranch-house, for
+one of them was often seen with the hens in the dooryard. One day I was
+talking to the ranchman when the road-runner appeared. He paid no
+attention to us, but went straight to the hen-house, apparently to get
+cocoons. Looking between the laths, I could see him at work. He flew up
+on the hen-roosts as if quite at home; he had been there before and knew
+the ways of the house. He even dashed into the peak of the roof and
+brought down the white cocoon balls dangling with cobweb. When he had
+finished his hunt he stood in the doorway, and a pair of blackbirds lit
+on the fence post over his head, looking down at him wonderingly. Was he
+a new kind of hen? He was almost as big as a bantam. They sat and looked
+at him, and he stood and stared at them till all three were satisfied,
+when the blackbirds flew off and the road-runner walked out by the
+kitchen to hunt among the buckets for food.
+
+These curious birds seem to be of an inquiring turn of mind, and
+sometimes their investigations end sadly. The windmills, which are a new
+thing in this dry land, naturally stimulate their curiosity. A small boy
+from the neighboring town--Escondido--told me that he had known four
+road-runners to get drowned in one tank; though he corrected himself
+afterwards by saying, "We fished out _one_ before he got drowned!"
+
+Another lad told me he had seen road-runners in the nesting season call
+for their mates on the hills. He had seen one stand on a bowlder fifteen
+feet high, and after strutting up and down the rock with his tail and
+wings hanging, stop to call, putting his bill down on the rock and going
+through contortions as if pumping out the sound. The lad thought his
+calls were answered from the brush below.
+
+In April the ranchman reported that he had seen dusky poor-wills,
+relatives of our whip-poor-wills, out flycatching on the road beyond the
+ranch-house after dark. He had seen as many as eight or nine at once,
+and they had let him come within three feet of them. Accordingly, one
+night right after tea I started out to see them. The poor-wills choose
+the most beautiful part of the twenty-four hours for their activity.
+When I went out, the sky above the dark wall of the valley was a quiet
+greenish yellow, and the rosy light was fading in the north at the head
+of the canyon. White masses of fog pushed in from the ocean. Then the
+constellations dawned and brightened till the evening star shone out in
+her full radiant beauty. Locusts and crickets droned; bats zigzagged
+overhead; and suddenly from the dusty road some black objects started
+up, fluttered low over the barley, and dropped back on the road again.
+At the same time came the call of the poor-will, which, close at hand,
+is a soft burring _poor-will, poor-wil'-low_. Two or three hours later
+I went out again. The full moon had risen, and shone down, transforming
+the landscape. The road was a narrow line between silvered fields of
+headed grain, and the granite bowlders gleamed white on the hills
+inclosing the sleeping valley. For a few moments the shrill barking of
+coyote wolves disturbed the stillness; then again the night became
+silent; peace rested upon the valley, and from far up the canyon came
+the faint, sad cry, _poor-wil'-low, poor-wil'-low_.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+POCKET MAKERS.
+
+
+THE bush-tits are cousins of the eastern chickadees, which is reason
+enough for liking them, although the California fruit growers have a
+more substantial reason in the way the birds eat the scale that injures
+the olive-trees. The bush-tits might be the little sisters of the
+chickadee family, they are so small. They look like gray balls with long
+tails attached, for they are plump fluffy tots, no bigger than your
+thumb, without their tails. One of them, when preoccupied, once came
+within three feet of where I stood. When he discovered me a comical look
+of surprise came into his yellow eyes and he went tilting off, for his
+long tail gave him a pitching flight as if he were about to go on his
+bill, a flight that reminds one of the tail that wagged the dog.
+
+[Illustration: Nest of the Bush-tit.]
+
+There were so many of the gray pocket nests in the oaks that it was hard
+to choose which to watch, but one of the most interesting hung from a
+branch of the big double oak of the gnatcatchers, above the ranch-house,
+where I could see it when sitting in the crotch of the tree. While
+watching it I looked beyond over the chaparral wall away to a dark
+purple peak standing against a sky flecked with sun-whitened clouds. The
+nest was like an oriole's, but nearly twice as long, though the builders
+were less than half the size of the orioles. Instead of being open at
+the top, it was roofed over, and the only entrance was a small round
+hole, the girth of the bird, about two inches under the roof.
+
+One might imagine that such big houses would be dark with only one small
+dormer window, and the valley children assured me that the birds hung
+living firefly lamps on their walls! I suggested that a Society for the
+Prevention of Cruelty to Fireflies would be needed if that were the
+case; but when it comes to that, what bird would choose to brood by
+gaslight?
+
+When I first saw the bush-tit in its round doorway, it suggested Jack
+Horner's famous plum, comical little ball of feathers! When first
+watching the nest the small pair put me on their list of enemies, along
+with small boys, blue jays, and owls. To go down into the pocket under
+my stare seemed a terrible thing. When one of them came with a bit of
+moss for lining, it started for the front door, saw me, stopped, and
+turned to go to the back of the nest. Then it tried to get up courage to
+approach the house from the side, got in a panic and dashed against the
+wall as if expecting a door would open for it. When at last it did make
+bold to dart into the nest it was struck with terror, and, whisking
+around, jabbed the moss into the outside wall and fled!
+
+Seeing that nothing awful happened, the birds finally took me off the
+black list and allowed me to oversee their work, as long as I gave no
+directions. Sometimes both little tots went down into the bag to work
+together; surely there was plenty of room for many such as they. But it
+is not always a matter of cubic inches, and one morning when the second
+bird was about to pop in, apparently it was advised to wait a minute.
+There was no ill feeling, though, for when the small builder came out it
+flew to the twig in front of the door, where its mate was waiting, and
+sat down beside it, a little Darby by his Joan.
+
+They worked busily. Sometimes they popped in only to pop out again; at
+other times they stayed inside as long as if they had been human
+housekeepers, hanging pictures, straightening chairs, and setting their
+bric-a-brac in order for the fortieth time; each change requiring mature
+deliberation.
+
+One morning--after the birds had been putting in lining long enough to
+have wadded half a dozen nests--if my judgment is of any value in such
+matters--I discovered that the roof was falling in; it was almost on top
+of the front door! The next day, to my dismay, the door had vanished.
+What was the trouble? Were the pretty pair young builders; was this
+their first nest, and had they paid more attention to decorating their
+house inside than to laying strong foundations; or had their pocket been
+too heavy for its frame?
+
+However it came about, the wise birds concluded that they would not
+waste time crying over spilt milk. They calmly went to work to tear the
+first nest to pieces and build a second one out of it. One of them
+tweaked out its board with such a jerk it sent the pocket swinging like
+a pendulum. But the next time it wisely planted its claw firmly to
+steady itself, while it cautiously pulled the material out with its
+bill.
+
+If the birds were inexperienced, they were bright enough to profit by
+experience. This time they hung their nest between the forks of a strong
+twig which had a cross twig to support the roof, so that the accident
+that had befallen them could not possibly occur again. They began work
+at the top, holding onto the twig with their claws and swinging
+themselves down inside to put in their material; and they moulded and
+shaped the pocket as they went along.
+
+After watching the progress of the new nest, I went to see what had
+become of the old one. It was on the ground. On taking it home and
+pulling it to pieces, I found that the wall was from half an inch to an
+inch thick, made of fine gray moss and oak blossoms. There was a thick
+wadding of feathers inside. I counted _three hundred_, and there were a
+great many more! The amount of hard labor this stood for amazed me. No
+wonder the nest pulled down, with a whole feather-bed inside! Why had
+they put it in? I asked some children, and one said, "To keep the eggs
+warm, I guess;" while the other suggested, "So the eggs wouldn't break."
+Most of the feathers were small, but there must have been several dozen
+chicken's feathers from two to three inches long. Among them was a plume
+of an owl.
+
+[Illustration: POCKET NEST IN AN OAK]
+
+Much to my surprise, in the bush-tit's nest there was a broken eggshell.
+Had the egg broken in falling, or had a snake been there? One of the
+boys of the valley told me about seeing a racer snake go into a
+bush-tit's pocket. The cries of the birds rallied several other pairs,
+and they all flew about in distress, though not one of them dared touch
+the dreadful tail that hung out of the nest hole. As the snake was about
+three feet long, the pocket bulged as it moved around inside. There were
+four nestlings about a quarter grown, and the relentless creature
+devoured them all. The boy waited below with a stick, and when it came
+out, killed it and shook it by the tail till the small birds popped out
+of its mouth. If my broken eggshell pointed to any such tragedy, it
+cleared the birds of the accusation of being poor builders.
+
+The nest, which the first day was a filmy spot in the leaves, by the
+next day had become a gray pocket over eight inches long, although I
+could still see daylight through it. In working, the birds flew to the
+top of the open bag and hopped down inside. I could see the pocket shake
+and bulge as they worked within. When they flew away to any distance,
+on their return they almost always came with their little call of
+_schrit, schrit_.
+
+This nest was so low that I used to throw myself on the sand beneath the
+tree to watch it, taking many a sunbath there, with hat drawn down till
+I could just see the nest in the pendent branches, and watch the
+changing mosaics made by the sky through the moving leaves. When resting
+on the sand the thought of rattlesnakes came to me, for the brush on
+either side was a shelter for them, and they might easily have crept up
+beside me without my hearing them.
+
+The second bush-tit's nest was shorter than the first one. Perhaps the
+builders thought the length had something to do with the fall of the
+first; or perhaps they didn't feel like collecting three hundred more
+feathers, with oak blossoms and moss to match. They first put the frame
+of the front door below the supporting cross twig, and then, as if they
+thought it needed more support, changed it and put the door above the
+twig, so that the roof could not possibly close the hole, even if it did
+fall in. The doorway was also made much larger than that of the first
+nest.
+
+After making away with the old nest, my conscience smote me. Perhaps the
+little pocket makers were not through with it, even if it was on the
+ground; so I brought a piece of it back and tied it with a grass stem to
+a twig below the nest they were at work on, to save them as much
+trouble as might be. When my bird came, her bright eyes were quick to
+espy the old nest. She looked around, bewildered, as if wondering
+whether she was really awake, and making sure that this strange looking
+affair were not her second nest, come to grief in her absence. Being
+reassured by her examination, she came back and hopped from twig to twig
+inspecting the old piece of nest. At last she caught sight of a feather.
+That, apparently, was just what she wanted. She quickly flew over,
+pulled out the white plume, and went straight to the new house with it!
+
+I was not able to watch any of my bush-tits through the season, that
+year, but five years later, when again in southern California, to my
+delight I found the tits building in almost the same tree where they had
+been before.
+
+One day an interesting brood was out in the brush, and I took notes on
+their proceedings: "A family of young were abroad this morning filling
+the leaves with their little moving forms, and the air with their
+fledgling cry of _schrit_. As nearly as I could judge, there were ten in
+the family--eight young tagging after two old birds. While I watched, a
+droll thing happened, proving that a family of eight may affect a
+parent's breakfast as well as his nerves. One of the family, which I
+took to be the father bird, had some goody in his bill, and one of the
+young, presumably, followed him for it, flying up on his twig. The old
+bird turned his back upon the little one and went on shaking the grub.
+Presently a second one flew down on the other side of him,--he was
+between two fires; they touched him on both sides. I watched with
+interest to see what he would do about it, and was much amused when he
+opened his wings and flew up over their heads out of reach! Would he
+come back to feed them after his food was properly prepared? No,--he sat
+up on the branch and ate the morsel himself! I was rather shocked by
+such a deliberate proceeding, but then it occurred to me that parent
+birds have to take a bite themselves once in a while; though of course
+their business is to feed the children!"
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+THE BIG SYCAMORE.
+
+
+BEFORE going home from my morning sessions with the little lover and
+other feathered friends, I often took a gallop at the foot of the hills
+to visit a gigantic old tree, the king of the valley. One such ride is
+especially marked in my memory. It was on one of California's most
+perfect mornings. When the sun had risen over the valley, the fog
+dissolved before it, sinking away until only small white clouds were
+left in the tender blue of the notches between the red hills; while the
+bared vault overhead had that pure, deep, satisfying color peculiar to
+fog-cleared skies; and the cool fresh air was full of exhilaration. It
+put Mountain Billy so in tune with the morning that, when I chirrupped
+to him, shaking the reins on his neck, he quickly broke into a lope and
+his ringing hoofs beat time to my song as we sped down the valley, past
+vineyards and orchards and yellow fields of ripening grain. The free
+swift motion was a delight in itself, and after days and weeks given to
+the details of nest-making, shut away from the world in our little
+remote valley at the foot of the mountains, now, when we came to a
+break in the hills and our nostrils were greeted by the cool salt breeze
+coming from the Pacific, suddenly the whole horizon broadened; the
+inclosing valley walls were overlooked; we were galloping under the high
+arching heavens in a wind blowing from far over the wide ocean.
+
+Here stood the great sycamore, with branches swaying; for the tree faced
+this break in the hills. It seemed as if the old monarch, with roots
+firmly planted, had battled for its ground; and now, as a conqueror,
+stood with arms uplifted to meet the ocean gales. I had never before
+appreciated the dignity of those straight upreared shafts, the vital
+strength of those deep grappling roots, the mighty grandeur of this old
+battle king.
+
+When one of the trunks fell, I had to hunt the sycamore over to find
+where it came from, not missing it in the massive framework that was
+left. The giant measured twenty-three feet and a half in circumference,
+three feet from the ground. Its enormous branches stretched out
+horizontally so far that, between the body of the tree and the tips that
+hung to the earth, there was a wide corridor where one could promenade
+on horseback. In fact, the tree spanned, from the tip of one branch to
+the tip of the other, one hundred and fifty-eight feet. In the
+photograph, the figure of a person is almost lost in the complicated
+network of the frame of the tree. The treetop was a grove in itself. A
+flock of blackbirds flying up into it was lost among the branches.
+
+[Illustration: THE BIG SYCAMORE]
+
+The ranchman knew the sycamore as the 'swallow tree,' because in former
+years, before the valley was settled, swallows that have since taken to
+barns built there. Between three and four hundred of them plastered
+their nests on the underside of the big limbs, about half way up the
+tree, where the bark was rough. They built so close together that the
+nests made a solid mass of mud. For several seasons, it was said, "they
+had bad luck." They began building before the rainy season was over, and
+all but a few dozen nests which were in especially protected places were
+swept away. The number of nests was so enormous that the ground was
+covered several inches deep with mud.
+
+Billy used to improve his time by nibbling barley while I watched birds
+in the sycamore corridor. We had not been there long before I discovered
+a bee's nest in the hollow of one of the trunks. The owners were busily
+flying in and out, and a pair of big bee-birds flew down from their nest
+in the treetop and saved themselves trouble by lunching at this
+convenient ground floor restaurant. As I sat on Billy, facing the nest,
+one of the pair swept down over the mouth of the hole, caught a bee and
+settled back on the branch to swallow it. This seemed to be the regular
+performance, and was kept up so continuously, even when we were
+standing close by, that if, as is supposed, the birds eat only drones,
+few but workers would be left in that hive.
+
+The flycatchers seemed well suited to the sycamore; they were birds of
+large ideas and sweeping flights. Their nest was at the top of the tree;
+probably eighty feet from the ground, but when one of them flew down,
+instead of coming a branch at a time, he would set his wings and, giving
+a loud cry,--as a child shouts when pushing off his sled at the top of a
+steep hill,--he would sail obliquely down from the treetop to the foot
+of the hillside beyond. When looking for his material he would hover
+over the field like a phœbe. Then, on returning, unlike the other
+birds who lived in the tree and used the branches as ladders, he would
+start from the ground and with labored flights climb obliquely up the
+air to the treetop. Once his material dangled a foot behind him. The
+birds seemed to enjoy these great flights.
+
+Their nest was not finished, and while one went for material, the
+other--presumably the male--guarded the nest. As there was nothing to
+guard as yet, it often seemed a matter of venting his own spleen! When
+not occupied in arranging his plumes, he would shoot down at every small
+bird that came upstairs; a cowardly proceeding, but perhaps he thought
+it necessary to keep his hand in against meeting bigger boys than he!
+When coming with material, one of the bee-birds got caught in a heavy
+rope of cobweb that dangled from the nest, and had to flutter hard to
+extricate itself. About their nests these birds seemed as home-loving as
+any others. Their domesticity quite surprised me; they had always seemed
+such harsh, scolding, aggressive birds! When one of them sat among the
+green leaves, pluming the soft sulphur yellow feathers of its breast, it
+looked so gentle and attractive that it was a shock when the familiar
+petulant screams again jarred the air. The birds often hunted from the
+fence beyond the sycamore, and flew from post to post with legs
+dangling, shaking their wings as they lit, with a shrill _kit'r'r'r'r'_.
+
+The sycamore was a regular apartment house; so many birds were moving
+among the boughs it was impossible to tell where they all lived. One day
+I found a pair of doves sitting on a sunny branch above me. The one I
+took to be the male sat perched crosswise, while his mate sat facing
+him, lengthwise of the limb. He calmly fluffed out his feathers and
+preened himself, while his meek spouse watched him. She fluttered her
+wings, teasing him to feed her, but he kept on dressing out his plumes.
+Then she edged a little closer, and almost essayed to touch his majesty
+with her pretty blue bill, but he sat with lordly composure quite
+ignoring her existence till a blackbird bustled up, when they both
+started nervously, and turning, sat demurely side by side on the limb,
+the wind tilting their long tails.
+
+A pair of bright orange orioles had a nest in the sycamore, though I
+never should have known it had I not seen them go to it to feed their
+young. It was a well shaded cradle surely, with its canopy of big green
+leaves.
+
+There were a good many hints to be had, first and last. A song sparrow
+appeared and stood on a branch with its tail perked up in a
+business-like way as if it had been feeding a brood. A wren came to the
+tree,--a mere pinch of feathers in the giant sycamore,--and though I
+lost sight of it, many a hollow up in the fourteenth story might have
+afforded a home for the pretty dear without any one's being the wiser,
+unless it were the bee-bird in the attic. A family of bush-tits flew
+about in the sycamore top, looking like pin-heads in a grove of trees. A
+black phœbe sometimes lit on the fence posts under the branches--it
+wanted to find a nesting place about the windmill in the opposite field,
+I felt sure, though a boy had told me that the bird sometimes plastered
+its nest onto the branches of the big tree itself. Besides all the rest,
+rosy linnets and blue lazuli buntings made the old tree ring with their
+musical roundelays.
+
+One day when I rode down to the sycamore, the meadow bordering it was
+full of haycocks, and a rabbit ran out from under one of them,
+frightened by the clatter of Billy's hoofs. That morning the tree was
+fairly alive with blackbirds and doves--what a deafening medley the
+blackbirds made! In the fields near the sycamore flocks of redwings went
+swinging over the tall gleaming mustard. This was a great place for
+blackbirds, for the big tree was on the edge of the one piece of marsh
+land in the valley, and they were quick to take advantage of its reeds
+for nesting places.
+
+The cienaga--as they called the swamp--was used as a pasture. It was
+pleasant to look out upon, from under the branches of the great tree. A
+group of horses stood in the shade of a cluster of oaks on the farther
+side of it, while the cows, a beautiful herd of buff and white
+Guernseys, waded through the swamp grass to drink near the sycamore, and
+the blackbirds wound in and out among them. I had been in a dry land so
+long it was hard to believe there was actual water in the marsh till I
+saw it drip from their chins and heard the sucking sound as they
+laboriously dragged their feet out of the mud--a noise that took me back
+to eastern pastures, but sounded strangely unfamiliar here in this
+rainless land. One of the pretty Guernseys with a white star in her
+forehead strayed up under the tree, and the shadows of the leaves moved
+over her as she raised her sensitive face to see who was there.
+
+The son of the ranchman who owned the dairy--the one who invited me down
+to see the play between his dog Romulus and the burrowing owl--said that
+when herding cows by the sycamore he once caught sight of a coyote wolf.
+He clapped his hands to send his dog, Romulus, after the wolf; and the
+noise frightened the wild creature so that he started to run up the hill
+across the road from the sycamore. Romulus followed hard at his heels
+till they got well up the hillside, when the coyote felt that he was on
+his own ground and turned on the dog, who fled back to his master with
+his tail between his legs. The lad, clapping his hands, set the dog on
+the coyote again, and this animated but bloodless performance was
+repeated and kept up till both were tired out, the animals chasing each
+other back and forth from the sycamore to the hillside with as much
+energy and perhaps as much courage as was displayed by that historic
+king of France who had five thousand men and--
+
+          "... marched them up a hill and then
+           He marched them down again."
+
+On one side of the sycamore was a great wall of weeds higher than my
+head when on horseback; a dense mass of yellow mustard, and fragrant
+wild celery which was covered with delicate white bloom. I saw
+blackbirds carrying material into this thicket, but as I had known of
+neighbors' horses getting bitten by rattlesnakes among the high weeds,
+did not think it worth while to wade around in it much for such common
+birds as they. But one day, seeing a pair of rare blue grosbeaks fly
+down into the tangle, I turned Billy right in after them, though holding
+his head well up in consideration of the snakes. The birds vanished, so
+we stood still to wait. Suddenly I heard a slight sound as of something
+slipping through the weeds at Billy's feet, and looking down saw a snake
+marked like a rattler; and as it slid by Billy's hoof I noticed with
+horror that the end of its tail was blunt--the harmless gopher snake
+that resembles the rattler has a tapering tail! I gazed at it
+spellbound, but in the dim light could not make out whether it had
+rattles or not. I had seen enough, however, and whipping up Billy was
+out of those weeds in a hurry. Safely outside, I looked at my little
+horse remorsefully--what if my desire to see a new nest had been the
+cause of his getting a rattlesnake bite!
+
+The next day when I went down to the sycamore a German was mowing there
+with a pair of mules. He was a typical Rhinelander, with blue eyes and
+long curling hair and beard, and as he drove he sang in a deep rich
+voice one of the beautiful melodies of his fatherland. Screened by the
+branches, I listened quite unmindful of my work till my reverie was
+interrupted by the man's giving a harsh cry to his mules. It was only an
+aside, however, for he dropped back into his song in the same rich
+sympathetic voice.
+
+In riding out from the tree on my way home, I saw that he was mowing
+just where the snake had been, and warned him to be careful lest the
+horses get bitten. At the word rattlesnake his blue eyes dilated, and he
+assured me that he would be on his guard. Seeing my glasses and
+note-book, he asked if I were studying birds. When told that I was, from
+his seat on the mowing-machine he took off his hat and bowed with the
+air of a lord, saying in broken English, "I am pleased to meet you!"--a
+pleasant tribute to the profession. A few days later, on meeting him, he
+asked if I had found the rattlesnake--he had killed it under the
+sycamore and hung it on a branch for me to see.
+
+As the memory of my morning rides down to the sycamore brings to mind
+the wonderful freshness of California's fog-cleared skies, so my sunset
+rides home from the great tree recall the peacefulness of the quiet
+valley at twilight. One sunset stands out with peculiar distinctness. As
+Mountain Billy turned from the sycamore marsh its leaning blades gleamed
+in the evening light, and the sun warmed the sides of the line of buff
+Guernseys wading in procession through the high swamp grass to their
+out-door milking stand. Beyond, a load of hay was crossing the meadows
+with sun on the reins and the pitchforks the men carried over their
+shoulders; and beyond, at the head of the valley, the western canyons
+were filled with golden haze, while the last shafts of yellow light
+loitered over the apricot orchards below, where the tranquil birds were
+singing their evening songs. Slowly the long shadows of the mountain
+crept over orchard and vineyard until, finally, the sun rounded the last
+peak and left our little valley in darkness.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+AMONG MY TENANTS.
+
+
+THE first year I was in California the thought of the orchards that were
+to be set out on my ranch appealed to me much less than what the place
+already possessed. As an inheritance from the stream that came down in
+spring through the Ughland canyon--past the homes of the little lover,
+the gnatcatchers, the little prisoners, and the lazulis and blue
+jays--there was a straggling line of old sycamores, full of birds'
+nests; and a patch of weeds, wild mustard, and willows, which was a
+capital shelter for wandering warblers; and a bright sunny spot always
+ringing with songs.
+
+So many houses were being put up without so much as a by-your-leave that
+it was high time for an ornithological landlady to bestir herself and
+look to her ornithological squatters; so, day after day I turned my
+horse toward the ranch and spent the morning getting acquainted with my
+tenants, riding along the shady line and making friendly calls at each
+tree.
+
+Half of the blackbirds who worked in the vineyard must have been
+beholden to me for rent, I should judge by the jolly choruses of the
+sable hordes moving about my treetops. There was a bee's nest in one of
+the sycamores, and one day the buzzing mob 'took after me' so madly that
+I had to whip up Canello and beat about with my hat to get clear of
+them.
+
+[Illustration: ALONG THE LINE OF SYCAMORES]
+
+Another day, when we stopped under a sycamore, such a loud shrill
+whistle sounded suddenly overhead that the horse started. A big bird in
+black sat with feathers bristled up about him like a threatening raven,
+croaking away sepulchrally directly overhead, bending down gazing at us
+out of his yellow eyes as if to see how we took it. It was a laughable
+sight. Blackbirds seem such human, humorous birds one can almost fancy
+them playing such pranks just for the fun of it.
+
+The blackbird colony was a busy one nesting-time. The builders would fly
+down to the road to get material, stepping along quickly, looking from
+side to side with an alert, business-like air, as if they knew just what
+they wanted. Some of them used the button-balls to line their nests.
+
+A pair had built in one of the round mats of mistletoe at the end of a
+branch, and while looking at the nest one day I was amazed to see a
+butcherbird come flying in a straight line toward it. He did not reach
+his destination, for while still in air both blackbirds darted down at
+him and drove him back faster than he had come. The guardian of the nest
+escorted him almost home, and when the victorious pair were returning
+they were joined by a noisy band of indignant members of the blackbird
+clan.
+
+I watched this attack with great interest, not knowing that shrikes were
+concerned in blackbird matters, and also because it was welcome news
+that one of these strange characters had rented a lot of me. I made a
+note of the direction my outlaw tenant took when driven ignominiously
+home, and at my earliest convenience called. Such cruel tales are told
+of his cold-blooded way of impaling birds and beasts upon thorns and
+barbed wires that one naturally looks upon him as a monster; but I found
+that he, like many another villain, turns a gentle face to his nest.
+
+He had pitched his tent on the farthest outpost of my ranch in a little
+bunch of willows, weeds, and mustard--long since converted into a
+well-kept prune orchard. The nest, which was a big round mass of sticks,
+was inside the willows in a clump of dry stalks about six feet from the
+ground. I had hardly found it before one of the builders swooped down to
+it right before my eyes, with the hardihood of one who fears no man;
+though it must be acknowledged that the shrikes, like other birds on the
+ranch, were so used to grazing horses they quite naturally took me for a
+cattle herder.
+
+In this case Canello did not act as my ally. He had been quiet and
+docile most of the morning, but now was hungry and saw some grass he
+was bent on having, so took the bit in his teeth and made such an
+obstinate fight that, before I had conquered him, the shrikes had left
+the premises and my call was finished without my hosts.
+
+On my next visit Canello behaved in more seemly manner, and permitted me
+to see something of the ways of the maligned birds. You would not have
+known them from any one else except for the remarkable stillness of
+their neighborhood. Some finches flew overhead as if meaning to stop,
+but saw the shrike and went on. I could hear the merry songs of the
+assembly down in the sycamores, but not a bird lit while we were
+there--the shrikes certainly have a bad name among their neighbors. They
+had a proud bearing and an imperative manner, but seemed so gentle and
+human in their domestic life that my prejudices were softened, as one's
+generally are by near acquaintance, and I became really very fond of my
+handsome tenants.
+
+It looked as if the shrike fed his mate. At any rate, they worked
+together and rested together, perching in lordly fashion high on the
+willows overlooking their home. They did not object to observers when at
+work. One day, when Canello's nose appeared by the nest, the builder
+looked at him over her shoulder and then quietly slid off the nest,
+flying up on her perch to wait till he should leave. It was a temptation
+to keep her waiting some time, for the shrike's corner was a pleasant
+place to linger in. The sea-breeze was so strong it turned the willow
+leaves white side out, and the beautiful glistening mustard grew so high
+there that when Canello walked into it, the golden blossoms waved over
+our heads. We haunted the premises till the birds had finished their
+framework, put in a lining of snow-white plant cotton, and had laid four
+eggs.
+
+But when getting to feel like an old friend of the family, on riding
+down one day I found the nest lying in the dust of the road broken and
+despoiled. It made me as unhappy as if the outlaws had been
+unimpeachable bird citizens--which comes of knowing both sides of a
+person's character! Do birds hand down traditions of ill luck? However
+it may be, five years later I found the nest of a pair in a dark mat of
+mistletoe at the end of a high oak branch, which was a much safer place
+than the low willow.
+
+While I was watching the first shrike family, Canello had two scares.
+Once when we were standing still by the willow we heard what sounded
+like a rattlesnake springing its rattle. The nervous horse pricked up
+his ears, raised his head, and looked in the grass as if he saw snakes,
+and though I succeeded in quieting him, when we went home he started at
+every stick and was ready to shy at every shadow. Another morning he saw
+a Mexican riding along by the vineyard, a man with a very dark face and
+a red shirt. Canello acted much as he had when hearing the rattlesnake,
+and did not quiet down till horse and rider were out of sight. The
+ranchman told me he had been cruelly treated by the Mexican who broke
+him, so perhaps it was another case of association of ideas.
+
+East of the willows, and separated from them by the dark green mallows
+and bright yellow California forget-me-nots, was the sycamore where the
+shrike was driven off by the blackbirds. Here a little brown wren had
+taken up her abode. The nest was in a dead limb with a lengthwise slit,
+and a scoop at the end like an apple-corer, so when one of the wrens
+flew down its hole with a stick, the twig stuck out of the crack as she
+ran along with it. She quite won my heart by her frank way of meeting
+her landlady. Instead of flying off, she looked me over and then quietly
+sat down in her doorway to wait for her mate.
+
+On the road to my sycamores was a deserted whitewashed adobe. The place
+had become overgrown with weeds, vines, and bushes, and was taken
+possession of by squirrels and birds. Nature had reclaimed it, covering
+its ugly scars with garlands, and making it bloom under her tender
+touch. One morning, as I rode by, a black phœbe was perched on the
+old adobe chimney of the little house, while his mate sat on the board
+that covered the well, in a way that made it easy to jump to a
+conclusion. When she flew up to the acacia beside the well and looked
+down anxiously, I put the pair on my calling list. It did not take many
+visits to prove my conclusion--there was a nest down in the well with
+white eggs in it. The phœbes were most trustful birds, and not only
+let Canello tramp around their yard, but when a pump was put down the
+well, and water pumped up day by day, the brave parents, instead of
+deserting their eggs, went on brooding as if nothing had happened.
+
+[Illustration: Black Phœbe.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+[Illustration: Eastern Phœbe.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+Five years later, on going back to the ranch, I found the phœbes
+around the old place, but hunted in vain for the nest. A schoolhouse had
+been built in the interval, near the old adobe, and the birds perched on
+its gables, on the hitching posts in front of it, and on my prune-trees,
+that had taken the place of the willows, across the road. They even came
+up to my small ranch-house and filled me with delightful anticipations
+by inspecting the beams of the piazza; but they could not find what they
+wanted and flew off to build elsewhere. Later in the season, a neighbor
+whose ranch was opposite mine showed me a phœbe's nest inside his
+whitewashed chicken house. It was a mud pocket like a swallow's, made of
+large pellets of mud plastered against a board in the peak of the house.
+Of course I could never prove that these birds were my old friends, but
+it seemed very probable.
+
+The smallest of my tenants was a hummingbird. I saw it fly into a low
+spray, and it stayed there so long that when it left I rode up to look,
+and found that it was building on the tip of a twig under a sycamore
+leaf umbrella, one whose veining showed against the light. By rising in
+the saddle I could just reach the twig and pull it down to look inside
+the nest; but afterwards I found so many other hummers who could be
+watched with fewer gymnastics, I rested content with knowing that this
+little friend was there.
+
+One morning, when on the way to the sycamores, I found an oriole's nest
+high in a tree. Canello was hungry, but when permitted to eat barley
+under the branches kept reasonably quiet. There were two species of
+orioles in the valley; and not knowing to which the nest belonged, I
+prepared to wait for the return of the owner. The heat was so oppressive
+that I took off my hat, and a bird flew into the tree with bill open,
+gasping. After my hot ride down the valley the shade of the big tree was
+very grateful; and the cool trade wind coming through a gap in the
+hills most refreshing.
+
+Suddenly there was a flash--we all waked up--was that the house owner?
+What a remarkable bird! and what a display of color!--it had a red head,
+fiery in the sun; a black back, and a vivid yellow breast. On looking it
+up in Ridgway the stranger proved to be the Louisiana tanager, a high
+mountain bird. That was a red letter day for me. No one can know,
+without experiencing it, the delight of such discoveries. The pleasure
+is as genuine as if the world were made anew for you. In the excitement
+the oriole's nest was neglected; but ordinarily the rare unknown birds
+did not detract from the enjoyment of the old, more familiar ones.
+
+So when the brilliant stranger flew away and was seen no more I turned
+with pleasure to the pair of sparrow hawks who had come to live on the
+ranch. A branch had fallen from one of the trees, and the hawks found
+its hollow just suited to their needs. It was a good, spacious house,
+but a pair of their cousins who had built in a tree over the whitewashed
+hovel had made a sad mistake in choosing their dwelling--for the front
+door was so small they could hardly enter! I used to stop to watch them,
+and was very much amused at their efforts to make the best of it.
+
+Canello could stand up to his knees in alfilaree clover under their
+tree, so he allowed me to watch the birds in peace. The first day the
+male sparrow hawk flew to the tree with what looked like a snake
+dangling from his bill, and as he alighted screamed _kit-kit'ar'r'r'r'_,
+spreading his wings and shaking them with emphasis. When this
+brought no response, he flew from branch to branch, crying out lustily.
+He revolved around the end of a broken limb in whose small hollow was
+framed the head of Madame Falco. From her height she looked like a rag
+doll at her window. Her funny round face, which filled the doorway, had
+black spots for bill and eyes, and dark lines down the cheeks that might
+have simulated rag doll tattooing.
+
+Evidently there was some reason why she did not want to come to
+breakfast. Once she started to turn back into the nest, but at last
+laboriously wedged her way out of the hole and flew to a branch. Her
+mate was at her side in an instant, and handed her the snake. She took
+it greedily and flew off with it, let us hope because she was afraid of
+me, not because she did not want to divide with him, or thought he would
+ask her to, after all his devotion and patience!
+
+When the bird went back to her nest, her hesitation about leaving it was
+explained. For a long time she sat on a limb near by with tail bobbing,
+apparently trying to make up her mind to go in. When she did fly up at
+the hole she could not get in, and half fell down. After this failure
+she sat down on a branch, her tail tilting as violently as a pipit's,
+and when Canello moved around too much, took the excuse and flew off.
+Her mate came back with her, but when he saw us, he screamed and flew
+away, leaving her to her fate.
+
+She sat looking at her hole a long time before she tried it again, and
+when she did try, failed. It was not till her fourth attempt that she
+succeeded. The hole was very much too small for her, and the surface of
+the branch below it was so smooth and slippery that it gave her nothing
+to hold to in trying to wedge herself in. She would fly against the hole
+and attempt to hook her bill over the edge, and so draw herself up, but
+her shoulders were too big for the space. She tried to make them smaller
+by drawing down her wings lengthwise. Once, in her efforts, she spread
+her tail like a fan. After her third struggle, she sat for a long time
+smoothing her ruffled feathers, shaking herself, scratching her face
+with her foot and trying to get her plumes in order.
+
+While making her toilet she apparently thought of a new plan. She went
+back to the hole and, raising her claw, fastened it inside the hole and
+with a spasmodic effort wedged in her body and disappeared down the
+black hollow. Her mate came a moment after, but she did not even appear
+in the doorway when he called. Again he came, crying _keek' keek'
+kick-er' r' r'_, in tender falsetto; but it was no use. Madame Falco had
+had altogether too hard a time getting in, to go out again in a hurry.
+He held a worm in his bill till he was tired, changed it to his claw,
+letting it dangle from that for a while; and then, as she would make no
+sign, finally flew off.
+
+The next day we had another session with the sparrow hawk. She had
+evidently profited by experience. She did not fly at the hole in the
+violent way she had done the day before, but ambled along a limb to get
+as close to it as possible, and then quietly flew up. She made two or
+three unsuccessful attempts to enter, but kept at the branch,--falling
+back but once. She got half way in once or twice, but could not force
+her wings through. She acted as if determined not to give up, and at
+last, when she found herself falling backwards, with a desperate effort
+drew herself in.
+
+There was another sparrow hawk family across the road from my ranch. In
+riding by one day, I saw a youngster looking out from the nest hole with
+big frightened eyes. Was it the only child, or was it monopolizing the
+fresh air while its brothers were smothering below? Another day there
+were two heads in the window; one was the round domed, top of a fluffy
+nestling whose eyes expressed only vague fear; but the other was the
+strongly marked head of an old sparrow hawk, who eyed us with keen
+intelligence. As I stared up, the young one drew back into the hole
+behind its parent, probably in obedience to her command; and the old
+bird bent such an anxious inquiring gaze upon me that I took the hint
+and rode away to save the poor mother worry.
+
+These were not the only hawks of the valley. Once, seeing one of the
+large Buteos winging its way with nesting sticks hanging from its claws,
+I turned Canello into the field after it, following till it lit in the
+top of a high sycamore. The pair were both gathering material. Sometimes
+they flew with the twigs in their claws; sometimes in their bills; now
+they would fly directly to the nest, again circle around the tree before
+alighting. When one was at work, the other sometimes flew up and soared
+so high in the sky he looked no larger than a sparrow hawk. In swooping
+to the ground suddenly, the hawks would hollow in their backs, stick up
+their tails, drop their legs for ballast, and so let themselves come to
+earth. While one of the birds was peacefully gathering sticks, two
+blackbirds attacked it, apparently on general grounds, because it
+belonged to a family that had been traduced since history began. To tell
+the honest truth, I trembled a little myself at thought of what might
+happen to some of my small tenants, though I reassured myself by
+remembering that the facts prove the maligned hawks much more likely to
+eat gophers than birds.
+
+In the back of the stub occupied by one of the sparrow hawks it was a
+pleasure to find a flicker excavating its nest. Planting its claws
+firmly in the hole with tail braced against the bark, the bird leaned
+forward, thrusting its head in, over and again, as if feeding young. It
+used its feet as a pivot, and swung itself in, farther and farther, as
+it worked. Such gymnastics took strong feet, for the bird raised itself
+by them each time. It worked like an automatic toy wound up for the
+performance. When tired, the flicker hopped up on a branch and vented
+its feelings by shouting _if-if-if-if-if-if-if_, after which it quietly
+returned to work. The wood was so soft that the excavating made almost
+no noise, but it was easy to see what was going on, for the carpenter
+simply drew back its head and tossed out the glistening chips for all
+the world to see. At the end of a week the flicker was working so far
+down in its excavation that only the tip of its tail stuck out of the
+door.
+
+The nest of another Colaptes, I found by accident--a fresh chip dropped
+from mid-air upon my riding skirt. Just then Canello gave a stentorian
+sneeze and the bird came to her window to look down. She did not object
+to us, and was loath to turn back inside the dark hole--such a close
+stuffy place--when outside there were the rich green leaves of the tree,
+the sweet breath of the hayfield and the gentle breeze just springing
+up; all the warmth and sunshine and fragrance of the fields. How could
+she ever leave to go below? Perhaps she bethought her that soon the dark
+hole would be a home ringing with the voices of her little ones; at all
+events, she quickly turned and disappeared in her nest.
+
+At the foot of the ranch I discovered a comical, sleepy little brown
+owl, dozing in a sycamore window. When we waked it up, it went backing
+down the hole. I wondered if it kept awake all day without food, for
+surely owl children do not get many meals by daylight. I spoke to the
+ranchman's son about it, and he said he thought the old birds fed the
+young too much, that he had found about a dozen small kangaroo rats and
+mice in their holes! He told me that he had known old owls to change
+places in the daytime, and both birds to stay in the hole during the
+day. Down the valley, where an old well was only partly covered over, at
+different times he had found a number of drowned owls. They seemed to
+fly into any dark hole that offered. Three barn owls had been taken from
+a windmill tank in the neighborhood in about a month. In a mine at
+Escondido the man had found a number of owls sitting in a crevice where
+the earth, had caved; and he had seen about a dozen of them fifty to a
+hundred feet underground, at the bottom of the mine shaft.
+
+I did not wonder the birds wanted to keep out of sight in the daytime,
+knowing what happened to those that stayed out. A pair nested in the top
+of a high sycamore on my neighbors' premises, and when one stirred away
+from home, it did so to its sorrow. One morning there was such a
+commotion I rode down to see what was the matter. A big dark brown form
+flew down the avenue of sycamores ahead of us, followed by a mob of all
+the feathered house owners in the neighborhood. They escorted it home to
+the top of its own tree, where it seated itself on a limb, its big
+yellow eyes staring and its long ears dropped down, as if home were not
+home with a rout of angry bee-birds and blackbirds screeching and diving
+at you over your own doorsill. Two orioles started to fly over from the
+next tree, but went back, perhaps thinking it wiser not to make open war
+upon such near neighbors; while a sparrow hawk who came to help in the
+attack was judged too dangerous an ally and escorted home by a squad of
+blackbirds dispatched for the purpose. The poor persecuted owl screwed
+its head around to its back as if hoping to see pleasanter sights on
+that side; but the uncanny performance did not seem to please its
+enemies, and a blackbird flew rudely past, close under its bill, as if
+to warn it of what might happen.
+
+The queerest of all my tenants was an old mother barn owl who lived in
+the black charred chimney of one of the sycamores. I found a white
+feather on the black wood one day in riding by, and pulling Canello up
+by the tree, broke off a twig and rapped on the door. She came
+blundering out and flew to a limb over our heads--such a queer old
+crone, with her hooked nose and her weazened face surrounded by a
+circlet of dark feathers. The light blinded her, and with her big round
+eyes wide open she leaned down staring to make out who we were. Then
+shaking her head reproachfully, she swayed solemnly from side to side.
+As the wind blew against her ragged feathers she drew her wings over her
+breast like a cloak, making herself look like a poverty-stricken
+wiseacre. Finding that we did not offer to go, the poor old crone took
+to her wings; but as she passed down the line of sycamores she roused
+the blackbird clan, and a pair of angry orioles flew out and attacked
+her. My conscience smote me for driving her out among her enemies, but
+on our return to the sycamores all was quiet again, and a lizard was
+sunning himself on the edge of the old owl's chimney.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+AN UNNAMED BIRD.
+
+
+SIX years ago, on my first visit to California, I found a dainty cup of
+a nest out in the oaks, but the name of its owner was a puzzle. On
+returning East I consulted those who are wisest in matters of such fine
+china, but they were unable to clear up the matter. For five years that
+mystery haunted me. At the end of that time, when back in California, up
+in those same oaks, I found another cup of the same pattern; but the cup
+got broken and that was the end of it.
+
+The fact of the matter is, you can identify perhaps ninety per cent. of
+the birds you see, with an opera-glass and--patience; but when it comes
+to the other ten per cent., including small vireos and flycatchers, and
+some others that might be mentioned, you are involved in perplexities
+that torment your mind and make you meditate murder; for it is
+impossible to
+
+          Name _all_ the birds without a gun.
+
+On bringing my riddle to the wise men, they shook their heads and asked
+why I did not shoot my bird and find out who he was. On saying the word
+his skin would be sent to me; but after knowing the little family in
+their home it would have been like raising my hand against familiar
+friends. Could I take their lives to gratify my curiosity about a name?
+I pondered long and weighed the matter well, trying to harden my heart;
+but the image of the winning trustful birds always rose before me and
+made it impossible. I will put the case before you, and you can judge if
+you would not have withheld your hand.
+
+One day, hearing the sound of battle up in the treetops, I hurried over
+to the scene of action, when out dashed a pair of courageous little
+dull-colored birds in hot pursuit of a blue jay, whom they dove at till
+they drove him from the field. My sympathies were enlisted at once.
+Fearless little tots to brave a bird four times as big as themselves in
+defense of their home! How hard to have to build and rear a brood in the
+face of such a powerful foe! I wanted to take up the cudgels for them
+and stand guard to see that no harm came.
+
+Planting my camp-stool under their oak, I watched eagerly to have my new
+friends show me their home. As I waited, a pair of turtle doves walked
+about on the sand under the farther branches of the tree; a pair of
+woodpeckers sat on a dead limb lying in wait for their prey; and a
+couple of titmice came hunting through the oak--all the world seemed
+full of happy home-makers.
+
+But soon I saw a sight that made me forget everything else. There were
+my brave little birds up in the oak working upon a beautiful moss cup
+that hung from a forked twig. They were building together, flying
+rapidly back and forth bringing bits of moss from the brush to put in
+their nest.
+
+They worked independently, each hunting moss and placing it to its own
+satisfaction. What one did the other would be well pleased with, I felt
+sure. But while each worked according to its own ideas, they always
+appeared to be working together; they could not bear to be out of sight
+of each other long at a time. When the small father bird found himself
+at the nest alone, after placing his material he would stand and call to
+let his pretty mate know that he was waiting for her; or else sit down
+by the nest and warble over such a contented, happy little lay it warmed
+my heart just to listen to him.
+
+When his mate appeared the merry birds would chase off for a race
+through the treetops. Song and play were mingled with their work, but,
+for all that, the happy builders' house grew under their hands, and they
+kept faithfully at their task of preparing the home for their little
+brood. Once the small, dainty mother bird,--surely it must have been
+she,--after putting in her bit of moss, settled down in the nest and
+sat there the picture of quiet happiness.
+
+This was all I saw of the nest builders that year. A great storm swept
+through the valley, and it must have washed away the frail mossy cup,
+for it was gone and the tree was deserted. Nevertheless, the birds had
+been so attractive, and their nest so interesting, that through the five
+years that passed before my return to California I kept their memory
+green, and could never think of them without tenderness--though I could
+call them by no name. If they had only worn red feathers in their caps,
+it would have been some clue to their coats-of-arms; but, out of hand,
+there seemed to be nothing to mark the plain, little, greenish gray
+birds from half a dozen of their cousins.
+
+When I finally returned to the California ranch, one of my first
+thoughts was for the moss nest makers up in the oaks. Now I had a chance
+to solve the mystery without harming one of their pretty feathers, for
+by long and patient watching I might get near enough to puzzle out the
+'spurious primary' and the subtle distinctions of tint that make such a
+difference in calling birds by their right names.
+
+For six weeks I watched and listened in vain, but one day when riding up
+the canyon rejoicing at the new life that filled the trees, I stopped
+under an oak only a few rods from the one where the nest had been five
+years before, and looking up saw a small dull-colored bird with a bit of
+moss in its bill walking down into a mossy cup right before my eyes! For
+a few moments I was the happiest observer in the land. I had found my
+little friend again, after all these years! It looked over the edge of
+the twig at me several times, but went on gathering material as
+unconcernedly as if it, too, remembered me. The mossy cup seemed
+prettier than any rare bit of Sèvres china, for I looked upon it with
+eyes that had been waiting for the sight for five years.
+
+As the bird worked, a cottontail rabbit rustled the leaves, and Billy
+started forward, frightening the timid animal so that it scampered off
+over the ground, showing the white underside of its tail. But though
+Billy and the rabbit were both terrified, the brave worker only flew
+down to a twig to look at them, and turned back calmly to its task.
+
+The nest was so protectively colored that I could not see it readily,
+and sometimes started to find that I had been looking right at it
+without knowing it. The prospect of identifying my birds was not
+encouraging. You might as well expect to see from the first floor what
+was going on up in a cupola as to expect to see from the ground what
+birds are doing up in the thick oak tops. You have reason to be thankful
+for even a glimpse of a bird in the heavy foliage, and as for 'spurious
+primaries,'--"Woe worth the chase!"
+
+Now and then I got a hint of family matters. My two little friends were
+working together, and occasionally I saw a bit of moss put in; but it
+was evident that the main part of the work was over. One day I waited
+half an hour, and when the bird came it acted as if it had really done
+all that was necessary, and only returned for the sake of being about
+its pretty home.
+
+The birds said a good deal up in the oak, sometimes in sweet lisping
+tones, as though talking to themselves about the nest. They often flew
+away from it not far over my head. The call note was a loud
+whistle--_whee-it'_--and the bird gave it so rapidly that I once took
+out my watch to time him, after which he called seventy times in sixty
+seconds. Often after whistling loudly he would give a soft low call. His
+clear ringing voice was one of the most cheering in the valley.
+
+When the building seemed done and I was looking forward to the brooding,
+as the birds would then, perforce, be more about the nest, one sad
+morning I rode up through the oaks and found the beautiful moss cup torn
+and dangling from its branch. It was the keenest disappointment of the
+nesting season, and there had been many. The pretty acquaintance to
+whose renewal I had looked forward so many years was now ended.
+
+Again I had to leave California without being able to name my winning
+little friends. If I had been too much interested in them before to set
+a price on their heads; now, rather than raise my voice against them,
+they should remain forever unnamed.[4]
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[4] Since this paper was written, I have consulted an authority on
+nests, who thinks that this nameless bird was probably Hutton's vireo.
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+HUMMERS.
+
+
+CALIFORNIA is the land of flowers and hummingbirds. Hummingbirds are
+there the winged companions of the flowers. In the valleys the airy
+birds hover about the filmy golden mustard and the sweet-scented
+primroses; on the blooming hillsides in spring the air is filled with
+whirring wings and piping voices, as the fairy troops pass and repass at
+their mad gambols. At one moment the birds are circling methodically
+around the whorls of the blue sage; at the next, hurtling through the
+air after a distant companion. The great wild gooseberry bushes with red
+fuchsia-like flowers are like bee-hives, swarming with noisy hummers.
+The whizzing and whirring lead one to the bushes from a distance, and on
+approaching one is met by the brown spindle-like birds, darting out from
+the blooming shrubs, gleams of green, gold, and scarlet glancing from
+their gorgets.
+
+[Illustration: The Little Hummer on her Bow-Knot Nest.
+
+(From a photograph.)]
+
+The large brown hummers probably stop in the valley only on their way
+north, but the little black-chinned ones make their home there, and the
+big spreading sycamores and the great live-oaks are their nesting
+grounds. In the big oak beside the ranch-house I have seen two or three
+nests at once; and a ring of live-oaks in front of the house held a
+complement of nests. From the hammock under the oak beside the house one
+could watch the birds at their work. If the front door was left open,
+the hummers would sometimes fly inside; and as we stepped out they
+often darted away from the flowers growing under the windows.
+
+California is the place of all places to study hummingbirds. The only
+drawback is that there are always too many other birds to watch at the
+same time; but one sees enough to want to see more. I never saw a
+hummingbird courtship unless--perhaps one performance I saw was part of
+the wooing. I was sitting on Mountain Billy under the little lover's
+sycamore when a buzzing and a whirring sounded overhead. On a twig sat a
+wee green lady and before her was her lover (?), who, with the sound and
+regularity of a spindle in a machine, swung shuttling from side to side
+in an arc less than a yard long. He never turned around, or took his
+eyes off his lady's, but threw himself back at the end of his line by a
+quick spread of his tail. She sat with her eyes fixed upon him, and as
+he moved from side to side her long bill followed him in a very droll
+way. When through with his dance he looked at her intently, as if to see
+what effect his performance had had upon her. She made some remark,
+apparently not to his liking, for when he had answered he flew away. She
+called after him, but as he did not return she stretched herself and
+flew up on a twig above with an amusing air of relief.
+
+This is all I have ever seen of the courtship; but when it comes to
+nest-building, I have often been an eye-witness to that. One little
+acquaintance made a nest of yellow down and put it among the green oak
+leaves, making me think that the laws of protective coloration had no
+weight with her, but before the eggs were laid she had neatly covered
+the yellow with flakes of green lichen. I found her one day sitting in
+the sun with the top of her head as white as though she had been diving
+into the flour barrel. Here was one of the wonderful cases of 'mutual
+help' in nature. The flowers supply insects and honey to the
+hummingbirds, and they, in turn, as they fly from blossom to blossom
+probing the tubes with the long slender bills that have gradually come
+to fit the shape of the tubes, brush off the pollen of one blossom to
+carry it on to the next, so enabling the plants to perfect their flowers
+as they could not without help. It is said that, in proportion to their
+numbers, hummingbirds assist as much as insects in the work of
+cross-fertilization.
+
+Though this little hummer that I was watching let me come within a few
+feet of her, when a lizard ran under her bush she craned her neck and
+looked over her shoulder at him with surprising interest. She doubtless
+recognized him as one of her egg-eating enemies, on whose account she
+put her nest at the tip of a twig too slender to serve as a ladder.
+
+Another hummingbird who built across the way was still more
+trustful--with people. I used to sit leaning against the trunk of her
+oak and watch the nest, which was near the tip of one of the long
+swinging branches that drooped over the trail. When the tiny worker was
+at home, a yard-stick would almost measure the distance between us. As
+she sat on the nest she sometimes turned her head to look down at the
+dog lying beside me, and often hovered over us on going away.
+
+The nest was saddled on a twig and glued to a glossy dark green oak
+leaf. Like the other nest, it was made of a spongy yellow substance,
+probably down from the underside of sycamore leaves; and like it, also,
+the outside was coated with lichen and wound with cobweb. The bird was a
+rapid worker, buzzing in with her material and then buzzing off after
+more. Once I saw the cobweb hanging from her needle-like bill, and
+thought she probably had been tearing down the beautiful suspension
+bridges the spiders hang from tree to tree.
+
+It was very interesting to see her work. She would light on the rim of
+the nest, or else drop directly into the bottom of the tiny cup, and
+place her material with the end of her long bill. It looked like trying
+to sew at arm's length. She had to draw back her head in order not to
+reach beyond the nest. How much more convenient it would have been if
+her bill had been jointed! It seemed better suited to probing flower
+tubes than making nests. But then, she made nests only in spring, while
+she fed from flowers all the year round, and so could afford to stretch
+her neck a trifle one month for the sake of having a good long fly spear
+during the other eleven. The peculiar feature of her work was her
+quivering motion in moulding. When her material was placed she moulded
+her nest like a potter, twirling around against the sides, sometimes
+pressing so hard she ruffled up the feathers of her breast. She shaped
+her cup as if it were a piece of clay. To round the outside, she would
+sit on the rim and lean over, smoothing the sides with her bill, often
+with the same peculiar tremulous motion. When working on the outside, at
+times she almost lost her balance, and fluttered to keep from falling.
+To turn around in the nest, she lifted herself by whirring her wings.
+
+When she found a bit of her green lichen about to fall, she took the
+loose end in her bill and drew it over the edge of the nest, fastening
+it securely inside. She looked very wise and motherly as she sat there
+at work, preparing a home for her brood. After building rapidly she
+would take a short rest on a twig in the sun, while she plumed her
+feathers. She made nest-making seem very pleasant work.
+
+One day, wanting to experiment, I put a handful of oak blossoms on the
+nest. They covered the cup and hung down over the sides. When the small
+builder came, she hovered over it a few seconds before making up her
+mind how it got there and what she had better do about it. Then she
+calmly lit on top of it! Part of it went off as she did so, but the rest
+she appropriated, fastening in the loose ends with the cobweb she had
+brought.
+
+She often gave a little squeaky call when on the nest, as if talking to
+herself about her work. When going off for material she would dart away
+and then, as if it suddenly occurred to her that she did not know where
+she was going, would stop and stand perfectly still in the air, her
+vibrating wings sustaining her till she made up her mind, when she would
+shoot off at an angle. It seemed as if she would be worn out before
+night, but her eyes were bright and she looked vigorous enough to build
+half a dozen houses.
+
+"There's odds in folks," our great-grandmothers used to say; and there
+certainly is in bird folks; even in the ways of the same one at
+different times. Now this hummingbird was content to build right in
+front of my eyes, and the hummer down at the little lover's tree, with
+her first nest, was so indifferent to Billy and me that I took no pains
+to keep at a distance or disguise the fact that I was watching her. But
+when her nest was destroyed she suddenly grew old in the ways of the
+world, and apparently repented having trusted us. In any case, I got a
+lesson on being too prying. The first nest had not been down long before
+I found that a second one was being built only a few feet away--by the
+same bird? I imagined so. The nest was only just begun, and being
+especially interested to see how such buildings were started, I rode
+close up to watch the work. A roll of yellow sycamore down was wound
+around a twig, and the bottom of the nest--the floor--attached to the
+underside of this beam; with such a solid foundation, the walls could
+easily be supported.
+
+The small builder came when Billy and I were there. She did not welcome
+us as old friends, but sat down on her floor and looked at us--and I
+never saw her there again. Worse than that, she took away her nest,
+presumably to put it down where she thought inquisitive reporters would
+not intrude. I was disappointed and grieved, having already planned---on
+the strength of the first experience--to have the mother hummer's
+picture taken when she was feeding her young on the nest.
+
+At first I thought this suspicion reflected upon the good sense of
+hummingbirds, but after thinking it over concluded that it spoke better
+for hummingbirds than for Billy and me. If this were, as I supposed, the
+same bird who had to brood her young with Billy grazing at the end of
+her bill, and if she had been present at the unlucky moment when he got
+the oak branches tangled in the pommel of the saddle, although her
+branch was not among them, I can but admire her for moving when she
+found that the Philistines were again upon her, for her new house was
+hung at the tip of a branch that Billy might easily have swept in
+passing.
+
+These nests had all been very low, only four or five feet above the
+ground; but one day I found young in one of the common treetop nests. I
+could see it through the branches. Two little heads stuck up above the
+edge like two small Jacks-in-boxes. Billy made such a noise under the
+oak when the bird was feeding the youngsters that I took him away where
+he could not disturb the family, and tied him to an oak covered with
+poison ivy, for he was especially fond of eating it, and the poison did
+not affect him.
+
+Before the old hummer flew off, she picked up a tiny white feather that
+she found in the nest, and wound it around a twig. On her return, in the
+midst of her feeding, she darted down and set the feather flying; but,
+as it got away from her, she caught it again. The performance was
+repeated the next time she came with food; but she did it all so
+solemnly I could not tell whether she were playing or trying to get rid
+of something that annoyed her.
+
+She fed at the long intervals that are so trying to an observer, for if
+you are going to sit for hours with your eyes glued to a nest, it
+really is pleasant to have something happen once in a while! Though the
+mother bird did not go to the nest often, she sometimes flew by, and
+once the sound of her wings roused the young, and they called out to her
+as she passed. When they were awake, it was amusing to see the little
+midgets stick out their long, thread-like tongues, preen their
+pin-feathers, and stretch their wings over the nest.
+
+One fine morning when I went to the oak I heard a faint squeak, and saw
+something fluttering up in the tree. When the mother came, she buzzed
+about as though not liking the look of things, for her children were out
+of the nest, and behold!--a horse and rider were under her tree. She
+tried to coax the unruly nestlings to follow her into the upper stories,
+but they would not go.
+
+[Illustration: The Swing Nest of the Hummer.
+
+(From a Photograph.)]
+
+Although not ready to be led, one of the infants soon felt that it would
+be nice to go alone. When a bird first leaves the nest it goes about
+very gingerly, but this little fellow now began to feel his strength and
+the excitement of his freedom. He wiped his tongue on a branch, and
+then, to my astonishment, his wings began to whirl as if he were getting
+up steam, and presently they lifted him from his twig, and he went
+whirring off as softly as a hummingbird moth, among the oak sprays. His
+nerves were evidently on edge, for he looked around at the sound of
+falling leaves, started when Billy sneezed, and turned from side to
+side very apprehensively, in spite of his out-in-the-world, big-boy
+airs. He may have felt hampered by his unused wings, for, as he sat
+there waiting for his mother to come, he stroked them out with his bill
+to get them in better working order. That done, he leaned over, rounded
+his shoulders, and pecked at a leaf as if he were as much grown up as
+anybody.
+
+Of all the beautiful hummingbirds' nests I saw in California, three are
+particularly noteworthy because of their positions. One cup was set down
+on what looked like an inverted saucer, in the form of a dark green oak
+leaf wound with cobweb. That was in the oak beside the ranch-house.
+Another one was on a branch of eucalyptus, set between two leaves like
+the knot in a bow of stiff ribbon. To my great satisfaction, the
+photographer was able to induce the bird to have a sitting while she
+brooded her eggs. The third nest I imagined belonged to the bird who
+took up her floor because Billy and I looked at her. If she were, her
+fate was certainly hard, for her eggs were taken by some one, boy or
+beast. Her nest was most skillfully supported. It was fastened like the
+seat of a swing between two twigs no larger than knitting-needles, at
+the end of a long drooping branch. It was a unique pleasure to see the
+tiny bird sit in her swing and be blown by the wind. Sometimes she went
+circling about as though riding in a merry-go-round; and at others the
+wind blew so hard her round boat rose and fell like a little ship at
+sea.
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+IN THE SHADE OF THE OAKS.
+
+
+THERE were half a dozen places in the valley, irrigated by the spring
+rains, where I was always sure of finding birds. Among them, on the west
+side, was the big sycamore, standing at the lower end of the valley;
+while above, in the northwest corner, was the mouth of Twin Oaks canyon
+where the migrants flocked in the brush around the large twin oak that
+overlooked the little old schoolhouse. On the east side was the Ughland
+canyon, at the mouth of which the little lover and his neighbors nested;
+while below it straggled the line of sycamores that followed the Ughland
+stream down through my ranch. But up at the head of the valley beyond
+the ranch-house was the most delightful place of all. There I was always
+sure of finding interesting nests to study.
+
+Surrounded by a waste of chaparral, it was a little oasis of great
+blooming live-oaks, and in their shade I used often to spend the hot
+afternoon hours. In the spring the water that flowed down the hills at
+the head of the valley formed a fresh mountain stream that ran down the
+Oden canyon and so on through the centre of this grove, feeding the
+oaks and spreading out to enrich the valley below. In summer, like the
+rest of the canyon streams, only its dry sandy bed remained. Then, when
+the meadows were oppressively hot, my leafy garden was a shady bower to
+linger in. Its long drooping branches hung to the ground, dainty yellow
+warblers flitted about the golden tassels of the blossoming trees, and
+the air was full of the happy songs of mated birds.
+
+[Illustration: A SHADY BOWER]
+
+The trail from the ranch-house to the oaks was a line through the low
+grass in which grew yellow fly flowers and orange poppies; and over them
+every spring, day after day, processions of migrating butterflies
+drifted slowly up the canyon. At the entrance of the garden was a
+sentinel oak whose dark green foliage contrasted well with the yellow
+flowers in the grass outside. It was the chosen hunting-ground of many
+birds. Its dead upper branches offered the bee-birds and woodpeckers an
+unobstructed view of passing insects, and gave the jays and flickers a
+chance to overlook the brush, and take their bearings. The lower limbs
+offered perches where doves might come to rest, finches to chatter, and
+chewinks to sing; while its hanging boughs and elm-like feathered sides
+attracted wandering warblers and songful wrens.
+
+The happy days spent among these beautiful California oaks are now
+far in the past, but as I sit in my study in the East and dream back
+over those hours my mind is filled with memory pictures. Sauntering
+through this oaken gallery, each tree recalls some pleasant hour--the
+sight of a new bird, the sound of a new song, the prolonged delight of
+some cozy home that I watched till accepted as a friend, when the little
+family's fears and joys were my own.
+
+That big double oak, spreading across the middle of the garden, was the
+haunted tree whose blue ghost drove away the pewees and gnatcatchers
+after they had begun to build; though the vireos and bush-tits braved it
+out, and the tiny hummer and gentle dove were not afraid to perch there.
+This was hummingbird lane--that small oak held the nest in which the two
+wee nestlings sat up like Jacks-in-the-box; these blue sage bushes
+growing in the sand were the ones the honey bees and hummers used to
+haunt, the hummers probing each lavender lip as they circled round the
+whorls; in front of this bush I saw a fairy dancer perform his airy
+minuet,--swing back and forth, and then sweep up in the air to dive
+whirring down with gorget puffed out and tail spread wide; and here,
+when watching a procession of ants, I discovered a tiny hummingbird
+building in a drooping branch that overhung the trail. That dead limb
+was the perch of a wood pewee, a silent grave bird with a sad call, who
+flew on when he was still only a lonely stranger. That oak top was made
+memorable by the sight of a flaming oriole, though he came on a cold
+foggy morning and answered my calls with a broken song and a
+half-hearted scold as he sat with his feathers ruffled up about him.
+Under the low spreading branches of that tree the chewinks used to
+scratch--I can hear the brown leaves rustle now--the branches were so
+low that, if the shy birds flew up to rest from their labors, they could
+quickly drop down and disappear in the brush.
+
+On ahead, where the garden narrows to the trail between the walls of
+brush, when I was hidden behind a screen of branches, the timid
+white-crowned sparrows used to venture out, hopping along quietly or
+stopping to sing and pick up seeds on the path. Back a few steps was the
+tree where the bush-tits came to build their second nest after the roof
+of the first one fell in; the nest which hung on such a low limb that I
+watched it from the sand beneath, looking up through the branches at the
+blue sky, the canyon walls covered with sun-whitened bowlders, and the
+turkey buzzards circling over the mountains.
+
+[Illustration: Green-tailed Chewink.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+Just there, in that small open place between the trees,--how well I
+remember the afternoon,--I saw a new bird come out of the bushes; the
+green-tailed chewink he proved to be, on his way back to the Rocky
+Mountains. He was a beautiful stranger with a soft glossy coat touched
+off with yellowish green, while his high-bred gentle manners have made
+me remember him with affectionate interest all these years. Across the
+garden I heard my first song from that unique rhapsodist, the
+yellow-breasted chat. The same place marks another interesting
+experience. While I was sitting in the crotch of an oak a thrasher came
+out of the brush into an open space in front of me. Her feathers were
+disordered and apparently she had come from her nest. She walked with
+wings tight at her sides and her tail up at an angle well out of the way
+of the rustling leaves; altogether a neat alert figure that contrasted
+sharply with the lazy brown chippie which appeared just then in
+characteristic negligée, its wings hanging and tail dragging on the
+ground. The thrashers of Twin Oaks have bills that are curved like a
+sickle, and this bird used her tool most skillfully. Instead of
+scratching up the leaves and earth with her feet as chewinks and
+sparrows do, the thrasher used her bill almost exclusively. First she
+cleared a space by scraping the leaves away, moving her bill through
+them rapidly from side to side. Then she made two holes in the ground,
+probing deep with her long bill. After taking what she could get from
+the second hole, she went back to the first again, as if to see if
+anything had come to the surface there. Then she lay down on the sand to
+sun herself and acted as though going to take a sun bath, when suddenly
+she discovered me and fled.
+
+When watching the bird at work I got a pretty picture in the round disk
+of my opera-glass. The glass was focused on the digging thrasher, but a
+goldfinch came into the picture and pulled at some stems for its nest
+and a cottontail ran rapidly across from rim to rim. I lifted the glass
+to follow him and saw him go trotting down the path between the bushes.
+
+The thrasher's curved bill gives a most ludicrous look to the bird when
+singing. He looks as if he were trying to turn himself inside out. I
+once saw an adult thrasher tease its mate for food, and wondered how it
+would be possible for one curved bill to feed another curved bill; but a
+few days later I came on a family of young, and discovered for myself
+that _they_ have straight bills; a most curious and interesting instance
+of adaptation.
+
+At the head of the garden stands a tree that always reminds me of the
+horses I rode in California. I watched my first bush-tit's nest under
+it, with Canello grazing near; and five years later watched another
+bush-tit's nest there, sitting in the crotch of the oak with Mountain
+Billy looking over my shoulder. Although Billy was, in his prime, a
+bucking mustang, he became more of a petted companion than Canello had
+been; and when we were out alone together, we were a great deal of
+company for each other. As soon as I dismounted he would put his head
+down to have me slip the reins off over his ears, so that he could graze
+by himself. Sometimes, when he stood behind me he rested his bridle on
+my sun-hat, and once went so far as to take a bite out of the brim--in
+consideration of its being straw. If I were sitting on the ground and he
+was grazing near, he would at times walk up and gravely raise his face
+to look into mine. When he got tired, he would rub up against my arm and
+yawn, looking down at me with a friendly smile in his eyes.
+
+Birding was rather dull for Billy--when there was neither grass nor
+poison ivy at hand, but he had one never-failing source of
+enjoyment--rolling. He tried it in the sand under the oak, one day, with
+the saddle on. Before I knew what he was about he was down on his knees,
+sitting still, with a comical, helpless look in his eyes, as if quite at
+a loss to know what to do next, having become conscious of the saddle.
+When I had gotten him on his feet and finished lecturing him I uncinched
+the saddle, laid it one side on the ground, took hold of the end of the
+long bridle, and told him to roll. A droll abstracted look came into
+his eyes, he dropped on his knees and, with a sudden convulsion, threw
+his heels into the air and rolled back and forth, rubbing his backbone
+vigorously on the sand. After that, the first thing every morning when
+we got to the oaks, I unsaddled him and let him roll, and then he would
+stand with bare back keeping cool in the shade of the trees.
+
+One morning as we stood under the bush-tit's tree, I discovered a pair
+of turtle doves looking out at me from the leaves of the small oak
+opposite, craning their necks and moving their heads uneasily. One of
+them seemed to be shaping a nest of twigs. I drew Billy around between
+us, so that my staring would seem less pointed, and when one of the pair
+flew to the ground to spy at me, hurriedly looked the other way to
+remove his anxiety. His mate soon joined him, and the two doves walked
+away together, fixed their feathers in the sun, stretched their wings,
+and lazily picked at the ground. When one whirred back to the nest, the
+other soon followed. The gentle lovers put their bills together, while,
+unnoticed, I stood behind Billy, looking on and thinking that it was
+little wonder such birds should rise from the ground with a musical
+whirr.
+
+Billy's oak was the last of the high trees in the garden. Above it was a
+grassy space where bright wild flowers bloomed, and pretty cottontail
+rabbits often went ambling over the soft turf. On one side of the
+opening was a low stocky oak, full of balls of mistletoe, and on the
+other a great blossoming bush buzzing with hummingbirds. The mistletoe
+had begun to sap the little oak, and on one of its dead twigs a
+hummingbird had taken to perching. I wondered if he were the idle mate
+of one of my small garden builders, but he sat and sunned himself as if
+his conscience were quite clear.
+
+My first experience with gnatcatchers had been here. I suspected a nest,
+and the ranchman's daughter went with me to hunt through the brush. She
+cautioned me to look out for rattlesnakes, but the brush was so dense
+and the ground so covered with crooked snake-like sticks that it was not
+an easy matter to tell what you were stepping on. Then, the poison oak
+was so thick that I felt like holding up my hands to avoid it. We pushed
+our way through the dense chaparral, and my fearless companion got down
+on her hands and knees to look through the tangle for the nest. It was
+hard disagreeable work, even if one did not object to snakes, and we
+were soon so tired that we were ready to sit down and let the birds show
+us to their house. We might have saved ourselves all the trouble if we
+had done this to begin with, for it was only a few moments before the
+little pair went to the mistletoe oak, out in plain sight and within
+easy reach--how they would have laughed in their sleeves had they known
+what we were hunting for back in the brush! The nest was about the size
+of a chilicothe pod, and so covered with lichen that it looked just like
+a knot on the tree.
+
+Around the blossoming bush the air fairly vibrated with hummers, darting
+up into the sky, shooting down and chasing each other pell
+mell--sometimes almost into my face. As I sat by the bush one day, a
+handsome male went around with upraised throat, poking his bill up the
+red fuchsia-like tubes. Another one was flying around inside the bush,
+and I edged nearer to see. The sun shone in, whitening the twigs, and as
+the bird whirred about with a soft burring sound, I caught gleams of
+red, gold, and green from his gorget, and could see the tiny bird rest
+his wee feet on a twig to reach up to a blossom. Then he hummed what
+sounded more like a love song than anything I had ever heard from a
+hummingbird. He seemed so much more like a real bird than any of his
+brothers that I felt attracted to him.
+
+One morning a little German girl, in a red pinafore, and with hair
+flying, came riding down the sand stream toward my bush. Her colt reared
+and pranced, but she sat as firmly as if she had been a small centaur.
+It was a holiday, and she was staking out her horses to graze, making
+gala-day work of it. She had one horse down by the little oak already,
+and springing off the one she had brought, changed about, jumped as
+lightly as a bird upon the other's back and raced home. Soon she came
+galloping back again, and so she went and came until tired out, for pure
+fun on her free holiday.
+
+In looking over the bright memory pictures of my beautiful oak garden,
+there is one to which I always return. The spreading trunks of a great
+five-stemmed tree on one side of the grove made a dark oaken couch,
+screened by the leafy willow-like branches that hung to the ground.
+Here--after looking to see that there were no rattlesnakes coiled in the
+dead leaves--I spent many a dreamy hour, reclining idly as I listened to
+the free songs of the birds that could not see me behind my curtain. It
+was interesting to note the way certain sounds predominated; certain
+songs would absorb one's attention, and then pass and be replaced by
+others. At one time a jay's scream would jar on the ear and drown all
+other voices; when that had passed, the chewinks would fly up from the
+leaves and sing and answer each other till the air was quivering with
+their trills. Then came the thrashers, with their loud rollicking songs;
+and when they had pitched down into the brush, out rang the clear
+bell-like tones of the wren-tit, filling the air with sound. Afterwards
+the impatient whipped-out notes of the chaparral vireo were followed by
+the soft cooing of doves; and then, as the wind stirred the trees and
+sent the loosened oak blossoms drifting to the ground, from high out of
+an oak top came a most exquisite song. At the first note of this
+grosbeak all other songs were forgotten--they were noise and
+chatter--this was pure music. It was like passing from the cries of the
+street into the hall of a symphony concert. The black-headed grosbeak
+has not the spirituality of the hermit thrush, and his ordinary song is
+not so remarkable, but his love song excels that of any bird I have ever
+heard in finish, rich melody, and music. As I listened, my surroundings
+harmonized so perfectly with the wonderful song echoing through the
+great trees that the old oak garden seemed an enchanted bower. The
+drooping branches were a leafy lattice through which the afternoon sun
+filtered, steeping the oaks in thick still sunshine. Last year's leaves
+drifted slowly to the ground, while the bees droned about the yellow
+tassels of the blooming trees. As a violinist, lingering to perfect a
+note, draws his bow again and again over the strings, so this rapt
+musician dwelt tenderly on his highest notes, trolling them over till
+each was more exquisite and tender than the last, and the ear was
+charmed with his love song--a song of ideal love fit to be dreamed of in
+this stately green oak garden filled with golden sunlight.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+A MYSTERIOUS TRAGEDY.
+
+
+ON a peg just inside the door of the ranchman's old wine shed hung one
+of the horses' unused nosebags. A lad on the place told me that a wren
+had a nest in it, and added that he had seen a fight between the wren
+and a pair of linnets who seemed to be trying to steal her material.
+
+The first time I went to the wine shed both wrens and linnets were
+there, but nothing happened and I forgot about the original quarrel. By
+peering through a crack in the boarding I could look down on the wren in
+the nosebag inside. I could see her dark eyes, the white line over them,
+and her black barred tail. She was Vigor's wren. She got so tame that
+she would not stir when the creaking door was opened close by her, or
+when people were talking in the shed; and I used to go often to see how
+her affairs were progressing.
+
+All her eggs hatched in time, and the small birds, from being at first
+all eyeball, soon got to be all bill. When I opened the bag to look at
+them, the light woke them up and they opened their mouths, showing
+chasms of yellow throat.
+
+The mother bird fed them several times when I was watching only a few
+feet away. She would come ambling along in the pretty wren fashion, with
+her tail over her back; creeping down the side of a lath, running behind
+a rafter, scolding as though to make conversation, and then winding down
+to the nest through a crack. One day she hesitated, and waited to spy at
+me, since I had thought it polite to stare at her! When satisfied, she
+hopped along from beam to beam, her bright eyes still upon me. Then her
+mate joined her. He had been suspicious of me at our first meeting, but
+apparently had changed his mind, for, seeing his spouse hesitate, he
+glanced at me unconcernedly, as much as to say, "Is she all you're
+waiting for?" and flew out, leaving her to my tender mercies. She hopped
+meekly into the bag after that rebuke, but stretched up to peer at me
+once more before settling down inside.
+
+One day when I looked in to see how wren matters were progressing, to my
+amazement and horror, instead of my wren's nest I found another, high in
+the mouth of the bag with one fresh egg in it! The egg was a linnet's,
+and the nest had been built right on top of the wren's. Such a stench
+came from the bag that I took out the upper nest and found the four
+little wrens dead in their crib.
+
+[Illustration: The Nosebag Nest.
+
+(Vigors's Wren.)]
+
+I had become very fond of the winsome mother bird, and so much
+interested in her brood that this horrid discovery came like a tragedy
+in the family of a friend.
+
+And what did it all mean? Unless the old wrens had been dead, could the
+linnets have gotten possession? The wrens were usually able to hold
+their own in a discussion. If the nestlings had been alive, would the
+linnets--would any bird--have built upon them, deliberately burying them
+alive? It seemed too diabolical. On the other hand, what could have
+killed the little wrens and left them in the nest? If they had been dead
+when the linnets came to build, how could the birds have chosen such a
+sepulchre for a building site?
+
+Grieving over my little friends, I cleaned out the nosebag and hung it
+up on its peg. Three weeks later I discovered, to my great perplexity,
+that a pair of wrens had built in the bottom of the bag and had one egg
+in the nest. Now, was this the same pair of birds that had built there
+before, and if so, what did it all mean?
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+HOW I HELPED BUILD A NEST.
+
+
+THEY picked out their crack in the oak and began to build without any
+advice from me, winning little gray-crested titmice that they were.
+Their oak was right behind the ranch-house barn; I found it by hearing
+the bird sing there. The little fellow, warmed by his song, flitted up
+the tree a branch higher after each repetition of his loud cheery
+_tu-whit', tu-whit', tu-whit', tu-whit'_. Meanwhile his pretty mate,
+with bits of stick in her bill, walked down a crack in the oak trunk.
+
+Thinking she had gone, I went to examine the place. I poked about with a
+twig but couldn't find the nest till, down in the bottom of the crack, I
+spied a little gray head and a pair of bright eyes looking up at me. The
+bird started forward as if to dart out, but changed her mind and stayed
+in while I took a hasty look and fled, more frightened than she by the
+intrusion.
+
+The titmice had been flying back and forth from the hen-yard with
+chicken's feathers, and it seemed such slow work for them I thought I
+would help them. So the next day, when the pair were away, I stuffed a
+few white feathers into the mouth of the nest and withdrew under the
+shadow of the barn to watch through my glass without being observed.
+Then my conscience began to trouble me. What if this interference should
+drive the gentle bird to desert her nest?
+
+[Illustration: The Plain Titmouse in her Doorway.]
+
+When I heard the familiar chickadee call--the titmouse often chirrups
+like his cousin--it made me quake guiltily. What would the birds do? The
+gray pair came flying in with crests raised, and my small friend hopped
+down to her doorway. She gave a start of surprise at sight of the
+feathers, but after a moment's hesitation went bravely in! While she was
+inside, her mate waited in the tree, singing for her; and when she came
+out, he flew away with her. Then I crept up to the oak, and to my
+delight found that all the feathers had disappeared. She evidently
+believed in taking what the gods provide. In fact, she seemed only to
+wish that they would provide more, for, after taking a second supply
+from me, she stood in the vestibule, cocked her crested head, and looked
+about as if expecting to see new treasures.
+
+She had common-sense enough to take what she found at hand, but if she
+had not been such a plucky little builder she would have been scared
+away by the strange sights that afterwards met her at her nest. Once
+when she came, feathers were sticking in the bark all around the crack.
+She hesitated--the rush of her flight probably fanned the air so the
+white plumes waved in her face--she hesitated and looked around timidly
+before getting courage to go in; and on leaving the nest flew away in
+nervous haste; but she was soon back again, and ready to take the
+feathers down inside the oak. She caught hold of the tip of one that was
+wedged into a crack, and tugged and tugged till I was afraid she would
+get discouraged and go off without it. She got it, however, and drew it
+in backwards. Then she attacked another feather, but finding that it
+came harder than the first, let go her hold and took an easier one. She
+was not to be daunted, though, and after stowing away the loose one came
+back for the tight one again, and persevered till she bent it in several
+places, besides breaking off the tip.
+
+When she had flown off, I jumped up, ran to the oak, and stuffed the
+doorway full of feathers. Before I had finished, the family sentinel
+caught me--I had been in too much of a hurry and he had heard me walking
+over the cornstalks. He eyed me suspiciously and gave vent to his
+disapproval, but I addressed him in such friendly terms that he soon
+flew off and talked to his mate reassuringly, as if he had decided that
+it was all right after all. After their conversation she came back and
+made the best of her way right down through the feather-bed! I went away
+delighted with her perseverance, and charmed by her confidence and
+pretty performances.
+
+The next day I heard the titmouse singing in an elder by the kitchen,
+and went out to see how the birds acted when gathering their own
+material. The songster was idly hunting through the branches, singing,
+while his mate--busy little housewife--was hard at work getting her
+building stuff. She had something in her beak when I caught sight of
+her, but in an instant was down on the ground after another bit. Then
+she flew up in the tree looking among the leaves; in passing she swung
+a moment on a strap hanging from a branch; then flew down among the
+weeds, back up in the tree again; and so back and forth, over and over,
+her bill getting fuller and fuller.
+
+I was glad to save her work, and interested to see how far she would
+accept my help. Once when I blocked the entrance with feathers and
+horsehair she stopped, and, though her bill was full, picked up the
+packet and flew out on a branch with it. Was she going to throw away my
+present? For a moment my faith in her was shaken. Perhaps her mate had
+been warning her to beware of me. She did drop the mat of
+horsehair--what did such a dainty Quaker lady as she want of
+horsehair?--but she kept tight hold of one of the feathers, although it
+was almost as big as she was; and flew back quickly to the nest with it.
+
+This performance proved one point. She would not take everything that
+was brought to her. She preferred to hunt for her own materials rather
+than use what she did not like. Now the question was, what did she like?
+
+My next experiment was with some lamp wick to which I had tied bits of
+cotton. The titmouse took the cotton and would have taken the wicking, I
+think, if it had not been fastened in too tight for her. After that I
+tried tying bits of cotton to strings, and letting them dangle before
+the mouth of the nest. Though I moved up to within twenty feet of the
+nest, she paid no attention to me but hurried in. She liked the cotton
+so well she stopped in her hallway, reached up to pull at the white
+bundles, and tweaked and tugged till, finally, she backed triumphantly
+down the hole with one.
+
+Her mate, less familiar with my experiments, started to go to the nest
+after her, but the sight of the cotton scared him so he fled
+ignominiously back into the treetop. He stayed there singing till she
+came out, when he flew up to her with a dainty he had discovered--at
+least the two put their bills together; perhaps it was just a caress,
+for they were a tender, gentle little pair.
+
+Having proved that my bird liked feathers and cotton, I wanted to see
+what she thought of straws. Apparently she did not think much of them.
+She looked very much dashed when she came home and found the yellow
+sticks protruding from the nest hole. She hesitated, turned her head
+over, flew to a twig on one side of the oak and then back to one on the
+other side. Finally she mustered courage, and with her crest flattened
+as if she did not like it, darted down into the hole. When she flew out,
+however, she went right to her mate, and forgetting all her troubles at
+sight of him, fluttered her wings and lisped like a young bird as she
+put up her bill to have him feed her.
+
+Perhaps it was unkind to bother the poor bird any more, but I meant her
+no harm and the fever for experiment possessed my blood. I tied some of
+the straws to a piece of wicking and baited it with feathers, thinking
+that perhaps she would take the straws for the sake of the feathers and
+wicking. I also stuffed the hole with horsehair. She did pull at the
+feather end of the line; I saw the straw jerk, and, when she had left,
+found a round hole the brave little bird had made right through the
+middle of the mat of horsehair I had stopped the nest with.
+
+Straws and horsehair the titmouse evidently classed together. They were
+not on her list of building materials. On reflection she decided that
+the horsehair would make a good hall carpet, so left it in the
+vestibule, though she would have none of it down in her nest; but she
+calmly threw my straws down on the ground at the foot of the oak.
+
+I don't know what experiments I might have been tempted to try next had
+I not suddenly found myself dismissed--the house was complete. My pretty
+Quaker lady sat in the shade of the oak leaves with crest raised and the
+flickering sunlight flecking her gray breast. She pecked softly at one
+of the white feathers that blew up against her as she listened to the
+song of her mate; and then flew away to him without once going to the
+nest. Evidently her work was done, and she was waiting till it should be
+time to begin brooding.
+
+Ten days later I saw her mate come with his bill full of worms and lean
+down by the hole to call her. She answered with a sweet pleading
+twitter, and reached up to be fed. When he had gone, perhaps she thought
+she would like a second bite. At any rate, she hopped out in the doorway
+and flew off to another tree, calling out _tsché-de-de_ so sweetly he
+would surely have come back to her had he been within hearing.
+
+A few days later I saw him feed her at the nest five or six times in
+half an hour. He would come to the next oak, light and call to her, when
+she would answer from inside the tree trunk and he would go to her. I
+was near enough to see her pretty gray head and black eyes coming up out
+of the crack in the oak. Sometimes when he had fed her he would call out
+and she would answer as if saying good-by from down in the nest. One
+morning I found the devoted little mate bringing her breakfast to her at
+half past six.
+
+Nearly a month later they were feeding their young. The winsome mother
+bird, who had looked so tired and nest-worn the last time I saw her, was
+now as plump and happy as her spouse. When I thought the pair were away,
+I went to try to get sight of the nestlings down the hole. The old birds
+appeared as soon as I set foot by the oak and took upon themselves to
+scold me. They chattered softly in a way they had never done before.
+They quickly got used to me again, however, and fed the little ones
+without hesitation right before me, knowing full well that a person who
+had helped them build their nest would never harm their little brood;
+and it was a disappointment when I had to go away and leave the winning
+family.
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+IN OUR NEIGHBOR'S DOOR-YARD.
+
+
+THE little German girl with the scarlet pinafore was a near neighbor,
+living at the head of the valley in a cottage surrounded by great
+live-oaks. These trees were alive with birds. Bush-tits flew back and
+forth, busily hanging their gray pockets among the leafy folds of the
+drooping branches; blue jays flew through, squawking on their way to the
+brush; goldfinches, building in the orchard, lisped sweetly as they
+rested in the oaks; and a handsome oriole who was building in the grove
+flew overhead so slowly he seemed to be retarded by the fullness of his
+own sweet song. But I had become so fond of the gentle gray titmouse
+whose nest I had helped to build, that of all the bird songs in the
+trees, its cheery _tu-whit', tu-whit', tu-whit'_ was most enticing to
+me. How delightful it would be to watch another pair of the winning
+workers! I did see one of the birds enter a hollow branch, one day, and
+not long after saw it go down a hole in an oak trunk; but never saw it
+afterwards in either place. Back and forth I followed that elusive
+voice, hoping to discover the nest, but I suspect the bird was only
+prospecting, and had not even begun to work.
+
+The little German Gretchen became interested in the search for the
+titmouse's nest, and told me that a gray bird had built in an oak in
+front of her house. I rode right over to see it, but found the gray bird
+a female Mexican bluebird, whose brilliant ultramarine mate sat on the
+fence of the vegetable garden in plain sight. The children kept better
+watch of the nest after that, and a few days later, when in my attic
+study, I heard the tramp of a horse, and, looking out, found my little
+friend under the window, come to tell me that the eggs had hatched. When
+her older sister came for the washing I asked her if she had seen the
+old birds go to the nest, and she said, "Yes; one was blue and the other
+gray."
+
+When I rode up again, the young had grown so that from the saddle I
+could look down the hole and see their big mouths and bristling
+pin-feathers. The mother bird was about the tree, and her soft dull
+coloring toned in well with the gray bark. The bluebirds had a double
+front door, and went in one side to come out the other. I saw both of
+them feed the young, the male flying into the hole straight from the
+fence post.
+
+It seemed such hard work finding worms out in the hot sun that I
+wondered if birds' eyes ever ached from the intentness of their search,
+and if there were near-sighted birds. Perhaps the intervals of feeding
+depend on the worm supply rather than the dietary principles of the
+parents.
+
+Gretchen's mother was bending over her wash-tubs out under the oaks, and
+I called her attention to the pretty birds brooding in her door-yard,
+telling her that they were good friends of hers, eating up the worms
+that destroyed her flowers and vegetables. "So?" she asked, but seemed
+ready to let the subject drop there, and hurried back to her work. A
+poor widow with a large family of children and a ranch to look after can
+find little time, even in beautiful California, to enjoy what Nature
+places in her door-yard.
+
+Three weeks later Gretchen came riding down to tell me that there were
+eggs in the tree again. The bluebird bid fair to be as hardworked as the
+widow, at that rate, I thought, when I went up to look at them. The
+children showed me the nest of a goldfinch, near the ground, in one of
+the little orange-trees in front of the house. They also pointed out
+linnets' nests in the vines by the door, and the oldest child said
+eagerly, "When we came home from school there was a hummingbird in the
+window, and we caught it," adding, "I think it must have been a father
+hummingbird." "Why?" I asked, "was it pretty?" "Yes, it just shined,"
+she exclaimed enthusiastically.
+
+When the family were at home, their puppy would bark at us furiously,
+and follow us about suspiciously, but when he had been left on the
+ranch alone he was glad of our society. Then when I watched the
+bluebirds, he came and curled down by my side, becoming so friendly that
+he actually grew jealous of Billy, and turned to have me caress him each
+time that the little horse walked up to have the flies brushed off his
+nose, or having pulled up a bunch of grass by the roots, brought it for
+me to hold so that he could eat it without getting the dirt in his
+mouth.
+
+Going home one day, Billy came upon a gopher snake. Now Canello had been
+brought up in a rattlesnake country, and was always on his guard, but
+Billy was 'raised' in the mountains, where snakes are scarce, and did
+not seem to know what they were. He had given me a good deal of anxiety
+by this indifference--he had stepped over a big one once without seeing
+any need for haste--and I had been expecting that he would get bitten.
+Here, then, was my chance to give him a scare. The gopher snake was
+harmless; perhaps, if I could get him so close to it that he would see
+it wriggle away from under his feet, he might be less indifferent to
+rattlers.
+
+The gopher snake was three or four feet long, and lay as straight as a
+stick across our path. As I urged Billy up beside it, he actually
+stepped on the tip of its tail. The poor snake writhed a little, but
+gave no other sign of pain; its rôle was to remain a stick. And Billy
+certainly acted as if it were. I threw the reins on his neck, thinking
+that if he put his head down to graze he might make a discovery. Then a
+horrid thought came to me. The people said the rattlers sometimes lost
+their rattles. In a general way, rattlers and gopher snakes look alike;
+what if this were a rattlesnake, and at my bidding my little horse
+should be struck! But no. There was no mistaking the long tapering body
+of the gopher, and it lacked the wide flat head of the rattler. But I
+might have spared myself my fears. Billy would not even put his head
+down, and when I tried to force him upon the snake he quietly turned
+aside. To make the snake move, I threw a stick at it, but it was as
+obstinate as Billy himself. Then I slipped to the ground, and picking up
+a long pole gave it a gingerly little poke. Still motionless! I tried
+another plan, taking Billy away a few yards. Then at last the snake
+slowly pulled itself along. But the moment we came back it turned into a
+stick again, and Billy relapsed into indifference. It was no use. I
+could do nothing with either of them. I would see the snake go off,
+anyway, I thought, so withdrew and waited till it felt reassured, when
+it started. Its silken skin shone as it wormed silently through the
+grass and disappeared down a hole without a sound, and I reflected that
+it might also come _up_ without a sound, very likely beside me as I sat
+on the dead leaves!
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+WHICH WAS THE MOTHER BIRD?
+
+
+THE second time I went to California the little whitewashed adobe
+opposite my ranch was still standing, but an acacia-tree had grown over
+the well where the black phœbe had nested, and the shaft was so
+overrun with bushes and vines that it was hard to find a trace of it.
+Drawn by pleasant memories, I rode in one morning, sure of finding
+something interesting about the old place.
+
+I had not waited long before the chip of a young bird came from the
+vines over the well. It proved a callow nestling, with no tail, and
+little to mark its parentage. Presently a brown long-tailed wren-tit
+came with food in its bill and peered down through the leaves at it; and
+then a California towhee came and sat around till satisfied as to whose
+child was crying. A moment later a lazuli bunting flew over with food in
+her bill, and I at once bethought me of the lazuli-like markings, the
+brownish wing-bars and the sharp cry of "quit," which none but a lazuli
+could give. That surely was my bird.
+
+But if so, what did this interest on the part of the wren-tit mean? She
+hopped about the nestling with tail up and crest raised, chattering to
+it in low mysterious tones; and when I suspected her of giving her worm
+to it, suddenly turned her head and looked away with a suspiciously
+non-committal air. The lazuli, however, sat indifferently on a branch
+and plumed her feathers, though when she did fly down toward the young
+one, the wren-tit gave way. But even then the lazuli did not feed the
+small bird. When she had gone, the wren-tit came back. She spoke low to
+the nestling, and drew it down into the thick part of the tangle where I
+could not see them, though there was a hint of tiny quivering wings, and
+I was morally certain that the old bird was feeding it, especially when
+she flew up in sight with the smart air of having outwitted me.
+
+I was getting more and more bewildered. What did it all mean? Were there
+two families of young down in the tangle? If not, why were two old birds
+feeding one little one, and to which mother did the child belong? The
+wisdom of Solomon was needed to solve the riddle.
+
+The wren-tit simply devoted herself to the little bird, going and coming
+for it constantly; while the lazuli, ordinarily the most nervous noisy
+bird when her young are disturbed, sat around silently, or flew away
+without remark. I became so impressed by the wren-tit side of the case
+that I quite forgot the lazuli note and markings.
+
+Just as I thought I had come to a decision in the case, a male lazuli
+flew in, lighting atilt of an acacia stalk opposite the wren-tit. But
+when he saw me he craned his neck and flew off in a hurry--no father,
+surely, scared away at the first glimpse of me! However, I was not clear
+in my mind, and sat down to puzzle the matter out.
+
+At this juncture Madame Lazuli came with food; the young bird turned
+toward her for it, and behold! she took to her wings with all she had
+brought. I had hardly time to congratulate myself on this new piece of
+testimony, when back came the lazuli with her bill full!
+
+In my perplexity I moved so near the little one that, without meaning
+to, I forced the old birds to show their true colors. The situation was
+too dangerous to admit of further subterfuge. Both Madame Lazuli and her
+handsome blue mate--whom I discovered at a safe distance up on a high
+branch out of reach--flew down and dashed about, twitching their tails
+from side to side as they cried "quit," in nervous tones; altogether
+acting so much like anxious parents that I had to relinquish my theory
+that the little bird belonged to the wren-tit. Like the mother whom
+Solomon judged, she forgot all else when real danger threatened the
+child. Having come to my decision from circumstantial evidence, I
+remembered with a start that I had known it all the time, from the
+wing-bars and the call note! Nevertheless, my riddle was only half
+solved, for how about the wren-tit?
+
+A young bird called from the sycamore at the corner of the adobe, and
+when both old birds flew over to it, I thought I'd better follow. I got
+there just in time to see a little bird light in the elbow of a limb,
+totter as if going to fall, and save itself by snuggling up in the
+elbow, where it sat in the sun looking very cozy and comfortable--winning
+little tot. The mother lazuli started to come to it, but seeing me flew
+away to another branch, where, well screened, she stretched up on her
+toes to look at me over the top of a big sycamore leaf. Though the
+fledgling called, the mother left without going to it.
+
+The wren-tit had stayed behind at the well; but while the lazuli was
+gone, who should come flying in but the foster mother! I was astonished.
+Moreover, the instant the youngster set eyes on her, it started up and
+flew to her--actually flew into her in its hurry. She admonished it
+gently, in a soft chattering voice, for she could not scold it.
+
+When the lazuli came back with food, it was only to see her little bird
+flying off to the other side of the tree after the wren-tit! I thought
+she seemed bewildered, but she followed in their wake--we all followed.
+Here came a closer test. Both lazuli and wren-tit stood before the small
+bird. Which would it go to? The lazuli kept silent, but the wren-tit
+called softly and the little one raised its wings and flew toward her,
+leaving its mother behind.
+
+I watched and waited, but the wren-tit did not give over her kind
+offices, and the last I saw of the birds, on riding away, the three were
+flying in procession across the brush, the lazuli following its mother
+and the wren-tit bringing up the rear.
+
+I went home very much puzzled. Was the wren-tit a lonely mother bird who
+had lost her own little ones, or was she merely an old maid with a warm
+spot in her heart for other peoples' little folks?
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.
+
+A RARE BIRD.
+
+
+WE may say that we care naught for the world and its ways, but most of
+us are more or less tricked by the high-sounding titles of the mighty.
+Even plain-thinking observers come under the same curse of Adam, and,
+like the snobs who turn scornfully from Mr. Jones to hang upon the words
+of Lord Higginbottom, will pass by a plain _brown chippie_ to study with
+enthusiasm the ways of a _phainopepla_! Sometimes, however, in
+ornithology as in the world, a name does cover more than its letters,
+and we are duped into making some interesting discoveries as well as
+learning some of the important lessons in life. In the case of the
+phainopepla, no hopes that could be raised by his cognomen would equal
+the rare pleasure afforded by a study of his unusual ways.
+
+[Illustration: THE PHAINOPEPLAS ON THE PEPPER-TREE]
+
+On my first visit to Twin Oaks I caught but brief glimpses of this
+distinguished bird. Sometimes for a moment he lit on a bare limb and I
+had a chance to admire his high black crest and glossy blue-black coat,
+which with one more touch of color would become iridescent. He was so
+slenderly formed, and his shining coat was so smooth and trim, he
+made me think of a bird of glass perched on a tree. But while I gazed at
+him he would launch into the air and wing his way high over the valley
+to the hillsides beyond, leaving me to marvel at the white disks on his
+wings, hidden when perching, but in air making him suggest a black ship
+with white sails.
+
+His appearance was so elegant and his ways so unusual that I went back
+East regretting I had not given more time to a bird who was so
+individual, and resolved that if I ever returned to California my first
+pleasure should be to study him. When the time finally came, an
+ornithologist friend who knew my plans wrote, exclaiming, "Do study the
+phainopeplas!" and added that she felt like making a journey to
+California to see that one bird.
+
+From the middle of March till the middle of May I watched and waited for
+the phainopeplas. There had been only a few of the birds before, and I
+began to fear they had left the valley. When despairing of them,
+suddenly one day I saw a black speck cross over to the hills. I wanted
+to drop my work and follow, but went on with my rounds, and one bright
+morning on my way home after a discouraging hunt for nests, a pair of
+phainopeplas flew up right before my eyes almost within sight of the
+house. I dropped down behind a bush, and in a moment more the birds flew
+to a little oak by the road--a tree I had been sitting under that very
+morning! The female seated herself on top of the oak, watching me with
+raised crest, while her mate disappeared in a dark mat of leaves,
+probably mistletoe, where he stayed so long that the possibility of a
+nest waxed to a probability, and I made a rapid but ecstatic ascent to
+the observer's seventh heaven. A phainopepla's nest right on my own
+doorsill! I could hardly restrain my impatience, and was tempted to shoo
+the birds away so I could go to the nest; when suddenly they opened
+their wings and, crossing the valley, disappeared up a side canyon!
+Pulling myself together and reflecting that I might have known better
+than to imagine there would be a nest so near home, I took up my
+camp-stool and trudged back to the house.
+
+After that came a number of tantalizing hints. When watching the third
+gnatcatcher's nest I had seen a pair of phainopeplas flying suggestively
+back and forth from the brush to the various oaks, and thought the
+handsome lover fed his mate as his relative the gentle high-bred waxwing
+does. Surely the wooing of these beautiful birds should be carried on
+with no less fine feeling, courtesy, and tenderness; and so it seems to
+be. The black knight flew low over my head slowly, as if inspecting me,
+and then came again with his lady, as if having said, "Dear one, I would
+consult you upon this impending danger."
+
+After that, something really delightful came about. Day by day, on
+riding back to our ranch-house, I found phainopeplas there eating the
+berries of the pepper-trees in our front yard. Before long the birds
+began coming early in the morning; their voices were the first sounds we
+heard on awakening and almost the last at night, and soon we realized
+the delightful fact that our trees had become the feeding ground for all
+the phainopeplas of the valley. Altogether there were five or six pairs.
+It was a pretty sight to see the black satiny birds perched on one of
+the delicate sprays of the willowy pepper-trees, hanging over the
+grape-like clusters, to pluck the small pink berries. The birds soon
+grew very friendly, and, though they gave a cry of warning when the cats
+appeared, became so tame they would answer my calls and let me watch
+them from the piazza steps, not a rod away.
+
+When they first began to linger about the house we thought they were
+building near, and when one flew into an oak across the road, almost
+gave me palpitation of the heart by the suggestion. But no nest was
+there, and when the bird flew away it rose obliquely into the air
+perhaps a hundred feet, and then flew on evenly straight across to the
+small oaks on the farther side of a patch of brush that remained in the
+centre of the valley, known to the ranchmen as the 'Island.' The flight
+looked so premeditated that the first thing the next morning, although
+the phainopeplas were at the peppers, I rode on ahead to wait for them
+at their nest. We had not been there long before hearing the familiar
+warning call. Turning Billy in the direction of the sound, I threw his
+reins on his neck to induce him to graze along the way and give our
+presence a more casual air, while I looked up indifferently as if to
+survey the landscape. To my delight the phainopepla did not seem greatly
+alarmed, and, throwing off the assumed indifference that always makes an
+observer feel like a wretched hypocrite, I called and whistled to him as
+I had done at the house, to let him know that it was a familiar friend
+and he had nothing to fear. The beautiful bird started toward me, but on
+second thought retreated. I turned my back, but, to my chagrin, after
+giving a few low warning calls, my bird vanished. Alas, for the
+generations of murderers that have made birds distrust their best
+friends--that make honest observers tremble for what may befall the
+birds if they put trust in but one of the human species!
+
+[Illustration: THE PHAINOPEPLA'S NEST IN THE OAK BRUSH ISLAND]
+
+It was plain that if I would get a study of these rare birds I must make
+a business of it. Slipping from the saddle, I sat down behind a bush and
+waited. When the bird came back and found the place apparently deserted,
+to my relief he seated himself on a twig and sang away as if nothing had
+disturbed his serenity of spirit. But presently the warning call sounded
+again. This time it was for a schoolgirl who had staked out her horse
+on the edge of the island and was crossing over to the schoolhouse. A
+few moments later the bell rang out so loudly that Billy stepped around
+his oak with animation, but the phainopeplas were used to it and showed
+no uneasiness.
+
+Before long a flash of white announced a second bird, and then, after a
+long interval in which nothing happened, the male pitched into a bush
+with beak bristling with building material! My delight knew no bounds.
+Instead of nesting in the top of an oak in a remote canyon, as I had
+been assured the shy birds would do, here they were building in a low
+oak not more than an eighth of a mile from the house, and in plain
+sight. Moreover, they were birds who knew me at home, and so would
+really be much less afraid than strangers, whatever airs they assumed.
+In the photograph, the bare twigs of the perch tree show above the line
+of the horizon; the nest tree is the low oak beside it on the right. One
+thing puzzled me from the outset. While the male worked on the nest, the
+female sat on the outside circle of brush as if having nothing to do, in
+spite of the fact that her gray dress toned in so well with the brush
+that she was quite inconspicuous, while his shining black coat made him
+a clear mark from a distance. What did it mean? I invented all sorts of
+fancies to account for it. Had she been to the pepper-trees so much
+less than he that she was over-troubled by my presence, and therefore
+the gallant black knight who sang to her so sweetly and was so tender of
+her, seeing her fears, took the work upon himself? Perchance he had
+said, "If you are timid, my love, I will build for you while she is by,
+for I would not have you come near if it would disquiet you."
+
+In any event, he built away quite unconcernedly not three rods from
+where I sat on the ground staring at him. He would fly to the earth for
+material, but return to the nest from above, pitching down to it as if
+having nothing to hide. Once, when resting, he perched on the tree, and
+I talked to him quite freely. That noon the phainopeplas were at the
+house before me, and I went out to talk to them while they lunched to
+let them know it was only I who had visited their nest, so they would
+have new confidence on the morrow.
+
+But on the morrow they flew to another part of the island, and when we
+followed, although I hitched Billy farther away from the nest tree and
+sat quietly behind a brush screen, they did not come back. A brown
+chippie plumed his feathers unrebuked in their oak, making the place
+seem more deserted than before. A lizard ran out from the grape cuttings
+at my feet, and a little black and white mephitis cantered along over
+the ground with his back arched and his head down. He nosed around under
+the bushes, showing the white V on his back, exactly like that of our
+eastern species. As I rode home, five turkey buzzards were flying low
+over the edge of the island, and one vulture rose from a meal of one of
+the little black and white animal's relatives, but I saw nothing more of
+my birds that day.
+
+The next day the phainopeplas came again to the pepper-trees and ate
+their fill while I sat on the steps watching. The male was quite
+unconcerned, but when his mate flew near me, he called out sharply; he
+could risk his own life, but not that of his love. Again the pair flew
+back to the high oaks on the far side of the island. All my hopes of the
+first low inaccessible nest vanished. I had driven the birds away. My
+intrusiveness had made me lose the best chance of the whole nesting
+season. But I would try to follow them. It did not seem necessary to
+take Billy. There were only a few trees on that side of the island, and
+it would be a simple matter to locate the birds. I would walk over, find
+in which tree they were building, and spend the morning with them. I
+went. Each oak was encircled by a thick wall of brush, over which it was
+almost impossible to see more than a fraction of the tree, and the high
+oak tops were impenetrable to eye and glass. After chasing phantoms all
+the afternoon I went home with renewed respect for Billy as an adjunct
+to field work. In order to locate anything in chaparral, one must be
+high enough to overlook the mass.
+
+That afternoon I saw a pair of phainopeplas fly up a canyon on the east,
+and another pair fly up another on the west. If I were to know anything
+of these birds, I must not be balked by faulty observing; I must at
+least do intelligent work. Riding in from the back and tying Billy out
+of sight away from the old nest, I swung myself up into a crotch of a
+low oak from which I could overlook the whole island. The phainopeplas
+soon flew in, but to the opposite side, and I was condemning myself for
+having driven them away when, to my amazement, the male flew over and
+shot down into the little oak where he had been building before! My
+self-reproach took a different form--I had not been patient enough.
+Surely if I could wait an hour for an ordinary hummingbird, I could wait
+a morning for an absent phainopepla.
+
+From the nest the beautiful bird flew to the bare oak top behind it
+which he used for a perch, and--alas! gave his warning call. I was
+discovered. He dashed his tail, turned his head to look at me first from
+one side and then from the other, and then flew to the top of the
+highest tree in sight to verify his observations. Whether he recognized
+the object as his pepper-tree acquaintance, I do not know; but to my
+great relief he went back to his work. By this time the little tree
+which had seemed such a comfortable chair had undergone a change--I felt
+as if stretched upon the gridiron of St. Anthony. Climbing down stiffly,
+I kneeled behind the brush and practiced focusing my glass on the nest
+so that it would not catch the light and frighten the bird, when out he
+flew from the nest and sat down facing me in broad daylight! He did not
+say a word, but looked around abstractedly, as if hunting for material.
+
+If he were so indifferent, perhaps it would be safe to creep nearer.
+Following the paths trodden by the bare feet of the school children, and
+spying and skulking, I crept into a good hiding-place about a rod from
+the nest. The ground was covered with dead leaves, and I saw a
+suggestive round hole--a very large rattlesnake had been killed a few
+rods away the week before. I covered the hole with my cloak and then sat
+down on the lid--nothing could come up while I was there, at all events.
+
+The phainopepla worked busily for some time, flying rapidly back and
+forth with material. Then came the warning cry. I drew in my note-book
+from the sun so that it should not catch his eye, and waited. The hot
+air grew hotter, beating down on my head. A big lizard wriggled over the
+leaves, and I thought of my rattlesnake. Then Billy sneezed in a forced
+way, as though to remind me not to go off without him. Growing
+restless, I moved the bushes a little--they were so stiff they made a
+very good chair-back if one got into the right position--when suddenly,
+looking up I saw my phainopepla friend vault into the air from a bush
+behind me, where, apparently, he had been sitting taking notes of his
+own! What observers birds are, to be sure! The best of us have much to
+learn from them.
+
+But though the phainopepla was most watchful, he was open to conviction,
+and he and his mate at last concluded that I meant them no harm.
+Afterwards, when I moved, they both came and looked at me, but went
+about their business quite unmindful of me.
+
+As I had seen from the outset, the male did almost all the building.
+When his spouse came in sight he burst out into a tender joyous love
+song. She went to the nest now and again, but generally when she came it
+was to sun herself on the bare perch tree, where she dressed her plumes
+or merely sat with crest raised and her soft gray feathers fluffed about
+her feet, while waiting for her mate to get leisure to take a run with
+her.
+
+When he had finished his stint and she was not about, he would take his
+turn on the perch tree, his handsome glossy black coat shining in the
+sun. If an unwitting neighbor lit on his tree he would flatten his
+crest and dash down indignantly, but for the most part he perched
+quietly except to make short sallies into the air for insects, sometimes
+singing as he went; or he just warbled to himself contentedly, what
+sounded like the chattering run of a swallow on the wing. One day we had
+quite a conversation. His simplest call note was like the call of a
+young robin, and while I answered him he gave his note seventeen times
+in one minute, and eleven times in the next half minute.
+
+The birds had a great variety of calls and songs, most of which were
+vivacious and cheering and seemed attuned to the warmth and brightness
+of the California sunshine. The quality of the love song was rich and
+flute-like.
+
+The male phainopepla seemed to enjoy life in general and his work in
+particular. He frequently sang to himself when going for material; and
+once, apparently, when on the nest. When he was building I could see his
+black head move about between the leaves. Like the gnatcatchers, he used
+only fine bits of material, but he did not drill them in as they did. He
+merely laid them in, or at most wove them in gently. Now and then, as
+the black head moved in front, the black tail would tilt up behind at
+the back of the nest as if the bird were moulding; but there was
+comparatively little of that. When completed, the nest was a soft felty
+structure.
+
+When working, the male would fly back and forth from the ground to the
+nest, carrying his bits of plant stem, oak blossom, and other fine
+stuff. He worked so rapidly that it kept me busy recording his visits.
+He once went to the nest four times in four minutes; at another time,
+seventeen times in a little over an hour. Sometimes he stayed only half
+a minute; when he stayed three minutes, it was so unusual that I
+recorded it. He worked spasmodically, however. One day he came seventeen
+times in one hour, but during the next half hour came only five times.
+The birds seemed to divide their mornings into quite regular periods.
+When I awoke at half past five I would hear them at the pepper-trees
+breakfasting; and some of them were generally there as late as eight
+o'clock. From eight to ten they worked with a will, though the visits
+usually fell off after half past nine. It was when working in this more
+deliberate way that the male would go to his perch on an adjoining tree
+and preen himself, catch flies, or sing between his visits. Once he sat
+on the limb in front of the nest for nearly ten minutes. By ten o'clock
+I found that I might as well go to watch other birds, as little would be
+going on with the phainopeplas; and they often flew off for a lunch of
+peppers.
+
+Just as the island nest was about done--it was destroyed! I found it on
+the ground under the tree. For a time I felt as if no nests could come
+to anything; the number that had been destroyed during the season was
+disheartening. It seemed as though I no sooner got interested in a
+little family than its home was broken up. Sometimes I wondered how a
+bird ever had courage to start a nest.
+
+But though it was hard to reconcile myself to the destruction of the
+phainopeplas' nest, I found others later. Altogether, I saw three pairs
+of birds building, and in each case the male was doing most of the work.
+Two of the nests I watched closely, watch and note-book in hand, in
+order to determine the exact proportion of work done by each bird. One
+nest was watched two hours and a half, during a period of five days, in
+which time the male went to the nest twenty-seven times, the female,
+only three. The other nest was watched seven hours and thirty-five
+minutes, during a period of ten days, in which time the male was at the
+nest fifty-seven times; the female, only eight. Taking the total for the
+two nests: in ten hours and five minutes the male went to the nest
+eighty-four times; the female, eleven. That is to say, the females made
+only thirteen per cent of the visits. In reality, although they went to
+the nest eleven times, the ratio of work might safely be reduced still
+further; for in watching them I was convinced that, as a rule, they came
+to the nest, not to build, but to inspect the building done by their
+mates. Indeed, at one nest, I saw nothing to make me suspect that the
+female did any of the work. Her coming was usually welcomed by a joyous
+song, but once the evidence seemed to prove that she was driven away;
+perhaps she was too free with her criticisms! In another case the work
+was sadly interrupted by the presence of the visitor, for while she sat
+in the nest her excited mate flew back and forth as if he had quite
+forgotten the business in hand. Perhaps he was nervous, and wanted to
+make sure what she was doing in the new house!
+
+In several instances I found that while the males were at work building,
+the females went off by themselves. Once I saw Madame Phainopepla bring
+her friend home with her. No sooner had the visitor lit than--shocking
+to relate--the lord of the house left his work and drove her off with
+bill and claw--a polite way to treat his lady's friends, surely! On one
+occasion, when I looked up I saw a procession passing overhead--two
+females followed by a male. The male flew hesitatingly, as if troubled
+by his conscience, and then, deciding that if the nest was ever going to
+be built he had better keep at it, turned around and came back to work.
+One day when I rode over to the chaparral island, I found two of the
+males sitting around in the brush. They played tag until tired, and then
+perched on a branch in the sun, side by side, evidently enjoying
+themselves like light-hearted, care-free bachelors. Their mates were
+not in sight. But suddenly I glanced up and saw two females flying in to
+the island high overhead, as if coming from a distance. Instantly the
+indifferent holiday air of their mates vanished. They gave their low
+warning calls, for I was on the ground and they must not show me their
+nests. In answer to the warning the females wavered, and then, when
+their mates joined them, all four flew away together.
+
+At other times when I rode in the males would make large circles,
+seventy-five feet above me, as if to get a clear understanding of the
+impending danger. This was when small nest hunters were about, and the
+birds were some whose nests I did not find, and who had no opportunity
+to become convinced of my good intentions.
+
+After finding that the males did most of the building, I was anxious to
+see how it would be when the brooding began. Three of my nests were
+broken up beforehand, however, and the fourth was despoiled after I had
+watched the birds on the nest one day. Nevertheless, the evidence of
+that day was most interesting as far as it went. It proved that while
+the female lacked the architect's instinct, she was not without the
+maternal instinct. There were two eggs in the nest, and in the one hour
+that I watched, each bird brooded the eggs six times. Before this, the
+female had been to the nest so much less than the male that now she was
+much shyer; but although Billy frightened her by tramping down the brush
+near by, it was she who first overcame her fears and went to cover the
+eggs.
+
+
+
+
+XIX.
+
+MY BLUE GUM GROVE.
+
+
+ONE of the first things I did on getting settled on my ranch, the second
+time I was in California, was to get a wagon and go down to my
+eucalyptus grove for a load of the pale green aromatic boughs with which
+to trim my attic study; for their fragrance is delightful and their
+delicate blue-green tone lends itself readily to decorative purposes.
+When the supply needed replenishing, I rode down on Mountain Billy and
+carried home the sweet-smelling branches on the saddle.
+
+The grove served a more utilitarian purpose, however. The eucalyptus is
+an Australian tree, with narrow straight-hanging leaves, and its rapid
+growth makes it useful for firewood. A tree will grow forty feet in four
+years, and when cut off a few feet above the ground will spring up again
+and soon be ready to yield another crop. My grove had never been cut,
+but would soon be old enough. In the photograph of a eucalyptus avenue
+near Los Angeles, the row of trees on the right have been cut near the
+ground and the branching trunks are the consequence.
+
+[Illustration: EUCALYPTUS AVENUE, SHOWING POLLARDED TREES ON THE RIGHT,
+NEAR LOS ANGELES]
+
+My eucalyptus or blue gum grove was down near the big sycamore, and
+opposite the bare knoll where Romulus and the burrowing owls had their
+nightly battles. On one side of it was a rustling cornfield always
+pleasant to look at. After the bare yellow stubble and all the reds and
+browns of a California summer landscape, its rich dark green color and
+its stanch, strong stalks made it seem a very plain honest sort of
+field, and its greenness was most grateful to eyes unused to the bright
+colors and strong lights of California.
+
+Opposite the little grove, in a small house perched on a hill, an old
+sea-captain lived alone. As I rode by one day, he sat with his feet
+hanging over the edge of the high piazza, looking off; as if on the prow
+of his vessel, gazing out to sea. When I stopped to ask if he had seen
+anything noteworthy happen at the grove, he complained that it shut off
+his view and kept away the breeze from the ocean! I was too much taken
+by surprise to apologize for my trees, but felt reproached; unwittingly
+I had destroyed the old captain's choicest pleasure. He had spoken in an
+impersonal way that I quite understood,--he had been taken
+unawares,--but the next time I rode past, as if to make up for any
+apparent rudeness, he came hurrying down the walk to tell me of a crow's
+nest he had seen in the grove. To mark it he had fastened a piece of
+paper to the wire fence by the road, and another paper to the nest tree,
+binding it on with a eucalyptus twig in true sailor fashion.
+
+It was always a relief to leave the hot beating sun and the glare of the
+yellow fields and enter the cool shade of the quiet grove. I could let
+down the fence and put it up behind me; thus having my small forest all
+to myself; and used to enjoy riding up and down the fragrant blue
+avenues. The eucalyptus-trees, although thirty or forty feet high, were
+lithe and slender; some of them could be spanned by the hands. The rows
+were planted ten feet apart, but the long branches interlaced, so one
+had to be on the alert, in riding down the lines, to bend low on the
+saddle or push aside the branches that obstructed the way. The limbs
+were so slender and flexible that a touch was enough to bend back a
+green gate fifteen to twenty feet long, and Billy often pushed a branch
+aside with his nose. In places, fallen trees barred our path, but Billy
+used to step carefully over them.
+
+The eucalyptus-trees change very curiously as they grow old. When young
+they are covered with branches low to the ground, and their aromatic
+tender leaves are light bluish green; afterwards they lose their lower
+branches, while their leaves become stiff and sickle-shaped, dull green
+and almost odorless. The same changes are seen in the bark: first the
+trunks are smooth and green; then they are hung with shaggy shreds of
+bark; this in turn drops off so that the old trees are smooth again.
+Some of the young shoots have almost white stems, and their leaves have
+a pinkish tinge. Indeed, a young blue gum is as pretty a sight as one
+often sees; it is a tree of exquisite delicacy of coloring.
+
+[Illustration: EUCALYPTUS WOOD STORED FOR MARKET, IN A EUCALYPTUS GROVE
+NEAR LOS ANGELES]
+
+Mountain Billy and I both liked to wander among the blue gums. Billy
+liked it, perhaps, for association's sake, for we had ridden through the
+eucalyptus at his home in northern California. I too had pleasant
+memories of the northern gums, but my first interest was in finding out
+who lived in my little woods. A dog had once been seen driving a coyote
+wolf out of it, but that was merely in passing. I did not expect to meet
+wolves there. It was said, however, to be a good place for tarantulas,
+so at first I stepped over the dead leaf carpet with great caution; but
+never seeing any of the big spiders, grew brave and sat indifferently
+right on the ground before the nests, or leaning up against the trees.
+The ground was almost as hard as a rock, for the eucalyptus absorbed all
+the moisture, and that may have had something to do with its freedom
+from snakes and scorpions, though it would not explain the absence of
+caterpillars and spiders, which just then were so common outside. Though
+in the grove a great deal, I never ran into but one cobweb, and was
+conscious of the pleasant freedom from falling caterpillars. Moreover, I
+never saw a lizard in the blue gums, though dozens of them were to be
+seen about the oaks and in the brush.
+
+It was a surprise to find so many feathered folks living in the
+eucalyptus, and I took a personal interest in each one of the
+inhabitants. The first time we started to go up and down the avenues we
+scared up a pair of turtle doves, beautiful, delicately tinted gentle
+creatures, fit tenants of the lovely grove. They did not know my
+friendly interest in them, and flew to the ground trailing and trying to
+decoy me away in such a marked manner that when we passed a young dove a
+few yards farther on, it was easy to put two and two together.
+
+Yellow-birds called _cheet'-tee, ca-cheet'-ta-tee_, and the grove became
+musical with the sweet calls of the young brood. There was one nest with
+a roof of shaggy bark, and I wondered if the birds thought it would be
+pleasant to live under a roof, or whether the bark had fallen down on
+them after they built. I could get no trace of the owners of the nest,
+and it troubled me, not liking to have any little homes in my wood that
+I did not know all about. As we went down one aisle, a big bird went
+blundering out ahead of us, probably an owl, for afterwards we stumbled
+on a skeleton and feathers of one of the family.
+
+In one of the trees we came to an enormous nest made of the unusual
+materials that are sometimes chosen by that strange bird, the
+road-runner. It was an exciting discovery, for that was before the
+road-runner had come to the ranch-house, and I had been pursuing phantom
+runners over the hills in the vain attempt to learn something about
+them; while here, it seemed, one had been living under my very vine and
+fig-tree! To make sure about the nest, I spoke to my neighbor ranchman,
+and he told me that when he had been milking during the spring he had
+often seen the birds come out of the blue gums, and had also seen them
+perching there on the trees. How exasperating! If I had only come
+earlier! Now they had gone, and my chance of a nest study was lost.
+
+But my doll was not stuffed with sawdust, for all of that. There was
+still much to enjoy, for a mourning dove flew from her nest of twigs
+almost over Billy's head, and it made me quite happy to know that the
+gentle bird was brooding her eggs in my woods. Then it was delightful to
+see a lazuli bunting on her nest down another aisle. It seemed odd, for
+there was her little cousin nesting out in the weeds in the bright sun,
+while she was raising her brood in the shady forest. The two nests were
+as unlike as the sites. The bird outside had used dull green weeds,
+while this one used beautiful shining oak stems. I thought the pretty
+bird would surely be safe here, but one day when I called, expecting to
+see a growing family, I was shocked to find a pathetic little skeleton
+in the nest.
+
+One afternoon in riding down the rows, I came face to face with two
+mites of hummingbirds seated on a branch. Their grayish green suits
+toned in with the color of the blue gums. It was a surprise when one of
+them turned to the other and fed it--the mother hummer was small enough
+to be taken for a nestling! She sat beside her son and fed him in the
+conventional way, by plunging her bill down his open mouth. When she had
+flown off, he stretched his wings, whirred them as if for practice, and
+then moved his bill as if still tasting the dainty he had had for
+supper. He sat very unconcernedly on a low branch right out in the
+middle of the road, but Billy did not run over him.
+
+I found two hummers' nests in the eucalyptus during the summer. One
+builder was the one the photographer was fortunate enough to catch
+brooding; her nest, the one so charmingly placed on a light blue branch
+between two straight spreading leaves, like the knot between two bows of
+stiff ribbon.
+
+The second nest was on a drooping branch, and, to make it stand level,
+was deepened on the down side of the limb, making it the highest
+hummingbird's nest I had ever seen. It was attached to a red leaf--to
+mark the spot, perhaps--one often wonders how a bird can come back twice
+to the same leaf in a forest. How one little home does make a place
+habitable! From a bare silent woods it becomes a dwelling-place.
+Everything seemed to centre around this little nest, then the only one
+in the grove; the tiny pinch of down became the most important thing in
+the woods. It was the castle which the trees surrounded.
+
+When I first found the nest it held two white warm eggs about as large
+as peas, and I became much interested in watching their progress, often
+riding down to see how they were getting on. The hummer did not return
+my interest. She was nervous, darting off when Billy shook himself or
+when the shadow of a soaring turkey buzzard fell over the nest; but in
+spite of that we made ourselves quite at home before her door. I would
+dismount and sit on the ground, leaning against a blue gum, while Billy
+stood by, in a bower of green leaves, with ears pricked forward
+thoughtfully, and a dreamy look of satisfaction in his eyes.
+Hummingbirds are such dainty things. Once when this one alighted on the
+rim of her nest she whirred herself right down inside. Soon she began to
+act so strangely for a brooding bird that, when she flew, I went to feel
+in the nest. The tips of my fingers touched what felt like round balls,
+but, not satisfied, I pulled down the bough and found one round ball and
+one mite of a gray back with microscopic yellow hairs on each side of
+the spine. The whole tiny body seemed to throb with its heart beats. I
+wondered how such a midget could ever be fed, but found, as in the case
+of the hummer under the little lover's tree, that the mother gave its
+food most gently, reserving her violent pumping for a more suitable age;
+though one would as soon think of poking a needle down a baby's throat
+as that bill.
+
+Often, while watching the nest, my thoughts wandered away to the grove
+itself. The brown earth between the rows was barred by alternate lines
+of sunlight and shadow, and the vista of each avenue ended in blue sky.
+Sometimes cool ocean breezes would penetrate the forest. The rows of
+trees, with their gently swaying, interlacing branches, cast moving
+shadows over the sun-touched leafy floor, giving a white light to the
+grove; for the undersides of the young eucalyptus leaves are like snow.
+From the stiff, sickle-shaped upper leaves the sun glanced, dazzling the
+eyes. Mourning doves cooed, and the sweet notes of yellow-birds filled
+the sunny grove with suggestions of happiness. A yellow butterfly
+wandered down the blue aisles. Such a secure retreat! I returned to it
+again and again, coming in out of the hot yellow world and closing
+behind me the doors of my 'rest-house,' for the little wood had come to
+seem like a cool wayside chapel, a place of peace.
+
+And when I finally left California, deserting Mountain Billy to return
+to the East, of all my haunts the one left the most unwillingly was the
+little blue gum grove, the peaceful wayside rest-house, in whose
+whitened shade we had spent so many quiet hours together.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+
+  Bee-bird, 114-116, 117.
+    catching bees, 114, 115.
+    caught in cobweb rope, 116.
+    defending nest with life, 91-92.
+    domesticity, 116.
+    flycatching, 16, 91, 160.
+    making living off blackbirds, 13.
+    nest, 91.
+    nesting site, 91, 115.
+    noisy, 15.
+    notes, 91, 116.
+    quarrelsome, 91, 115, 116.
+
+  Bird Psychology,
+    association of ideas, 46, 72, 75, 76, 77, 78, 115, 135, 138, 154,
+        198.
+    caution, 9, 22, 28, 36, 65, 66, 67, 82, 85, 87, 88, 94, 156, 196,
+        198, 201, 202, 204.
+    courage, 11-12, 23, 40, 42, 54, 83, 95, 97, 126, 129, 141, 144,
+        175, 177, 180, 181, 210, 215.
+    curiosity, 25, 97, 100, 151.
+    dissimulation, 45, 49, 62, 190, 215.
+    emotion,--
+      fear, 22, 25, 26, 27, 34, 35, 40, 41, 42, 46, 61, 67, 71, 73, 81,
+        87, 88, 105, 133, 135, 154, 164, 177, 180, 191, 215, 218;
+      grief, 46, 47, 92;
+      joy, 30, 204;
+      unusual action under excitement, 30, 58, 63, 64, 81, 87, 88, 191,
+        208.
+    expression of emotion and ideas,--
+      by use of crests, attitudes, and movements, 8, 9, 11, 16, 26, 30,
+        31, 32, 33, 34, 39, 41, 42, 44, 46, 49, 53, 56, 59, 63, 64, 67,
+        76, 78, 79, 81, 84, 87, 88, 90, 97, 101, 105, 116, 117, 124, 129,
+        132, 138, 139, 149, 156, 166, 180, 190, 191, 202, 205, 208, 215.
+      By voice,--
+        calls of warning, 5, 42, 53, 85, 197, 198, 201, 202, 203, 209;
+        conversation, 15, 25, 28, 33, 35, 36, 41, 42, 43, 44, 46, 48, 49,
+        52, 59, 62, 69, 71, 74, 75, 78, 84, 85, 87, 89, 90, 109, 110,
+        118, 132, 134, 145, 147, 149, 153, 156, 178, 180, 182, 190, 192;
+        cries of anger, anxiety, distress, fear, pain, 12, 45, 46, 47,
+        58, 86, 91, 94, 133, 138, 191;
+        exclamations, 44, 58, 61, 87, 115, 116, 124;
+        scoldings, 34, 36, 37, 58, 60, 86, 95, 96, 162, 172, 182;
+        songs of happiness, 8, 10, 15, 21, 22, 52, 59, 82, 83, 84, 90,
+        93, 95, 96, 97, 122, 126, 142, 169, 175, 178, 198, 205;
+        songs of love, 22, 26, 30, 31, 56, 90, 101, 142, 168, 170, 181,
+        204, 205, 208.
+    humor, 124.
+    individuality, 6, 8, 11, 13, 14, 16, 22, 25, 26, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34,
+        35, 38, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 49, 50, 52, 54, 56, 62, 63, 64,
+        65, 75-80, 81, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 90, 91, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99,
+        100, 101, 111, 115, 124, 125,126, 132, 136, 139, 142, 143, 149,
+        153, 154, 163, 164, 170, 179, 181, 184, 190, 194, 195, 204, 205,
+        208, 209, 216-217.
+    inherited instincts, 75, 76, 78, 79, 156.
+    intelligence shown in,--
+      building, 17, 28, 49, 50, 53, 107, 108, 109, 114, 136, 150, 154,
+        158, 217-218;
+      disciplining young, 85;
+      getting food by others' work, 13;
+      profiting by mistakes, 107, 109, 133, 134, 153-154 (?);
+      protecting young, 8, 9, 12, 36, 37, 85, 135, 156, 191, 215;
+      removing nest from danger, 60, 114, 154;
+      selecting materials for nest, 14, 53, 56, 82, 89, 96, 107, 127,
+        144, 150, 179, 181;
+      selecting nesting site, 23, 28, 83, 93, 95, 99, 124, 127, 130,
+        131, 150;
+      silence of young in danger, 71, 85.
+    keen senses, 59, 74, 97.
+    local attachment, 6;
+      special perches, 57, 62, 126, 129, 167, 202, 204, 206.
+    play impulse, 12, 115, 124, 155 (?), 208-209.
+    pride of possession, 25, 86, 115, 204-205.
+    self-denial, 33, 50, 52.
+
+  Birds,
+    adaptation, 150, 152, 163, 164;
+      protective coloration, 10, 11, 81, 92, 101, 185, 199.
+    domestic life,--
+      accept help in building, 97, 152-153, 175-178, 179-180;
+      affection, 22, 27, 30, 31, 32, 33, 78, 84, 85, 90, 142, 166,
+        180, 182, 196, 201, 204, 208;
+      as parents, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 23, 24, 31-38, 46, 55, 63, 64,
+        69, 84, 85, 87, 88, 110, 111, 129, 135, 137, 154-155, 156,
+        172, 182, 185-186, 189-193, 215, 217;
+      companionship of mates, 22, 26, 27, 30, 31, 42, 46, 53, 56,
+        59, 62, 81, 83, 87, 89, 90, 106, 109, 126, 141, 142, 145,
+        166, 177, 178, 180, 182, 196, 204;
+      coquettish airs, 33;
+      courtship, 31, 90, 101, 148, 149;
+      defense of nest, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 25, 45, 46, 47, 57, 58, 86,
+        91, 92, 115, 124-125, 138, 141, 178, 182, 204-205, 209;
+      excitement when young hatch, 63;
+      family government, 12, 35, 85, 111, 156;
+      friendly birds shy at nest, 65, 66, 67, 86, 87, 88, 93, 94,
+        99, 105, 153, 198, 202, 203;
+      --habits of male at nest:
+        absent, 24, 149-155, 167;
+        brings mate food for young, 32, 63;
+        brings material to mate, 50, 52;
+        broods, 43, 44, 62;
+        builds while female looks on or goes off with other females, 199,
+        200, 203, 204, 207-208;
+        feeds mate, 27, 52, 126, 132, 134, 180, 182;
+        feeds young, 33, 82, 88;
+        guards mate, 27, 42, 53, 201;
+        helps mate build, 48, 50, 52, 61, 106, 108, 109, 126, 135, 142,
+        145;
+        sings while mate builds and broods, 22, 26, 30, 31, 33, 56, 83,
+        84, 90, 175, 177, 178;
+      interval between building and brooding, 59, 145, 181;
+      looking for nesting sites, 25, 26, 129, 184-185;
+      lordly airs of male, 25, 115, 116, 117, 172, 208;
+      paternal instinct, 31-33, 53, 63, 191, 204, 205;
+      persistence in work, 60, 107, 178;
+      reluctance to brood, 43, 44;
+      tenderness to young, 23, 33, 84, 85.
+    food,--
+      ants, 76;
+      bees, 114, 115;
+      carrion, 97;
+      cocoons, 100;
+      gophers, 136;
+      grubs, 12, 13, 111;
+      insects, 4, 6, 7, 16, 31, 36, 82, 91, 101, 150, 160;
+      lizards and toads, 99;
+      pepper berries, 197, 198, 201;
+      rats and mice, 137;
+      scale, 103;
+      seeds, 93, 162;
+      snakes, 132;
+      spiders, 31;
+      worms, 12, 13, 57, 164, 182, 185, 186, 190.
+    flight, 5, 7, 16, 17, 24, 30, 81, 91, 98, 99, 103, 115, 118, 147,
+        149, 153, 156, 161, 166, 168, 184, 195, 196, 197, 209.
+    friendliness when not disturbed, 10, 13, 23, 30, 40, 42, 45, 53,
+        59, 61, 64, 67, 83, 86, 89, 92, 95, 97, 100, 105, 126, 128,
+        129, 144, 148, 150-151, 153, 158, 171, 178, 180, 182-183, 185,
+        186, 197, 200, 201, 204.
+    legends about, 11, 105.
+    local names,--
+      blue jay, 6;
+      burrowing owl, 11;
+      bush-tit, 56;
+      California towhee, 92.
+    neighborly relations, 13, 25, 45-48, 49, 57-61, 62, 80, 86, 96,
+        100, 108, 115, 116, 124, 125, 126, 130, 138, 147, 171-174,
+        189-193, 204-205, 208-209.
+    nervousness, 9, 11, 22, 26, 34, 35, 42, 47, 53, 56, 61, 63, 64,
+        67, 70, 76, 81, 82, 87, 88, 97, 105, 117, 138, 139, 156,
+        166, 177, 180, 191, 208, 218.
+
+  Blackbird, Brewer's, 86-88, 117, 128.
+    afraid of a bath, 16.
+    attacking hawks and owls, 135, 139.
+    a jolly colony, 123, 124.
+    building, 124.
+    common in valley, 92.
+    curiosity about road-runner, 100.
+    following plow for grubs, 12, 13.
+    nervousness at nest, 87-88.
+    nesting sites, 86, 124.
+    pranks, 124.
+    repulsing shrike, 124, 125.
+    ruling dooryard, 86.
+
+  Blackbird, Red-winged, 14.
+    eating grubs in vineyard, 12-13.
+    following plow, 13.
+    nesting in marsh, 118.
+
+  Blackbird, Rusty, 86.
+
+  Blackbird, Yellow-headed,
+    in vineyard, 13-14.
+    on mustard, 14.
+
+  Blackbirds, 15, 114, 118, 120.
+    flocks riding cattle, hogs, and horses, 14.
+
+  Bluebird, Mexican, 187.
+    nesting site, 185.
+    second nest, 186.
+
+  Blue Jay. See Jay.
+
+  Blue Squawker. See Jay.
+
+  Brown Chippie. See Towhee, California.
+
+  Bunting, Indigo, 81.
+
+  Bunting, Lazuli, 81-83, 123, 189-193.
+    call, 190.
+    keeping out of quarrel, 45-46.
+    nest, 82, 216-217.
+    nesting site, 27, 82, 216.
+    song, 6, 44, 83, 117.
+    taking insects to nest, 82.
+    young fed by wren-tit, 189, 190.
+
+  Bush-tit, California, 28, 56, 59, 103-111, 117, 161, 162, 166.
+    building, 105-107, 108, 110, 184.
+    call notes, 109, 110.
+    common bird, 103.
+    destroys olive scale, 103.
+    legend of firefly lamps, 105.
+    local name, 56.
+    nest, 103, 104, 105.
+    nesting site, 103.
+    nest roof falls in, 106.
+    second nest better built, 107, 109.
+    snake in nest, 108.
+
+  Butcherbird. See Shrike.
+
+  Butterflies, migrating, 160.
+
+
+  California, southern, 147.
+    colors, 212.
+    marsh in, 118.
+    natural irrigation, 21.
+    sky, 67.
+
+  Canello, 2.
+    afraid of boggy land, Mexicans, and rattlesnakes, 2-3, 127-128.
+    indifferent to water snakes, 15.
+    made nervous by hummingbird, 7.
+    miring, 17-19.
+    visiting feathered tenants with, 123-139.
+
+  Chaparral, 5, 6, 55, 61, 94, 100, 103-104, 159, 167, 197, 201.
+
+  Chaparral cock. See Road-runner.
+
+  Chat, long-tailed, 163.
+
+  Chewink. See Towhee.
+
+  Chickadee, 103, 176.
+
+  Coast Mountains, 1, 4, 6, 15, 102, 104, 112, 113.
+    valley in, 1, 2, 4, 5, 20, 112.
+    at morning, 5, 68, 112, 137.
+    in evening, 19, 101, 102, 121, 122.
+    under moonlight, 102.
+
+  Coyote wolves,
+    barking, 91, 102.
+    chasing a dog, 119.
+    in eucalyptus, 214.
+
+  Crow,
+    killed bee-bird, 92.
+    nest, 212.
+
+
+  Dove, Mourning, 21, 118, 141, 161, 169, 219.
+    a gentle pair, 166.
+    brooding, 67.
+    friendliness, 42, 45.
+    nest, 216.
+    nesting site, 40, 166, 216.
+    perches, 57, 160.
+    superior airs of male, 116, 117.
+    timidity, 41, 42.
+    trailing, 215.
+
+
+  Eagle, 13.
+
+  Egret, White, 17.
+
+
+  Finch, Western House, 117, 160.
+    avoids shrike neighborhood, 126.
+    bathing, 16.
+    courtship, 90.
+    common birds, 92.
+    discussions, 28.
+    examining wren's nest, 25.
+    implicated in tragedy, 171-174.
+    nesting sites, 90, 96, 172, 186.
+    songs, 90.
+    stealing wren's material, 171.
+    using swallow's nest, 96.
+
+  Flicker, Red-shafted, 136-137, 160.
+    building, 136.
+    nesting site, 27, 136.
+    notes, 136.
+    works as if wound up, 136.
+
+  Flowers and Plants,
+    blue sage, 61, 147.
+    chilicothe, 168.
+    dodder, 89-90.
+    'fly flower,' 160.
+    forget-me-not, 128.
+    mallow, 128.
+    mustard, 14, 67, 119, 123, 127, 147.
+    on border of pond, 15.
+    poison oak, 167.
+    'poppy,' 160.
+    primrose, 69, 147.
+    wild celery, 120.
+    wild gooseberry, 147.
+
+  Flycatcher, 140.
+    in chaparral, 6.
+
+  Fog, 19, 68, 101, 112.
+
+
+  Goldfinch, 21, 44, 164, 215, 219.
+    feeding, 7.
+    nest, 23.
+    nest destroyed, 27.
+    nesting site, 184, 186.
+    note, 215.
+
+  Gnatcatcher, Western, 38-64, 81, 123, 161, 205.
+    building, 48-60, 61, 62.
+    calls, 43, 44, 45.
+    comical parents, 63, 64.
+    defending nest, 45, 57, 58.
+    egg broken by wren-tit, 46.
+    eggshell carried away, 46.
+    feeding young in new way, 63-64.
+    jaunty nervous manners, 38, 39, 40, 41, 44, 56, 63.
+    nest, 39, 41, 60, 168.
+    nesting site, 39, 48, 60, 61, 167.
+    nest moved, 60.
+    spelling each other, 43, 44, 62.
+    talkative, 41.
+
+  Gophers, 70, 136.
+
+  Grosbeak, Black-headed,
+    migrants, 8, 58.
+    song, 170.
+
+  Grosbeak, Blue, 120.
+
+
+  Hangbird. See Bush-tit.
+
+  Hawk, Buteo, building, 135.
+    more likely to eat gophers than birds, 136.
+
+  Hawk, Fish, 13.
+
+  Hawk, Sparrow, 131-135, 136.
+    chased by bee-bird, 91.
+    nesting site, 131.
+    snakes for breakfast, 132.
+    too small a front door, 131-134.
+
+  Hawks, 16, 86.
+
+  Heron, Green, 17.
+
+
+  Lark, Horned,
+    on roadsides, 10.
+    song, 10.
+
+  Horse, as help in observing, 3-4, 125, 201-204.
+
+  How-do-you-do Owl. See Owl, Burrowing.
+
+  Hummingbird, 147, 186.
+
+  Hummingbird, Black-chinned, 23-25, 147-158, 161, 202, 217-219.
+    around flowers by house, 88.
+    attacking horse and rider, 7.
+    building, 149-155.
+    call, 153.
+    courtship dance, 149.
+    enter house, 89.
+    feeding from primroses, 69.
+    feeding young, 23, 24, 155, 217.
+    help in cross-fertilization, 150.
+    nest, 23.
+    nest destroyed, 26.
+    nesting sites, 23, 89, 130, 147-148, 155, 158, 161, 217-218.
+    perch, 57, 167.
+    probing tobacco-tree flowers, 88.
+    tremulous moulding, 152.
+
+  Hummingbird, Rufous, 147.
+    around wild gooseberries, 147, 168.
+    song, 168.
+
+
+  Irrigation, natural, 21, 38, 159-160.
+
+
+  Jay, California, 59, 61, 84-85, 105, 123, 160, 161.
+    disciplining young, 85.
+    frightening small birds, 28, 58, 60, 84, 141.
+    local name, 6.
+    protecting young, 85.
+    scream, 169, 184.
+    tender to young, 84, 85.
+
+
+  Kingbird,
+    Arkansas. See Bee-bird.
+    Cassin's. See Bee-bird.
+    Eastern, 91.
+
+
+  Linnet. See Finch.
+
+  Lions, colts killed by, 30.
+
+  List of Birds referred to, ix.
+
+  List of Illustrations, vii.
+
+  Lizards, as eggers, 28, 150, 200, 203.
+
+
+  Magpie, 51, 98.
+
+  Mexican bridle, 3.
+
+  Miring, 17-19.
+
+  Mockingbird, thrasher's resemblance to, 6.
+
+  Mountain Billy, 20.
+    a good lope, 42-43, 112.
+    a narrow escape, 120.
+    a petted companion, 165, 187.
+    carrying blue gum boughs, 211.
+    carrying a chair, 60-61.
+    enjoying blue gum grove, 214, 218.
+    frightened by deer, 28-30.
+    ignoring snakes, 187-188.
+    improving his time, 68, 69, 114.
+    inventing a fly brush, 54, 55.
+    rolling, 165-166.
+
+  Mutual help in nature, 150.
+
+
+  Nesting season, date in southern California, 21, 30, 67, 69, 86.
+
+  Nests, broken up, 10, 26, 27, 47, 127, 143, 145, 158, 172, 204,
+        206, 217.
+    building, hard work, 56, 60, 107.
+    building methods, 49-50, 52-54, 82, 107, 108, 109, 127, 135,
+        136, 142, 150-154, 158, 175, 199, 200, 203, 204, 205-206, 207.
+    defective building (?), 106.
+    excessive amount of material, 96, 107, 108.
+    knothole entrance too small, 131.
+    materials of first nest used in second, 60, 107, 109-110, 154.
+    moved to safer place, 60, 154.
+    odd situations, 9, 95, 130, 171.
+    protective coloration, 82, 90, 144, 150.
+    rapid building, 108, 206.
+    second, 48 (?), 60, 107, 154, 186.
+    snakes in, 108.
+    third (?), 60.
+    time taken to build, 60.
+    unusual materials, 14, 89, 90.
+
+
+  Observing, 1, 2, 40, 60-61, 66, 67, 68, 81, 82, 109, 114, 123,
+        130, 135, 139, 141, 166, 195, 196, 197, 198, 201-205, 215.
+    assisting in nest building, 97, 109-110, 175-183.
+    delight of finding a new bird, 13.
+    proportion of birds identified without a gun, 2, 140.
+    temptations in, 92, 93, 194.
+
+  Oden Canyon, 159-160.
+
+  Oregon Robin, 20.
+
+  Oriole, 27, 104, 130, 131.
+
+  Oriole, Arizona Hooded,
+    building, 89.
+
+  Oriole, Bullock's, 162.
+    attacking an owl, 139.
+    nest, 117.
+    song flight, 184.
+
+  Owl, 105, 215-216.
+    asleep in window, 137.
+    diet of rats and mice, 137.
+    hiding in wells and mining shafts, 137, 138.
+
+  Owl, Barn,
+    an old crone, 139.
+    nesting site, 139.
+
+  Owl, Burrowing, 119, 212.
+    battles with a collie, 11, 12.
+    feeding young, 11, 12.
+    nest not shared with rattlesnakes, 11.
+    screws head off, 11.
+
+  Owl, Western Horned,
+    devices to protect young, 8, 9.
+    mobbed by neighbors, 138.
+
+
+  Pewee, Wood, 161-162.
+    building, 57, 59, 61.
+    nesting site, 57, 60.
+    nest moved, 60.
+    perch, 62, 161.
+
+  Phainopepla, 194-210.
+    a distinguished bird, 194.
+    building (done by male), 199, 203, 204, 205, 206.
+    call, 205.
+    eating pepper berries in door-yard, 197.
+    nest, 205.
+    nesting site, 199.
+    song, 205.
+
+  Phœbe, Black, 115, 128-130, 189.
+    brooding under a pump, 129.
+    in the hen-house, 130.
+    nest, 130.
+    nesting site, 117, 128-129, 130.
+
+  Pipit, American, 16.
+
+  Pond, made by spring rains,
+    rendezvous of birds, 5, 14-17.
+
+  Poor-will, Dusky,
+    call, 101-102.
+    flycatching, 101.
+
+
+  Quail, Valley,
+    call, 5.
+    flight of covey, 30.
+    in chaparral, 55.
+    in vineyard, 73.
+    tracks, 43.
+
+
+  Rabbit,
+    cottontail, 94, 118, 164.
+    jack, 5, 29, 94-95, 97.
+
+  Road-runner, 98-101.
+    around ranch-house, 100.
+    drowned in windmill tanks, 100.
+    eating with hens, 100.
+    fleetness, 98.
+    hunting cocoons, 100.
+    love call, 101.
+    nest, 99, 216.
+
+  Robin, 8, 92.
+
+
+  Shrike, White-rumped, 124-127, 128.
+    absence of birds in neighborhood, 126.
+    building, 125, 126-127.
+    gentle at nest, 125, 126.
+    invading blackbird premises, 124-125.
+    nest, 125.
+    nesting site, 125, 127.
+
+  Snakes,
+    gopher, 43, 71, 120, 187-188.
+    racer, 108.
+    rattle, 43, 120, 121, 203.
+    ringed, 55.
+    water, 15.
+
+  Sparrow, 15.
+
+  Sparrow, Golden-crowned, 16.
+
+  Sparrow, Song, 21, 22, 117.
+    nest, 83-84.
+    young, 83.
+
+  Sparrow, White-crowned, 16, 162.
+
+  Squirrels, ground, 11.
+
+  Swallow, 96.
+
+  Swallow, Eave,
+    drinking on wing, 17.
+    getting mud for nests, 16-17.
+    nests on sycamore, 114.
+
+
+  Tanager, Louisiana, 27.
+    a brilliant stranger, 131.
+
+  Thrasher, California, 163-164.
+    digging with sickle-shaped bill, 163-164.
+    in chaparral, 6.
+    song, 6, 169.
+    straight bills of young, 164.
+
+  Titmouse, Plain, 141, 184, 175-183.
+    building, 175-182.
+    gladly accepts feathers, 177.
+    needs no horsehair or straw, 179-181.
+    nesting sites, 175.
+    song, 175.
+
+  Tit, Wren-, 57, 60, 62, 189-193.
+    breaking up gnatcatcher's nest, 45, 46, 48.
+    skulking manners, 49, 59.
+    song, 6, 169.
+    usurping a mother's rights, 189-193.
+
+  Towhee, California, 28, 46, 47, 57, 58, 59, 92-95, 163, 189, 200.
+    call note, 92.
+    common and tame, 92.
+    nesting, 93, 94.
+    shy at nest, 93-94.
+    song, 93.
+
+  Towhee, Green-tailed, 162-163.
+
+  Towhee, Spurred, 18, 160, 162.
+    singing, 169.
+
+  Trade wind, 68-69.
+
+  Trees,
+    acacia, 189.
+    elder, 15.
+    eucalyptus, 211-220;
+      character of, 213-214, 219-220;
+      grove, 211-220;
+      raised for fuel, 211.
+    live-oaks, 5, 6, 21, 86, 159-170;
+      garden of, 159-160, 170;
+      sapped by mistletoe, 167.
+    pepper, 197.
+    sycamore, 15, 21, 24-25, 67, 68;
+      the big, 112-122, 159.
+    tobacco, 88.
+    willow, 123.
+
+  Turkey Buzzard. See Vulture.
+
+  Turtle Dove. See Dove.
+
+  Twin Oaks Canyon, 5-6, 159.
+
+
+  Ughland Canyon, 21, 38, 123, 159.
+
+
+  Vineyard, birds eating grubs in, 12-13.
+
+  Vireo, Hutton's, 140-146.
+    a devoted pair, 142.
+    building, 142, 145.
+    call note, 145.
+    fond of nest, 143, 145.
+    nest, 144.
+    nesting site, 141, 144.
+
+  Vireo, Least,
+    song, 6, 44, 169.
+
+  Vireo, Warbling, 27, 59.
+    building, 56.
+    scolding jay, 60.
+
+  Vulture, Turkey, 16, 97-98, 162.
+    circle over fighting snakes, 97.
+    eating woodpecker, 70.
+    eating skunk, 201.
+    queer attitude, 98.
+    scavenger, 97.
+    soaring, 97, 98.
+
+
+  Warbler, 160.
+    migrants, 6, 7, 123.
+
+  Waxwing, 69.
+
+  Whip-poor-will. See Poor-will.
+
+  Woodpecker, California, 65-80, 81, 123.
+    building, 28.
+    flycatching, 160.
+    hunting ground distant from nest, 69.
+    long intervals in feeding, 69.
+    lying in wait for prey, 141.
+    nesting site, 28, 71.
+    notes, 69.
+    old birds poisoned (?), 70.
+    rescuing the young, 71-73.
+    young orphans, inherited instincts, 75, 76, 78, 79;
+      notes, 78.
+
+  Woodpecker, Red-headed, 66, 69.
+
+  Wood rat,
+    in chaparral, 55.
+
+  Wren, 9-10.
+
+  Wren, Vigors's, 170-174.
+    linnets quarreling over materials, 171.
+    nesting site, 171.
+    young buried alive by linnets (?), 172-174.
+
+  Wren, Western House, 20-37, 65, 67, 69, 81, 84, 112, 117, 123, 160,
+        219.
+    building, 22, 25, 30, 96, 128.
+    common birds, 95.
+    feeding young on insects, 31.
+    nesting takes six weeks, 35.
+    nests in sycamore holes, 22, 128.
+    odd nesting sites, 95.
+    song, 22, 30, 96, 97.
+    tremulous motion of wings, 30, 33.
+
+
+  Yellow-bird. See Goldfinch.
+
+  Young birds,
+    Bluebird, 185.
+    Brewer's Blackbird, 87.
+    Burrowing Owl, 11-12.
+    Bush-tit, 28, 110, 111.
+    California Jay, 85.
+    California Woodpecker, 69-80.
+    feather tracts, 79.
+    fed at long intervals, 155.
+    fed on insects, 31, 36, 76, 82.
+    first flights, 36, 73-74, 88, 156.
+    Gnatcatchers, 63-64.
+    Horned Owl, 9.
+    Hummingbird, 23, 24, 88, 155-157, 217, 219.
+    interest in each other, 78, 79.
+    Lazuli Bunting, 189-193, 217;
+      adopted by wren-tit, 189-193.
+    Mourning Dove, 47.
+    Owl, 137.
+    Sparrow Hawk, 135;
+      subdued on leaving nest, 36;
+      time kept in nest, 69.
+    Titmouse, 182-183.
+    Vigors's Wren, 171, 172, 174.
+    Western House Wren, 33-37.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+  Bee-birds, 13.
+
+  Blackbird, Brewer's, 13.
+
+  Buntings, Lazuli (old and young), 189.
+
+  Bush-tits (birds and nest), 104.
+
+  Bush-tit (nest in oak), 108.
+
+
+  Chewink, California (head), 93.
+
+  Chewink, Eastern (head), 93.
+
+  Chewink, Green-tailed (head), 163.
+
+
+  Eucalyptus Avenue, showing pollarded trees, 212.
+
+  Eucalyptus Wood stored for Market in a Eucalyptus Grove, 214.
+
+
+  Gnatcatcher, Western (birds and nest), 39.
+
+  Grosbeak, Black-headed (head), 8.
+
+  Grosbeak, Rose-breasted (head), 8.
+
+
+  Hummingbird, Black-chinned (nest), 157.
+
+  Hummingbird, Black-chinned (on nest), 148.
+
+
+  Mountain Billy Deserted, 220.
+
+  Mountain Billy under the Gnatcatcher's Oak, frontispiece.
+
+
+  Oaks, Live, 160.
+
+  Oriole, Arizona Hooded (head), 89.
+
+  Oriole, Baltimore, Eastern (head), 89.
+
+
+  Phainopepla's Nest in Oak Brush, 198.
+
+  Phainopeplas on Pepper-tree, 194.
+
+  Phœbe, Black (head), 129.
+
+  Phœbe, Eastern (head), 129.
+
+
+  Quail, Valley, 99.
+
+
+  Road-runner, 99.
+
+
+  Sycamores, Along the Line of, 124.
+
+  Sycamore, The Big, 114.
+
+
+  Titmouse, Plain (at nest), 176.
+
+
+  Valley in Coast Mountains, 4.
+
+
+  Woodpecker, California, (head), 66.
+
+  Woodpecker, California (young), 78.
+
+  Woodpecker, Red-headed, Eastern (head), 66.
+
+  Wren-tit, 189.
+
+  Wren, Vigors's (at nest), 173.
+
+  Wren, Western House, 32.
+
+  Wren, Western House (singing), 20.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
+
+Page 33, "delighful" changed to "delightful" (It was delightful)
+
+Page 75, "formicivorous" changed to "formicivorus" (Melanerpes
+formicivorus)
+
+Page 190, "non-commital" changed to "non-committal" (non-committal air)
+
+Page 190, "eeding" changed to "feeding" (feeding it, especially)
+
+Page 257, "2" changed to "216" (nesting site, 40, 166, 216.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A-Birding on a Bronco, by Florence A. Merriam
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A-Birding on a Bronco, by Florence A. Merriam
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A-Birding on a Bronco
+
+Author: Florence A. Merriam
+
+Release Date: August 11, 2010 [EBook #33410]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Emmy and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Books by Florence A. Merriam.
+
+
+          BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. In Riverside Library
+          for Young People. Illustrated. 16mo, 75 cents.
+
+          MY SUMMER IN A MORMON VILLAGE. 16mo, $1.00.
+
+          A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO. Illustrated. 16mo, $1.25.
+
+
+          HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.
+          BOSTON AND NEW YORK.
+
+[Illustration: MOUNTAIN BILLY UNDER THE GNATCATCHER'S OAK]
+
+
+
+
+A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO
+
+BY FLORENCE A. MERRIAM
+
+
+                  I do invite you ... to my house ...
+          after, we'll a-birding together.
+                     SHAKESPEARE.
+
+_ILLUSTRATED_
+
+[Illustration: The Riverside Press.]
+
+
+          BOSTON AND NEW YORK
+          HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
+          The Riverside Press, Cambridge
+          1896
+
+
+
+
+          Copyright, 1896,
+
+          By FLORENCE A. MERRIAM.
+
+
+          _All rights reserved._
+
+
+          _The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A._
+
+          Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company.
+
+
+
+
+PREFATORY NOTE.
+
+
+THE notes contained in this book were taken from March to May, 1889, and
+from March to July, 1894, at Twin Oaks in southern California. Twin Oaks
+is the post-office for the scattered ranch-houses in a small valley at
+the foot of one of the Coast Ranges, thirty-four miles north of San
+Diego, and twelve miles from the Pacific.
+
+As no collecting was done, there is doubt about the identity of a few
+species; and their names are left blank or questioned in the list of
+birds referred to in the text. In cases where the plumage of the two
+sexes is practically identical, and only slight mention is made of the
+species, the sexes have sometimes been arbitrarily distinguished in the
+text.
+
+Several of the articles have appeared before, in somewhat different
+form, in 'The Auk,' 'The Observer,' and 'Our Animal Friends;' all the
+others are published here for the first time.
+
+The illustrations are from drawings of birds and nests by Louis Agassiz
+Fuertes, and from photographs taken in the valley; together with some
+of eucalyptus-trees from Los Angeles, for the use of which I am indebted
+to the courtesy of Dr. B. E. Fernow, Chief of the Division of Forestry
+of the U. S. Department of Agriculture.
+
+In the preparation of the book I have been kindly assisted by Miss
+Isabel Eaton, and have received from my brother, Dr. C. Hart Merriam,
+untiring criticism and advice.
+
+                                                    FLORENCE A. MERRIAM.
+
+  LOCUST GROVE, N. Y.,
+  July 15, 1896.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+                                                      PAGE
+              I. OUR VALLEY                             1
+             II. THE LITTLE LOVER                      20
+            III. LIKE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT             38
+             IV. WAS IT A SEQUEL?                      48
+              V. LITTLE PRISONERS IN THE TOWER         65
+             VI. HINTS BY THE WAY                      81
+            VII. AROUND OUR RANCH-HOUSE                86
+           VIII. POCKET MAKERS                        103
+             IX. THE BIG SYCAMORE                     112
+              X. AMONG MY TENANTS                     123
+             XI. AN UNNAMED BIRD                      140
+            XII. HUMMERS                              147
+           XIII. IN THE SHADE OF THE OAKS             159
+            XIV. A MYSTERIOUS TRAGEDY                 171
+             XV. HOW I HELPED BUILD A NEST            175
+            XVI. IN OUR NEIGHBOR'S DOOR-YARD          184
+           XVII. WHICH WAS THE MOTHER BIRD?           189
+          XVIII. A RARE BIRD                          194
+            XIX. MY BLUE GUM GROVE                    211
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+                                                               PAGE
+
+    Mountain Billy under the Gnatcatcher's Oak.    _Frontispiece_
+    Our Valley                                                  4
+    Head of Black-headed Grosbeak                               8
+    Head of Rose-breasted Grosbeak                              8
+    In Hot Pursuit (Brewer's Blackbird and Bee-birds)          13
+    The Little Lover (Western House Wren)                      20
+    A Trying Moment (Western House Wren)                       32
+    Nest of Western Gnatcatcher                                39
+    Head of California Woodpecker                              66
+    Head of Red-headed Woodpecker (Eastern)                    66
+    Jacob and Bairdi visiting the Old Nest Tree                78
+    Head of Arizona Hooded Oriole                              89
+    Head of Baltimore Oriole (Eastern)                         89
+    Head of California Chewink                                 93
+    Head of Eastern Chewink                                    93
+    Valley Quail and Road-runner                               99
+    Nest of the Bush-tit                                      104
+    Pocket Nest in an Oak                                     108
+    The Big Sycamore                                          114
+    Along the Line of Sycamores                               124
+    Head of Black Ph[oe]be                                    129
+    Head of Eastern Ph[oe]be                                  129
+    The Little Hummer on her Bow-knot Nest                    148
+    The Swing Nest of the Hummer                              157
+    A Shady Bower                                             160
+    Head of Green-tailed Chewink                              163
+    The Nosebag Nest (Vigors's Wren)                          173
+    The Plain Titmouse in her Doorway                         176
+    Which was the Mother Bird? (Wren-tit and Lazuli Buntings) 189
+    The Phainopeplas on the Pepper-tree                       194
+    The Phainopepla's Nest in the Oak Brush Island            198
+    Eucalyptus Avenue, showing Pollarded Trees on the Right   212
+    Eucalyptus Wood stored for Market in a Eucalyptus Grove   214
+    Mountain Billy Deserted                                   220
+
+
+
+
+BIRDS REFERRED TO IN THE TEXT.[1]
+
+  White Egret. _Ardea egretta._
+  Green Heron. _Ardea virescens anthonyi._
+  Spotted Sandpiper. _Actitis macularia._
+  Valley Quail. _Callipepla californica vallicola._
+  Mourning Dove. _Zenaidura macroura._
+  Turkey Vulture. _Cathartes aura._
+  Hawk. _Buteo ----._
+  Sparrow Hawk. _Falco sparverius deserticolus._
+  American Barn Owl. _Strix pratincola._
+  Western Horned Owl. _Bubo virginianus subarcticus._
+  Burrowing Owl. _Speotyta cunicularia hypogæa._
+  Road-runner. _Geococcyx californianus._
+  California Woodpecker. _Melanerpes formicivorus bairdi._
+  Red shafted Flicker. _Colaptes cafer._
+  Dusky Poor-will. _Phalænoptilus nuttalli californicus._
+  Black-chinned Hummingbird. _Trochilus alexandri._
+  Rufous Hummingbird. _Selasphorus rufus._
+  Arkansas Kingbird. _Tyrannus verticalis._
+  Cassin's Kingbird. _Tyrannus vociferans._
+  Black Ph[oe]be. _Sayornis nigrescens._
+  Western Wood Pewee. _Contopus richardsonii._
+  Flycatcher. _Empidonax ----._
+  Horned Lark. _Otocoris alpestris chrysolæma._
+  California Jay. _Aphelocoma californica._
+  American Crow. _Corvus americanus._
+  Yellow-headed Blackbird. _Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus._
+  Red-winged Blackbird. _Agelaius ph[oe]nicius ----._
+  Arizona Hooded Oriole. _Icterus cucullatus nelsoni._
+  Bullock's Oriole. _Icterus bullocki._
+  Brewer's Blackbird. _Scholocophagus cyanocephalus._
+  Western House Finch. _Carpodacus mexicanus frontalis._
+  Goldfinch. _Spinus ----._
+  White-crowned Sparrow. _Zonotrichia leucophrys gambeli (?)._
+  Golden-crowned Sparrow. _Zonotrichia coronata._
+  Heerman's Song Sparrow. _Melospiza fasciata heermanni (?)._
+  Spurred Towhee or Chewink. _Pipilo maculatus megalonyx._
+  Green-tailed Towhee. _Pipilo chlorurus._
+  California Towhee. _Pipilo fuscus crissalis._
+  Black-headed Grosbeak. _Habia melanocephala._
+  Western Blue Grosbeak. _Guiraca cærulea eurhyncha._
+  Lazuli Bunting. _Passerina am[oe]na._
+  Louisiana Tanager. _Piranga ludoviciana._
+  Cliff Swallow. _Petrochelidon lunifrons._
+  Phainopepla. _Phainopepla nitens._
+  White-rumped Shrike. _Lanius ludovicianus excubitorides._
+  Warbling Vireo. _Vireo gilvus (?)._
+  Hutton's Vireo. _Vireo huttoni (?)._
+  Least Vireo. _Vireo bellii pusillus (?)._
+  Long-tailed Chat. _Icteria virens longicauda._
+  American Pipit. _Anthus pensilvanicus._
+  California Thrasher. _Harporhynchus redivivus._
+  Vigors's Wren. _Thryothorus bewickii spilurus._
+  Western House Wren. _Troglodytes ædon aztecus._
+  Plain Titmouse. _Parus inornatus._
+  Wren-tit. _Chamæa fasciata._
+  California Bush-tit. _Psaltriparus minimus californicus._
+  Western Gnatcatcher. _Polioptila cærulea obscura._
+  Varied Thrush or Oregon Robin. _Hesperocichla nævia._
+  Western Bluebird. _Sialia mexicana occidentalis._
+
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[1] In classification and nomenclature this list conforms to the
+American Ornithologists' Union 'Check-List of North American Birds,'
+Second Edition, 1895. L. S. Foster, New York.
+
+
+
+
+A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+OUR VALLEY.
+
+
+"CLIMB the mountain back of the house and you can see the Pacific," the
+ranchman told me with a gleam in his eye; and later, when I had done
+that, from the top of a peak at the foot of the valley he pointed out
+the distant blue mountains of Mexico. Then he gave me his daughter's
+saddle horse to use as long as I was his guest, that I might explore the
+valley and study its birds to the best advantage. Before coming to
+California, I had known only the birds of New York and Massachusetts,
+and so was filled with eager enthusiasm at thought of spending the
+migration and nesting season in a new bird world.
+
+I had no gun, but was armed with opera-glass and note-book, and had
+Ridgway's Manual to turn to in all my perplexities. Every morning, right
+after breakfast, my horse was brought to the door and I set out to make
+the rounds of the valley. I rode till dinner time, getting acquainted
+with the migrants as they came from the south, and calling at the more
+distant nests on the way. After dinner I would take my camp-stool and
+stroll, through the oaks at the head of the valley, for a quiet study of
+the nearer nests. Then once more my horse would be brought up for me to
+take a run before sunset; and at night I would identify my new birds and
+write up the notes of the day. What more could observer crave? The world
+was mine. I never spent a happier spring. The freedom and novelty of
+ranch life and the exhilaration of days spent in the saddle gave added
+zest to the delights of a new fauna. In my small valley circuit of a
+mile and a half, I made the acquaintance of about seventy-five birds,
+and without resort to the gun was able to name fifty-six of them.
+
+My saddle horse, a white bronco who went by the musical name of Canello,
+had been broken by a Mexican whose cruelty had tamed the wild blood in
+his veins and left him with a fear of all swarthy skins. Now he could be
+ridden bareback by the little girls, with only a rope noose around his
+nose, and was warranted to stand still before a flock of birds so long
+as there was grass to eat. He was to be relied on as a horse of ripe,
+experience and mature judgment in matters of local danger. No power of
+bit or spur could induce him to set foot upon a piece of 'boggy land,'
+and to give me confidence one of the ranchman's sons said, "Wherever
+I've killed a rattlesnake from him he'll shy for years;" and went on to
+cite localities where a sudden, violent lurch had nearly sent him over
+Canello's head! What greater recommendation could I wish?
+
+If the old horse had had any wayward impulses left, his Mexican bit
+would have subdued them. It would be impossible to use such an iron in
+the mouth of an eastern horse. They say the Mexicans sometimes break
+horses' jaws with it. From the middle of the bit, a flat bar of iron,
+three quarters of an inch wide, extended back four inches, lying on the
+horse's tongue or sticking into the roof of his mouth, according to the
+use of the curb--there was no other rein. The bit alone weighed sixteen
+ounces. The bridle, which came from Enseñada in Lower California, then
+the seat of a great gold excitement, was made of braided raw-hide. It
+was all hand work; there was not a buckle about it. The leather quirt at
+the end of the reins was the only whip necessary. When I left the ranch
+the bridle was presented to me, and it now hangs behind my study door, a
+proud trophy of my western life, and one that is looked upon with
+mingled admiration and horror by eastern horsemen.
+
+Canello and I soon became the best of friends. I found in him a valuable
+second--for, as I had anticipated, the birds were used to grazing
+horses, and were much less suspicious of an equestrian than a foot
+passenger--and he found in me a movable stake, constantly leading him
+to new grazing ground; for when there was a nest to watch I simply hung
+the bridle over the pommel and let him eat, so getting free hands for
+opera-glass and note-book. To be sure, there were slight causes of
+difference between us. He liked to watch birds in the high alfalfa under
+the sycamores, but when it came to standing still where the hot sun beat
+down through the brush and there was nothing to eat, his interest in
+ornithology flagged perceptibly. Then he sometimes carried the rôle of
+grazing horse too far, marching off to a fresh clump of grass out of
+sight of my nest at the most interesting moment; or when I was intently
+gazing through my glass at a rare bird, he would sometimes give a sudden
+kick at a horsefly, bobbing the glass out of range just as I was making
+out the character of the wing-bars.
+
+[Illustration: OUR VALLEY]
+
+From the ranch-house, encircled by live-oaks, the valley widened out,
+and was covered with orchards and vineyards, inclosed by the low
+brush-grown ridges of the Coast Mountains. It was a veritable paradise
+for the indolent field student. With so much insect-producing verdure,
+birds were everywhere at all times. There were no long hours to sit
+waiting on a camp-stool, and only here and there a treetop to 'sky' the
+wandering birds. The only difficulty was to choose your intimates.
+
+Canello and I had our regular beat, down past the blooming quince and
+apricot orchard, along the brush-covered side of the valley where the
+migrants flocked, around the circle through a great vineyard in the
+middle of the valley, past a pond where the feathered settlers gathered
+to bathe, and so back home to the oaks again.
+
+I liked to start out in the freshness of the morning, when the fog was
+breaking up into buff clouds over the mountains and drawing off in veils
+over the peaks. The brush we passed through was full of glistening
+spiders' webs, and in the open the grass was overlaid with disks of
+cobweb, flashing rainbow colors in the sun.
+
+As we loped gayly along down the curving road, a startled quail would
+call out, "Who-are-you'-ah? who-are-you'-ah?" and another would cry
+"quit" in sharp warning tones; while a pair would scud across the road
+like little hens, ahead of the horse; or perhaps a covey would start up
+and whirr over the hillside. The sound of Canello's flying hoofs would
+often rouse a long-eared jack-rabbit, who with long leaps would go
+bounding over the flowers, to disappear in the brush.
+
+The narrow road wound through the dense bushy undergrowth known as
+'chaparral,' and as Canello galloped round the sharp curves I had to
+bend low under the sweeping branches, keeping alert for birds and
+animals, as well as Mexicans and Indians that we might meet.
+
+This corner of the valley was the mouth of Twin Oaks Canyon, and was a
+forest of brush, alive with birds, and visited only by the children
+whose small schoolhouse stood beside the giant twin oak from which the
+valley post-office was named. Flocks of migrating warblers were always
+to be found here; flycatchers shot out at passing insects; chewinks
+scratched among the dead leaves and flew up to sing on the branches;
+insistent vireos cried _tu-whip' tu-whip' tu-whip' tu-wee'-ah_, coming
+out in sight for a moment only to go hunting back into the impenetrable
+chaparral; lazuli buntings sang their musical round; blue jays--blue
+squawkers, as they are here called--went screaming harshly through the
+thicket; and the clear ringing voice of the wren-tit ran down the scale,
+now in the brush, now echoing from the bowlder-strewn hills above. But
+the king of the chaparral was the great brown thrasher. His loud
+rollicking song and careless independent ways, so suggestive of his
+cousin, the mockingbird, made him always a marked figure.
+
+There was one dense corner of the thicket where a thrasher lived, and I
+used to urge Canello through the tangle almost every morning for the
+pleasure of sharing his good spirits. He was not hard to find, big brown
+bird that he was, standing on the top of a bush as he shouted out
+boisterously, _kick'-it-now, kick'-it-now, shut'-up shut'-up, dor'-a-thy
+dor'-a-thy_; or, calling a halt in his mad rhapsody, slowly drawled out,
+_whoa'-now, whoa'-now_. After listening to such a tirade as this, it
+was pleasant to come to an opening in the brush and find a band of
+gentle yellow-birds leaning over the blossoms of the white
+forget-me-nots.
+
+There were a great many hummingbirds in the chaparral, and at a certain
+point on the road I was several times attacked by one of the pugnacious
+little warriors. I suppose we were treading too near his nest, though I
+was not keen-eyed enough to find it. From high in the air, he would come
+with a whirr, swooping down so close over our heads that Canello started
+uneasily and wanted to get out of the way. Down over our heads, and then
+high up in the air, he would swing back and forth in an arc. One day he
+must have shot at us half a dozen times, and another day, over a spot in
+the brush near us,--probably, where the nest was,--he did the same thing
+a dozen times in quick succession.
+
+In the midst of the brush corner were a number of pretty round oaks, in
+one of which the warblers gathered. My favorite tree was in blossom and
+alive with buzzing insects, which may have accounted for the presence of
+the warblers. While I sat in the saddle watching the dainty birds decked
+out in black and gold, Canello rested his nose in the cleft of the tree,
+quite unmindful of the busy warblers that flitted about the branches,
+darting up for insects or chasing down by his nose after falling
+millers.
+
+One morning the ranchman's little girl rode over to school behind me on
+Canello, pillion fashion. As we pushed through the brush and into the
+opening by the schoolhouse, scattered over the grass sat a flock of
+handsome black-headed grosbeaks, the western representative of the
+eastern rose-breast, looking, in the sun, almost as red as robins. They
+had probably come from the south the night before. As we watched, they
+dispersed and sang sweetly in the oaks and brush.
+
+[Illustration: Black-headed Grosbeak.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+[Illustration: Rose-breasted Grosbeak.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+In the giant twin oak under whose shadow the the little schoolhouse
+stood was an owl's nest. When I stopped under it, nothing was to be seen
+but the tips of the ears of the brooding bird. But when I tried to hoot
+after the manner of owls, the angry old crone rose up on her feet above
+the nest till I could see her round yellow eyes and the full length of
+her long ears. She snapped her bill fiercely, bristled up, puffing out
+her feathers and shaking them at us threateningly. Poor old bird! I was
+amused at her performances, but one of her little birds lay dead at the
+foot of the tree, and I trembled for the others, for the school-children
+were near neighbors. Surely the old bird needed all her devices to
+protect her young. One day I saw on one side of the nest, below the big
+ears of the mother, the round head of a nestling.
+
+It was pleasant to leave the road to ride out under the oaks along the
+way. There was always the delightful feeling that one might see a new
+bird or find some little friend just gone to housekeeping. One morning I
+discovered a bit of a wren under an oak with building material in her
+bill. She flew down to a box that lay under the tree and I dismounted to
+investigate. A tin can lay on its side in the box, and a few twigs and
+yellowish brown oak leaves were scattered about in a casual way, but the
+rusted lid of the can was half turned back, and well out of sight in the
+inside was a pretty round nest with one egg in it. I was
+delighted,--such an appropriate place for a wren's nest,--and sat down
+for her to come back. She was startled to find me there, and stopped on
+the edge of the board when just ready to jump down. She would have made
+a pretty picture as she stood hesitating, with her tail over her back,
+for the sun lit up her gray breast till it almost glistened and warmed
+her pretty brown head as she looked wistfully down at the box. After
+twisting and turning she went off to think the matter over, and,
+encouraged perhaps by my whistle, came back and hopped down into the
+little nest.
+
+Two weeks later I was much grieved to find that the nest had been broken
+up. A horse had been staked under the tree, but he could not have done
+the mischief; for while the eggs were there, the nest itself was all
+jumbled up in the mouth of the can. I could not get it out of my mind
+for days. You become so much interested in the families you are watching
+that you feel as if their troubles were yours, and are haunted by the
+fear that they will think you have something to do with their accidents.
+They had taken me on probation at first, and at last had come to trust
+me--and then to imagine that I could deceive them and do the harm
+myself!
+
+When Canello and I left the brushy side of the canyon and started across
+the valley, the pretty little horned larks, whose reddish backs matched
+the color of the road, would run on ahead of us, or let the horses come
+within a few feet of them, squatting down ready to start, but not taking
+wing till it seemed as if they would get stepped on. Sometimes one sat
+on a stone by the roadside, so busy singing its thin chattering song
+that it only flitted on to the next stone as we came up; for it never
+seemed to occur to the trustful birds that passers-by might harm them.
+
+One of our most interesting birds nested in holes in the open
+uncultivated fields down the valley,--the burrowing owl, known
+popularly, though falsely, as the bird who shares its nest with prairie
+dogs and rattlesnakes. Though they do not share their quarters with
+their neighbors, they have large families of their own. We once passed a
+burrow around which nine owls were sitting. The children of the ranchman
+called the birds the 'how-do-you-do owls,' from the way they bow their
+heads as people pass. The owls believe in facing the enemy, and the
+Mexicans say they will twist their heads off if you go round them times
+enough.
+
+One of our neighbors milked his cows out in a field where the burrowing
+owls had a nest, and he told me that his collie had nightly battles with
+the birds. I rode down one evening to see the droll performance, and
+getting there ahead of the milkers found the bare knoll of the pasture
+peopled with ground squirrels and owls. The squirrels sat with heads
+sticking out of their holes, or else stood up outside on their hind
+legs, with the sun on their light breasts, looking, as Mr. Roosevelt
+says, like 'picket pins.' The little old yellowish owls who matched the
+color of the pasture sat on the fence posts, while the darker colored
+young ones sat close by their holes, matching the color of the earth
+they lived in. As I watched, one of the old birds flew down to feed its
+young. A comical little fellow ran up to meet his parent and then
+scudded back to the nest hole, keeping low to the ground as if afraid of
+being seen, or of disobeying his mother's commands. When the ranchman
+came with his cows the small owls ducked down into their burrows out of
+sight.
+
+Romulus, the collie, went up to the burrows and the old owls came
+swooping over his back screaming shrilly--the milkers told me that they
+often struck him so violently they nipped more than his hair! When the
+owls flew at him, Romulus would jump up into the air at them, and when
+they had settled back on the fence posts he would run up and start them
+off again. The performance had been repeated every night through the
+nesting season, and was getting to be rather an old story now, at least
+to Romulus. The ranchman had to urge him on for my benefit, and the owls
+acted as if they rather enjoyed the sport, though with them there was
+always the possibility that a reckless nestling might pop up its head
+from the ground at the wrong moment and come to grief. It would be
+interesting to know if the owls were really disturbed enough to move
+their nest another year.
+
+When Canello and I faced home on our daily circuit of the valley, we
+often found the vineyard well peopled. In April, when it was being
+cultivated, there was a busy scene. All the blackbirds of the
+neighborhood--both Brewer's and redwings--assembled to pick up grubs
+from the soft earth. A squad of them followed close at the plowman's
+heels, others flew up before his horse, while those that lagged behind
+in their hunt were constantly flying ahead to catch up, and those that
+had eaten all they could sat around on the neighboring grape-vines. The
+ranchman's son told me that when he was plowing and the blackbirds were
+following him, two or three 'bee-birds,' as they call the Arkansas and
+Cassin's flycatchers, would take up positions on stakes overlooking the
+flock; and when one of the blackbirds got a worm, would fly down and
+chase after him till they got it away, regularly making their living
+from the blackbirds, as the eagles do from the fish hawks.
+
+[Illustration: In Hot Pursuit.
+
+(Brewer's Blackbird and Bee-birds.)]
+
+One day in riding by the vineyard, to my surprise and delight I saw one
+of the handsome yellow-headed blackbirds sitting with dignity on a
+grape-vine. Although his fellows often flock with redwings, this bird
+did not deign to follow the cultivator with the others, but flew off and
+away while I was watching, showing his striking white shoulder patches
+as he went. The distinguished birds were sometimes seen assembled
+farther down the valley; and I once had a rare pleasure in seeing a
+company of them perched high on the blooming mustard.
+
+The son of the ranchman told me an interesting thing about the ordinary
+blackbirds. He said he had seen a flock of perhaps five hundred fly down
+toward a band of grazing sheep, and all but a few of the birds light on
+the backs of sheep. The animals did not seem to mind, and the birds flew
+from one to another and roosted and rode to their heart's content. They
+would drop to the ground, but if anything startled them, fly back to
+their sheep again. Sometimes he had seen a few of the blackbirds picking
+out wool for their nests by bracing themselves on the backs of the
+sheep, and pulling where the wool was loose. He had also seen the birds
+ride hogs, cattle, and horses; but he said the horses usually switched
+them off with their tails.
+
+On our way home we passed a small pond made by the spring rains. Since
+it was the only body of water for miles around, it was especially
+refreshing to us, and was the rendezvous of all our feathered
+neighbors--how they must have wished it would last all through the hot
+summer months! As I rode through the long grass on the edge of the pond,
+dark water snakes often wriggled away from under Canello's feet; but he
+evidently knew they were harmless, for he paid no attention to them,
+though he was mortally afraid of rattlers. I did not like the feeling
+that any snake, however innocent, was under my feet, so would pull him
+up out of the grass onto a flat rock overlooking the pond.
+
+In the fresh part of the morning, before the fog had entirely melted
+away, the round pool at our feet mirrored the blue sky and the small
+white clouds. If a breath of wind ruffled the water into lines, in a
+moment more it was sparkling. Along the margin of the water was a border
+of wild flowers, pink, purple, and gold; on one side stood a group of
+sycamores, their twisted trunks white in the morning sun and their
+branches full of singing birds; while away to the south a line of dark
+blue undulating hills was crowned by the peak from which we had looked
+off on the mountains of Mexico. The air was ringing with songs, the
+sycamores were noisy with the chatter of blackbirds and bee-birds, and
+the bushes were full of sparrows.
+
+There was an elder on the edge of the pond, and the bathers flew to this
+and then flitted down to the water; and when they flew up afterwards,
+lighted there to whip the water out of their feathers and sun themselves
+before flying off. I never tired watching the little bathers on the
+beach. One morning a pipit came tipping and tilting along the sand,
+peeping in its wild, sad way. Another time a rosy-breasted linnet
+stepped to the edge of the pond and dipped down daintily where the water
+glistened in the sunshine, sending a delicate circle rippling off from
+its own shadow. Then the handsome white and golden-crowned sparrows came
+and bathed in adjoining pools. When one set of birds had flown off to
+dry their feathers, others took their places. A pair of blackbirds
+walked down the sand beach, but acted absurdly, as if they did not know
+what to do in water--it was a wonder any of the birds did in dry
+California! Two pieces of wood lay in the shallows, and the blackbirds
+flew to them and began to promenade. The female tilted her tail as if
+the sight of herself in the pond made her dizzy, but the male finally
+edged down gingerly and took a dip or two with his bill, after which
+both flew off.
+
+On the mud flats on one side of the pond, bee-birds were busy
+flycatching, perching on sticks near the ground and making short sallies
+over the flat. Turtle doves flew swiftly past, and high over head hawks
+and buzzards circled and let themselves be borne by the wind.
+
+Swallows came to the pond to get mud for their nests. A long line of
+them would light on the edge of the water, and then, as if afraid of
+wetting their feet, would hold themselves up by fluttering their long
+pointed wings. They would get a little mud, take a turn in the air, and
+come back for more, to make enough to pay them for their long journeys
+from their nests. Sometimes they would skim over the pond without
+touching the surface at all, or merely dip in lightly for a drink in
+passing; at others they would take a flying plunge with an audible
+splash. Now and then great flocks of them could be seen circling around
+high up against a background of clouds and blue sky.
+
+One day I had a genuine excitement in seeing a snow-white egret perched
+on a bush by the water. I rode home full of the beautiful sight, but
+alas, my story was the signal for the ranchman's son to seize his gun
+and rush after the bird. Fortunately he did not find him, although he
+did shoot a green heron; but it was probably a short reprieve for the
+poor hunted creature.
+
+Canello was so afraid of miring in the soft ground that it was hard to
+get him across some places that seemed quite innocent. He would test the
+suspicious ground as carefully as a woman, one foot at a time; and if he
+judged it dangerous, would take the bits, turn around and march off in
+the opposite direction. I tried to force him over at first, but had an
+experience one day that made me quite ready to take all suggestions in
+such matters. This time he was deceived himself. We were on our homeward
+beat, off in the brush beyond the vineyard. I was watching for chewinks.
+We came to what looked like an old road grown up with soft green grass,
+and it was so fresh and tender I let Canello graze along at will; while
+keeping my eyes on the brush for chewinks. Suddenly Canello pricked up
+his ears and raised his head with a look of terror. Rattlesnakes or
+miring--it was surely one or the other! When I felt myself sinking, I
+knew which. I gave the horse a cut with the quirt to make him spring off
+the boggy ground, and looked off over his side to see how far down he
+was likely to go, but found myself going down backwards so fast I had to
+cling to the pommel. I lashed Canello to urge him out, and he struggled
+desperately, but it was no use. We were sinking in deeper and deeper,
+and I had to get off to relieve him of my weight. By this time his long
+legs had sunk in up to his body. On touching the ground I had a horrible
+moment thinking it might not hold me; but it bore well. Seizing the
+bridle with one hand and swinging the quirt with the other, I shouted
+encouragement to Canello, and, straining and struggling, he finally
+wrenched himself out and stepped on _terra firma_--I never appreciated
+the force of that expression before! The poor horse was trembling and
+exhausted when I led him up to high ground to remount, and neither of
+us had any desire to explore boggy lands after that.
+
+On our morning round, Canello and I attended strictly to business,--he
+to grazing, I to observing; but on our afternoon rides I, at least, felt
+that we might pay a little more heed to the beauties of the valley and
+the joys of horsebacking. Sometimes we would be overtaken by the night
+fog. One moment the mustard would be all aglow with sunshine; at the
+next, a sullen bank of gray fog would have risen over the mountain,
+obscuring the sun which had warmed us and lighted the mustard; and in a
+few moments it would be so cold and damp that I would urge Canello into
+a lope to warm our blood as we hurried home.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+THE LITTLE LOVER.
+
+
+[Illustration: The Little Lover.
+
+(Western House Wren.)]
+
+ON my second visit to California, I spent the winter in the Santa Clara
+valley, riding among the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, where
+flocks of Oregon robins were resting from the labors of the summer and
+passing the time until they could fly home again; but when the first
+spring wild flowers bloomed on the hills I shipped my little roan
+mustang by steamer from San Francisco to San Diego, and hurried south to
+meet him and spend the nesting season in the little valley of the Coast
+Mountains which, five years before, had proved such an ideal place to
+study birds.
+
+I went down early in March, to be sure to be in time for the nesting
+season; but spring was so late that by the last of April hardly a nest
+had been built, and it seemed as if the birds were never coming back.
+The weather was gloomy and the prospect for the spring's work looked
+discouraging, when one morning I rode over to the line of oaks and
+sycamores at the mouth of Ughland canyon I had not visited before. In
+this dry, treeless region of southern California only a little water is
+needed to cover the bare valley bottoms with verdure. The rushing
+streams that flow down the canyons after the winter rains fill their
+mouths with rich groves of brush, oaks and sycamores; while lines of
+trees border the streams as far as they extend down the valleys. Before
+the streams go far, the thirsty soil drinks them up, leaving only dry
+beds of sand bordered by trees, until the rains of the following winter.
+In April, the water in this particular canyon mouth had already
+disappeared, and the wide sand bed under the trees alone remained to
+tell of the short-lived stream. But the resulting verdure was enough to
+attract the birds. Apparently a party of travelers had just arrived. The
+brush and trees were full of song--yellowbirds, linnets, chewinks,
+doves, wrens, and, best of all, a song sparrow,--bless his
+heart!--singing as if he were on a bush in New York state. It was more
+cheering than anything I had heard in California.
+
+When able to listen to something besides song sparrows, I realized that
+from the trees in front of me was coming the rippling merry song of a
+wren. Wrens are always interesting,--droll, individual little
+scraps,--and having found their nests in sycamore holes before, I let my
+horse, Mountain Billy, graze nearer to the tree from which the sound
+came. Before long the small brown pair flew away together across the oat
+field that spread out from the mouth of the canyon. While they were
+gone, I took the opportunity to inspect the tree, and found a large hole
+with twigs sticking out suggestively. Presently, back flew one of the
+wrens with more building material. But this line of sycamores was off
+from the highway, and the bird was not used to prying equestrians; so
+when she found Mountain Billy and me planted in front of her door, she
+doubted the wisdom of showing us that it was her door. Chattering
+nervously, she would back and fill, flying all but to the door and then
+flitting off again. She could not make up her mind to go inside. But
+soon her mate came and--unmindful of visitors, ardent little lover that
+he was--sang to her so gayly that it put her in heart; and before I knew
+it she had slipped into the tree.
+
+Here was a nest, at last, right over my eye. To encourage myself while
+waiting for something to happen, I began a list with the heading NESTS,
+when something caught my eye overhead, and glancing up, behold, a
+goldfinch walked down a branch and seated herself in a round cup! A few
+moments later--buzz--whirr--a hummingbird flew to a nest among the brown
+leaves of one of the low-hanging oak sprays not ten feet away! I simply
+stared with delight and astonishment. No need of a list for
+encouragement now. From Billy's back I could look down into the little
+cup, which seemed the tiniest in the world. Forgetting the little lover
+and his mate, I sat still and watched this small household.
+
+The young were out of the eggs, though not much more, and their mother
+sat on the edge of the nest feeding them. She curved her neck over till
+her long bill stood up perpendicularly, when she put it gently into the
+gaping bills of her young; the smallest of bills, not more than an
+eighth of an inch long, I should judge. I never saw hummingbirds fed so
+gently. Probably the small bills and throats were so delicate the mother
+was afraid they would not bear the usual jabbing and pumping.
+
+When the little ones were fed, the old bird got down in the nest,
+fluffing her feathers about her in a pretty motherly way and settling
+herself comfortably to rest, apparently ignoring the fact that Billy was
+grazing close beside her. She may have had her qualms, but no mother
+bird would leave her tender young uncovered on such a cold morning.
+
+While she was on the nest, there was an approaching whirr, followed by a
+retreating buzz--had the father bird started to come to the nest and
+fled at sight of me? Remembering the evidence Bradford Torrey collected
+to prove that the male bird is rarely seen at the nest, I wondered if
+his absence might be explained by his usually noisy flight, for it would
+attract the notice of man or beast.
+
+Two days later I carefully touched the tip of my finger to the back of
+one of the tiny hummingbirds,--it was very skinny, I regret to
+state,--and at my touch the little thing opened its wee bill for food.
+That day the mother fed the birds in the regulation way, when we were
+only four feet distant. I was near enough to see all the horrors of the
+performance. She thrust her bill down their throats till I felt like
+crying out, "For mercy's sake, forbear!" She plunged it in up to the
+very hilt; it seemed as if she must puncture their alimentary canals.
+
+While waiting for the wrens, I buckled Billy's bridle around the
+sycamore and threw myself down on the warm sand under the beautiful
+tree. The little horse stood near, outlined against the blue sky, with
+the sunlight dappling his back, while I looked up into the light green
+foliage of the white sycamore overhead. There seemed to be a great deal
+of light stored in these delicate trees. The undersides of the big,
+soft, white leaves looked like white Canton flannel; the sunlight
+mottled the whitish bark of the trunks and branches; and a great limb
+arched above me, making a high vaulted chamber whose skylights showed
+the deep blue above.
+
+But there were the little lover and his mate, and I must turn my glass
+on them. She came first, with long streamers hanging from her bill, and
+at sight of me got so flustered that one of her straws slipped out and
+went sailing down to the ground. When the pair had gone again, two
+linnets came along. The female saw the wren's doorway, and being in
+search of apartments flew up to look at the house. When she came out she
+and her mate talked it over and, apparently, she told him something that
+aroused his curiosity--perhaps about the wren's twigs she found
+inside--for he flew into the dark hole and looked around as she had
+done. Then both birds went off to inspect other holes in the tree. The
+master of the wren cottage came back in time to see them on their
+rounds, and taking up his position in front of his door sang out loudly,
+with wings hanging and a general air of, "This is _my_ house, I'd have
+you understand!"
+
+When the lord of the manor had flown away, his lady came. I thought
+perhaps he had told her of the visitors and she had come to see if they
+had disturbed any of her sticks, for she brought no material. She was
+afraid to go to the nest in my presence, but flew to a branch near by
+and leaned down so far it was a wonder she didn't tip over as she stared
+anxiously at the hole--a bad way to keep a secret, my little lady! I
+thought. When her merry minstrel came, his song again gave her courage
+and she flew inside, turning in the doorway, however, to look out at me.
+
+But what with horses grazing under her windows and linnets making free
+with her nest, the poor wren was unsettled in her mind. Possibly it
+would be wiser to take out her sticks and build elsewhere. She went
+about looking at vacant rooms and examined one opening in the side of
+the trunk where I could see only her profile as she hung out of the
+hole.
+
+For some time the timid bird would not accept Mountain Billy and me as
+part of her immediate landscape, and I watched the premises a number of
+days, getting nothing but my labor for my pains, as far as wrens were
+concerned.
+
+One day when she did not come, I thought it was a good chance to get a
+study of the hummingbird's nest; but alas!--the delicate little
+structure hung torn and dangling from the twig, with nothing to tell
+what had become of the poor little hummers. I moralized sadly upon the
+mutability of human affairs as I took the tattered nest and tied it up
+in a corner of my handkerchief; for it was all that was left of the
+little home built with such exquisite care and brooded over so
+tenderly.
+
+The yellowbird's nest came to an untimely end, too, although its start
+was such a bright one. It was a disappointment, for the goldfinches are
+such trustful birds and so affectionate and tender in their family
+relations that they always win one's warm interest. At first, when this
+mother bird went to the nest, her mate stationed himself on the nest
+tree, leaning over and looking down anxiously at Billy and me; but
+before their home was broken up the watchful guardian fed his pretty
+mate at her brooding when we were below.
+
+We had a great many visitors while waiting for the wrens: neighbors came
+to sit in our green shade, young housekeepers came looking for rooms to
+rent, and old birds who were leading around their noisy families came to
+dine with us. Once a pair of flickers started to light in the tree, but
+they gave a glance over the shoulder at me and fled. Later I found their
+secret--down inside an old charred stump up the canyon. Occasionally I
+got sight of gay liveries in the green sycamore tops. A Louisiana
+tanager in his coat of many colors stopped one day, and another time,
+when looking up for dull green vireos, my eye was startled by a flaming
+golden oriole. The color was a keen pleasure. Lazuli buntings, relatives
+of our eastern indigo-bird, sang so much within hearing that I felt sure
+they were nesting in the weeds outside the line of sycamores--I did find
+a pair building in the malvas beyond; a pair of bush-tits, cousins of
+the chickadees, came with one of their big families; California towhees
+often appeared sitting quietly on the branches; linnets were always
+stopping to discuss something in their emphatic way; clamorous blue jays
+rushed in and set the small birds in a panic, but seeing me quickly took
+themselves off; and a pair of wary woodpeckers hunted over the sycamore
+trunks and worked so cautiously that they had finished excavating a nest
+only just out of my sight on the other side of the wren tree trunk
+before I seriously suspected them of domestic intentions.
+
+One day, when watching at the tree, a great brown and black lizard that
+the children of the valley call the 'Jerusalem overtaker' came worming
+down the side of an oak that I often leaned against. The rough bark
+seemed such a help to it that I imagined the wrens had done wisely in
+choosing a smooth sycamore to build in. I looked narrowly at their nest
+hole with the thought in mind and saw that the birds had another point
+of vantage in the way the trunk bulged at the hole--it did not seem as
+if a large lizard could work itself up the smooth slippery rounding
+surface, however much given to eggs for breakfast. But in the West
+Indies lizards walk freely up and down the marble slabs, so it is
+dangerous to say what they cannot do.
+
+Billy had a surprise one day greater than mine over the lizard. He was
+grazing quietly near where I sat under the wren tree, when he suddenly
+threw up his head. His ears pointed forward, his eyes grew excited, and
+as he gazed his head rose higher and higher. I jumped from the ground
+and put my hand on the pommel ready to spring into the saddle. As I did
+so, across the field I caught a glimpse of a great fawn-colored animal
+with a white tip to its tail, bounding through the brush--a deer! Then I
+heard voices through the trees and saw the red shawl of a woman in a
+wagon rumbling up the road the deer must have crossed.
+
+When Mountain Billy and I pulled ourselves together and started after
+the deer, the poor horse was so unstrung he made snakes of all the
+sticks he saw and shied at all imaginable bugaboos along the way. We
+were too late to see the deer again, but found the marks of its hoofs
+where it had jumped a ditch and sunk so deep in the fine sand on the
+other side that it had to take a great leap to recover itself.
+
+The sight of the deer made Billy as nervous as a witch for days. Every
+time we went to visit the wrens he would stand with eyes glued to the
+spot where it had appeared, and when a jack-rabbit came out of the brush
+with his long ears up, Billy started as if he thought it would devour
+him. I was perplexed by his nervousness at first, but after much
+pondering reasoned it out, to my own satisfaction at least. His name
+was Mountain Billy, and in the days when he had been a wayward bucking
+mustang he lived in the Sierra. Now, even in the hills surrounding our
+valley, colts were killed by mountain lions. How much more in the
+Sierra. Mountain lions are large fawn-colored animals: that was it:
+Mountain Billy was suffering from an acute attack of association of
+ideas. The sight of the deer had awakened memories of the nightmare of
+his colthood days.
+
+We made frequent visits to the wren tree, and both my nervous little
+horse and I had a start one morning, for as we rode in, a covey of quail
+flew up with a whirr from under the tree in front of us.
+
+When the wren had become reconciled to us she worked rapidly, flying
+back and forth with material, followed by her mate, who sang while she
+was on the nest and chased away with her afterwards. Often when she
+appeared in the doorway ready to go, his song, which had been just a
+merry round before, at sight of her would suddenly change to a most
+ecstatic love song. He would sit with drooping tail, his wings sometimes
+shaking at his sides, at others raised till they almost met over his
+back, trembling with the excitement of his joy. This peculiar tremulous
+motion of the wings was marked in both wrens; their emotions seemed too
+large for their small bodies.
+
+I found the wrens building, the last of April. The third week in May
+the little lover was singing as hard as ever. I wrote in my
+note-book--"Wrens do not take life with proper seriousness, their duties
+certainly do not tie them down." When the eggs were in the nest, if her
+mate sang at her door, the mother bird would fly out to him and away
+they would go together; for it never seemed to occur to the care-free
+lover that he might brood the eggs in her absence.
+
+When the young hatched, however, affairs took a more serious turn.
+Mother wren at least was kept busy looking for spiders, and later, when
+both were working together, if not hunting among the green treetops, the
+pretty little brown birds often flew to the ground and ran about under
+the weeds to search for insects. Once when the mother bird had flown up
+with her bill full, she suddenly stopped at the twig in front of the
+nest, looking down, her tail over her back wren fashion, the sun on her
+brown sides, and her bill bristling with spiders' legs.
+
+[Illustration: A Trying Moment.]
+
+On June 7 I noticed a remarkable thing. For more than five weeks, all
+through the building and brooding, the little lover had been acting as
+if on his honeymoon--as if the nest were a joke and there were nothing
+for him to do in the world but sing and make love to his pretty mate--as
+if life were all 'a-courtin'.' On this day he first came to the tree
+with food, sang out for his spouse, gave her the morsel, and flew off.
+Later in the morning he brought food and his mate carried it to the
+young. But afterwards, when she started to take a morsel from him,
+behold! he--the gay, frivolous little beau, the minstrel lover--actually
+acted as if he didn't want to give it up, as if he wanted to feed his
+own little birds himself. With wings trembling at his sides he turned
+his back on his mate and started to walk down the branch away from her!
+But he was too fond of her to even seem to refuse her anything, and so,
+coming back, gave her the morsel. She probably divined his thought, and,
+let us hope, was glad to have him show an interest in his children at
+last; at all events, when he came again with food and clung to the tip
+of a drooping twig waiting although she first lit above him and came
+down toward him with bill wide open and wings fluttering in the pretty,
+helpless, coquettish way female birds often tease to be fed; suddenly,
+as if remembering, she flew off, and--he went in to the nest himself! It
+was a conquest; the little lover was not altogether lacking in the
+paternal instinct after all! I looked at him with new respect.
+
+On June 12 I wrote: "The wrens seem to have settled down to business."
+It was delightful to find the small father actually taking turns feeding
+the young. I saw him feed his mate only once or twice, and noticed much
+less of the quivering wings, though after leaving the nest he would
+sometimes light on a branch and move them tremulously at his sides for a
+moment. June 15 I wrote: "The birds are feeding rapidly to-day. I hear
+very little song from the male; probably he has all he can attend to.
+I'd like to know how many young ones there are in that hole." At all
+events, the voices of the young were getting stronger and more
+insistent, and it is no bagatelle to keep half a dozen gaping mouths
+full of spiders, as any mother bird can tell. This particular mother
+wren, however, seemed to enjoy her cares. She often called to the young
+from a branch in front of the nest before going in, and stopped to call
+back to them with a motherly-sounding _krup-up-up_ as she stood in the
+entrance on leaving.
+
+One day as one of the old birds stood in the doorway its mate flew into
+the nest right over its head. The astonished doorkeeper was so startled
+that it took to its wings.
+
+Before this, in watching the wrens, I had looked off across a sunny
+field of golden oats, against the background of blue hills. On June 14,
+when I went to the nest, the mowers had been at work around the
+sycamores and the oat-field was full of cocks. Just as the wren was most
+anxious for peace and quietness, for a safe world into which to launch
+her brood, up came this rout of haymakers with all their clattering
+machines, laying low the meadows to her very door.
+
+No wonder the little bird met me with nerves on edge. When the eggs had
+first hatched, she had objected to me, but mildly. To be sure, once when
+she found me staring she flew away over my head, scolding as much as to
+say, "Stop looking at my little birds," and finding me there when she
+came back, shook her wings at her sides and scolded hard, though her
+bill was full; but still her disapproval did not trouble me; it was too
+sociable. But now, for some time, affected by the shadow of coming
+events, she had been growing more and more fidgety under my gaze,
+darting inside, then whisking back to the door to look at me, in again
+to her brood and out to me, over and over like a flash--or, like a poor
+little troubled mother wren, distracted lest her unruly youngsters
+should pop out of the hole in the tree trunk when I was below to catch
+them.
+
+On this day, when the wren came up from the dark nest pocket and found
+me below, she called back to her little ones in such distress that I
+felt reproached. By gazing fixedly through my glass into the dark hole I
+could see the head of a sprightly nestling pop up and turn alertly from
+side to side as if returning my inspection. The old wren's calls made me
+think of a human mother who can no longer control her big wayward
+offspring and has to entreat them to do as she bids. It was as if she
+said, "Oh, _do_ be good children, _do_ keep still; _do_ put your heads
+back; you _naughty_ children, you _must_ do as I tell you!"
+
+On June 16, six weeks after I had found the birds building, I wrote in
+my note-book: "I am astonished every morning when I come and find the
+wrens still here, but perhaps it's easier feeding them in one spot than
+it would be chasing around after them in half a dozen different places."
+
+The young were chattering inside the nest. They all talked at once as
+children will, but one small voice assumed the tones of the mother;
+probably the oldest brother speaking with the air of authority
+featherless children sometimes assume with the weaker members of the
+family. When a parent came, I saw the big brother's head pop up from
+behind the wall,--the nest was in a pocket below,--and by the time the
+old bird got there with food the big throat blocked the way for the
+little ones down behind. Sometimes I could see a flutter of small wings
+and tails, when the birds were being fed.
+
+As nothing happened, I went off to watch another nest, but in an hour
+was back to make sure of seeing the small wrens when they left the nest.
+A loud continuous scolding met me on approaching, and one of the old
+wrens, with bill full of insects, flew--not up to the nest--but down in
+among the weeds! In less than an hour that whole brood of wrens had
+flown, and were three or four rods away in the high weeds--safe! I was
+taken aback. They had stolen a march on me. Surely I had not been
+treated as was fit and proper, being one of the family!
+
+It was amusing to see the young ones fly. They whirled away on their
+wings as if they had been flitting around in the big world always; but
+their stubby tails sadly interfered with their progress, and they came
+to earth before they meant.
+
+Weak cries came from the young hidden in the weeds. They could fly, but
+it was different from being safe inside a tree trunk! I hardly
+recognized their weak appealing voices, after the stentorian tones that
+had issued from the old nest.
+
+The weeds were a most admirable cover, and the dead stalks sticking up
+through them served as sentry posts, from which the old birds scolded me
+when I followed too close on their heels. The youngsters sometimes
+appeared on the stalks, and looked very pert on their long legs with
+their short tails cocked over their backs.
+
+In the afternoon I went again to see the little family to which I had
+become so much attached and which were now slipping away from me. They
+had been led farther up the canyon, where, at a turn in the dry bed of
+the stream, the thick cover of weeds was still more protected by brush
+and overhanging trees, and the whole thicket was warmed by the afternoon
+sunshine. The old birds were busily flying back and forth feeding their
+invisible young. They scolded me as they flew past, but kept right on
+with their work.
+
+There was little use trying to keep track of the brood after that, and I
+thought I had given them up quite philosophically, reflecting that it
+was pleasant to leave them in such a sunny protected place. Still, day
+after day in riding along the line of sycamores on my way to other
+nests, it gave me a pang of loneliness to pass the old deserted wren
+tree where I had spent so many happy hours; and though the sycamores
+were silent, I could always hear and see the little lover singing to his
+pretty mate.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+LIKE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT.
+
+
+WHEN watching the little lover and his brood, I heard familiar voices
+farther down the line of oaks, voices of little friends I had made on my
+first visit to California, and had always remembered with lively
+interest as the jauntiest, most individual bits of humanity I had ever
+known in feathers. So, when Mountain Billy and I could be spared by the
+other bird families we were watching, we set out to hunt up the little
+bluish gray western gnatcatchers.
+
+The (sand) stream that widened under the wren's sycamores narrowed up
+the canyon to a--dry ditch, I should say, if it were not disrespectful
+to speak that way of a channel that once a year carries a torrent which
+excavates canals in the meadows. Billy and I started up this sand ditch,
+so narrow between its weed-grown banks that there was barely room for
+us, and so arched over in places by chaparral that we could get through
+only when Billy put down his ears and I bowed low on the saddle.
+
+[Illustration: Nest of Western Gnatcatcher.
+
+(From a photograph.)]
+
+We had not gone far before we heard the gnatcatchers, bluish gray mites
+with heads that are always cocked on one side or the other to look down
+at something, and long tails that are always flipping about as their
+owners flaunt gayly through the bushes: At sound of their voices I
+pulled Billy up out of the ditch, and, slipping from his back, sat down
+on the ground to wait for the birds. Eureka! there, in a slender young
+oak on the edge of the stream not a rod away, one of the pair was
+gliding off its nest, a beautiful lichen-covered, compact little
+structure such as I had admired years before. I was jubilant. What a
+relief! I had fully expected it to be inside the dense brush, where no
+mortal could tell what was going on; and here it was out in the plain
+light of day. What a delightful time I should have watching it! Before
+leaving the spot, in imagination I had followed the brood out into the
+world and filled a note-book with the quaint airs and graces of the
+piquant pair.
+
+When insinuating yourself into the secrets of the bird world, it is not
+well to be too obtrusive at first: it is a mistake to spend the day when
+you make your first call; so contenting myself with thinking of the
+morrow, and fixing the small oak in my memory, I took myself off before
+the blue-gray should tell on me to her mate. As I rose to go, a dove
+flew out of the oak--she had been brooding right over my head. Another
+nest, and a mourning dove's, one of the most gentle and winning of
+birds! Surely my good star was in the ascendent!
+
+The next day, forgetful of this second nest, I rode Billy right up under
+the oak, and was startled to find the pretty dove sitting quietly over
+our heads, looking down at us out of her gentle eyes. It was a pleasant
+surprise. She let me talk to her, but when I had dismounted Billy
+tramped around so uneasily that the saddle caught in the oak branches
+and scared the poor bird away. I had hardly seated myself when the
+jaunty little gnatcatcher came flying over and lit in an upper branch
+of the tree. What a contrast she was to the quiet dove! With many flirts
+of the tail she hopped down to the nest, jumping from branch to branch
+as if tripping down a pair of stairs. When she dropped into her deep cup
+her small head stuck up over one edge, her long tail pointed over the
+other.[2]
+
+I looked away a moment, and on glancing back found the nest empty.
+On the  instant, however, came the sound of my small friend's voice.
+Such a talkative  little person!--not one of your
+creep-in-and-out-of-the-nest-without-anybody's-knowing-it kind of a
+bird, not she! Her remarks sounded as if made over my head, and when
+Billy stamped about the brush and rapped the saddle trying to switch off
+flies, I imagined guiltily that they were addressed to me; but while I
+wondered if she would keep away all the rest of the morning because she
+had discovered me, back she came, talking to herself in complaining
+tones and whipping her tail impatiently, even after she stood on the
+edge of the nest, evidently absorbed in her own affairs, quite to the
+exclusion of the person down in the brush who thought herself so
+important!
+
+My doves were attending to me, however, altogether too much. The
+brooding bird was anxious to go to her nest. After flying out where she
+could see me, she whizzed toward it; but, fearful, hesitated and talked
+it over with her mate--both birds cooed with inflated breaths. After
+that the branches rattled overhead, but even then, though my back was
+turned, the timid bird dared not stay. She must make another inspection.
+From an opposite oak she peered through the branches, moving her head
+excitedly, and calling out her impressions to her mate. Meanwhile, he
+had flown down the sand stream and called back quite calmly. I, also,
+cooed reassuringly to her, and soon she quieted down and began to plume
+her feathers on the sunny branch. As the gnatcatchers did not honor us
+with their attention even when Billy stalked around in plain sight, I
+moved a little closer to their nest to give the dove more freedom; and
+soon the gentle bird slipped back to her brooding.
+
+Before leaving I went to see the dove in the oak, and spoke caressingly
+to her, admiring her soft dove-colored feathers and shining iridescent
+neck. She was on her own ground there, and felt that she could safely be
+friends, so she only winked in the sun, paying no heed to her mate when
+he called warningly. It was especially pleasant to watch this reserved
+lady-like bird, after the flippant tell-all-you-know little gnat.
+
+On going away, Billy and I took a run up the canyon. Billy was in high
+spirits, and went racing up the narrow road, winding and turning
+through the chaparral, brushing me against the the stiff scrub oak and
+loping under low branches so fast that the sharp leaves snapped back,
+stinging my cheeks. We had a gay ride, with a spice of excitement thrown
+in; for on our way home, in the thick dust across our path, besides the
+pretty quail tracks that made wall-paper patterns on the road, were the
+straight trails of gopher snakes, and the scalloped one of a rattlesnake
+we had been just too late to meet.
+
+At our next session with the blue-grays, when she was on the nest, her
+mate came back to relieve her and cried in his quick cheerful way, "Here
+I am, here I am!" Either she was taking a nap or didn't want to stir,
+for she didn't budge till he called insistently, "_Here_ I am, _here_ I
+am!" Then he hopped down in her place, and raising his head above the
+nest, remarked again, as if commenting upon the new situation, "Here I
+am!"
+
+It was quite a different matter when she came back to work. She only
+called "hello," not even hinting that he should make way for her, but he
+hopped off at the first sound of her voice, flying away promptly to
+another tree and calling back like a gleeful boy let out of school,
+"Here I am!"
+
+She was no more eager to go to the nest than he, however, and once when
+she came flirting leisurely along from twig to twig, she stopped a long
+time on the edge of the nest and leaned over, presumably to arrange the
+eggs; perhaps she and her mate had different views as to their proper
+positions. The next time I visited the gnats, she acted as if she really
+could not make up her mind to settle down to brooding on such a
+beautiful morning. The fog had cleared away and the air was fresh and
+full of life; goldfinches and lazuli buntings were singing merrily, and
+light-hearted vireos were shouting _chick-a-de-chick'-de-villet'_ from
+the brush. How much pleasanter it would be for such an airy fairy to go
+off for a race with her mate than to settle down demurely tucked into a
+cup! "Tsang," she cried impatiently as she flew up to catch a fly. She
+flirted about the branches, whipped up in front of the nest, couldn't
+make up her mind to go in, and flounced off again. But the eggs would
+get cold if she didn't cover them, so back she came, hopped up on the
+edge of the nest, and stood twisting and turning, glancing this way and
+that as though for a fly to chase, till she happened to look down at the
+eggs; then she whipped her tail, dropped in and--jumped out again!
+
+During the morning when she was away and her mate was waiting for her to
+come back to 'spell' him, he too got impatient. He hopped out of the
+nest crying, "Now here I am, quick, come quick!" and as he flew off,
+sang out in his funny little soliloquizing way, "Well, here I go; here I
+go!"
+
+His restless spouse had only just settled down when a wren-tit--a
+wren-like bird with a long tail--flew into a bush near her oak, and she
+darted out of the nest to snap her bill over his head. I thought it
+merely an excuse to leave her brooding. Calling out "tsang," she again
+flew at the brown bird who was hopping around in the bush, so
+innocently, as I thought. Conqueror for the moment, she flaunted back to
+the nest, and after much ado finally settled down.
+
+For a time all was quiet. Hearing the low cooing of doves, I went to
+talk to the pretty bird in the oak, and she let me come near enough to
+see her bluish bill and quiet eyes. As I returned to the gnatcatchers, a
+chewink was hoeing in the sand stream. Again the wren-tit approached
+stealthily. I watched with languid interest till he got to the gnat's
+tree. The instant he touched foot upon her domain, she dashed down at
+him, crying loudly and snapping her bill in his face. The brown bird
+dodged her blows, held his footing in spite of her, and slowly made his
+way up to the nest. I was astonished and frightened. He leaned over the
+nest, and--what he actually did I could not see, for by that time the
+blue-gray's cries had called her mate and they were both screaming and
+diving down at him as if they would peck his eyes out; and it sounded as
+if they hit him on the back good and hard.
+
+A peaceful lazuli bunting, hearing the commotion, came to investigate,
+but when she saw what was happening held back against the side of a twig
+as though afraid of getting struck, and soon flew off, having no desire
+to get mixed up in that affray.
+
+When the wren-tit had at last been driven from his position, the
+gnatcatchers flew up into a tree and, standing near together, talked the
+matter over excitedly. Then one of them went back to the nest, reached
+down into it and brought up something that it appeared to be eating. Its
+mate went to the nest and did the same, after which one of them flew
+away with a broken eggshell. When the little creatures turned away from
+the plundered nest they broke out into cries of distress that were
+pitiful to hear. I felt indignant at the wren-tit. How could a bird with
+eggs of its own do such a cruel thing? But then, I reflected, we who
+pretend to be better folks than wren-tits do not always spare our
+neighbors because of our own troubles. When the poor birds had carried
+away their broken eggshell, one of them came and tugged at the nest
+lining till it pulled out a long horsehair and what looked like a
+feather, apparently trying to take out everything that the egg had
+soiled.
+
+When the little housekeeper was working over her nest, a brown towhee
+flew into the tree. On the instant there was a flash of wings--the gnat
+was ready for war. But after a fair look at the big peaceful bird, she
+flew to the next tree without a word--she evidently knew friends from
+enemies. I never liked the towhee so well before. But though the
+blue-gray had nothing to say against her neighbor sitting up in the tree
+if he chose, her nerves were so unstrung that when she lit in the next
+tree she cried out "tsang" in an overburdened tone. It sounded so unlike
+the usual cry of the light-hearted bird, it quite made me sad.
+
+Whether the poor little gnatcatchers did not recover from this attack
+upon their home, and took their nest to pieces to put it up elsewhere,
+as birds sometimes do; or whether the stealthy wren-tit again crept in
+like a thief in the night to plunder his neighbor's house, I do not
+know; but the next time I went to the oak the nest was demolished. It
+was a sorry ending for what had promised to be such an interesting and
+happy home.
+
+My poor dove's nest had a tragic end, too. What happened I do not know,
+but one day the body of a poor little pigeon lay on the ground under the
+nest. My sympathies went out to both mothers, but especially to the
+gentle dove, now a mourner, indeed.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[2] As this little pair dressed like twins, I could only infer which was
+which from the song and the actions of the two, which were quite
+distinct.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+WAS IT A SEQUEL?
+
+
+AFTER the wren-tit stole in like a thief in the night and broke up the
+pretty home of the gnatcatchers, I suspected that they took their house
+down to put it up again in a safer place, and so was constantly on the
+lookout to find where that safer place was. At last, one day, I heard
+the welcome sound of their familiar voices, and following their calls
+finally discovered them flying back and forth to a high branch on an old
+oak-tree; both little birds working and talking together. Mind, I do not
+stake my word on this being the same pair of gnats; but the nest
+followed closely on the heels of the plundered one, which was a point in
+its favor, and, being anxious to take up the lines with my small friends
+again, I let myself think they were the birds of the sand ditch nest. It
+was such a delight to find them that I deserted the nest I had been
+watching, and went to spend the next morning with my old friends. The
+tree they had chosen was a high oak in an open space in the brush, and
+they were building fifteen or twenty feet above the ground--so high that
+it was necessary to keep an opera-glass focused on the spot to see what
+was going on at their small cup.
+
+As the birds worked, I was filled with forebodings by seeing a pair of
+wren-tits on the premises. They went about in the casual indifferent way
+sad experience had shown might cover a multitude of evil intentions, and
+which made me suspect and resent their presence. How had they found the
+poor little gnats? It was not hard to tell. How could they help finding
+such talkative fly-abouts? But if birds are in danger from all the
+world, including those who should be their comrades and champions, why
+should not builders keep as still at the nest as brooding birds, instead
+of heedlessly giving information to observers that lurk about taking
+notes for future misdeeds? But then, could gnatcatchers keep still
+anywhere at any time? No, that was not to be hoped for. I could only
+watch the little chatterers from hour to hour and be thankful for every
+day that their home was unmolested.
+
+It was interesting to see how the jaunty indifferent gnats would act
+when settling down to plain matters of business. Strange to say, they
+proved to be the most energetic, tireless, and skillful of builders.
+Their floor had been laid--on the branch--before I arrived on the scene,
+and they were at work on the walls. The plan seemed to be twofold, to
+make the walls compact and strong by using only fine bits of material
+and packing them tightly in together; while at the same time they gave
+form to the nest and kept it trim and shipshape by moulding inside, and
+smoothing the rim and outside with neck and bill. Sometimes the bird
+would smooth the brim as a person sharpens a knife on a whetstone, a
+stroke one way and then a stroke the other. When the sides were not much
+above the floor, one bird came with a bit of material which it proceeded
+to drill into the body of the wall. It leaned over and threw its whole
+weight on it, almost going head first out of the nest, and had to
+flutter its wings to recover itself. The birds usually got inside to
+build, but there was a twig beside the nest that served for scaffolding,
+and they sometimes stood on that to work at the outside.
+
+At first they seemed to take turns at building, working rapidly and
+changing places quite regularly; but one morning when seated under the
+oak I saw that things were not as they had been. Perhaps a difference of
+opinion had arisen on architectural points, and Mrs. Gnatcatcher had
+taken matters into her own hands. At all events, this is what happened:
+instead of rapid changes of place, when one of the gnats was at work its
+mate flew up and started to go to the nest, hesitated, and backed away;
+then unwilling to give up having a finger in the pie, advanced again.
+This was kept up till the little bird put its pride in its pocket, and
+gently gave over its cherished bit of material to its mate at the nest!
+
+Now as these gnatcatchers had the bad taste to dress so nearly alike
+that I could not tell them apart, I was left to my own surmises as to
+which took the material. Still, who could it have been but Mrs. Gnat?
+Would she give over the house to Mr. Gnat at this critical moment? She
+doubtless wanted to decorate as she went along, and men aren't supposed
+to know anything about such trivial matters! On the other hand, it might
+easily be he, for, supposing he had come of a family of superior
+builders, surely he would want to see to the laying of substantial
+walls; and unquestionably a good wall was the important part of this
+nest. Alas! it was a clear case of "The Lady or the Tiger." To
+complicate matters, the birds worked so fast, so high over my head, and
+so hidden by the leaves, that I had much ado to keep track of their
+exchanges at all. If I could only catch them and tie a pink ribbon
+around one of their necks!--then, at least, I would know which was doing
+what, or if it was doing what it hadn't done before! It is inconsiderate
+enough of birds to wear the same kind of clothes, but to talk alike too,
+when hidden by the leaves--that, indeed, is a straw to break the camel's
+back. If small gray gnatcatchers up in the treetops had only been big
+black magpies low in the brush, my testimony regarding their
+performances might be of more value; but then, the magpies of my
+acquaintance were so shy they would have none of me; so although life
+and field work are full of disappointments, they are also full of
+compensations.
+
+Not being able to do anything better with the gnat problems, I guessed
+at which was which--when I saw No. 2 go to the nest and No. 1
+reluctantly make way as if not wanting No. 2 to meddle, I drew my own
+conclusions, although they were not scientifically final. I did see one
+thing that was satisfactory, as far as it went. One of the birds came
+with big tufts of stiff moss sticking out from either side of its bill
+like great mustachios, and going up to the nest, handed them to its
+mate--actually something big enough for a person to see, once! Whatever
+had been the birds' first feeling as to which should put the bricks in
+the wall, it was all settled now, and the little helpmate flew off
+singing out such a happy good-by it made one feel like writing a sermon
+on the moral effect of renunciation. After that I was sure the little
+helper fed his (?) mate on the nest, again singing out good-by as he
+flitted away. Once when he (?) brought material he found her (?) busy
+with what she had, and so went to the other end of the branch, and
+waited till she was ready for it, when he flew back and gave it to her.
+
+It was a real delight to watch the little blue-grays at their work. Once
+as one of them started to fly away--I am sure this was she--she suddenly
+stopped to look back at the nest as if to think what she wanted to get
+next; or, perhaps, just to get the effect of her work at a distance, as
+an artist walks away from his painting; or as any mother bird would stop
+to admire the pretty nest that was to hold her little brood. Another
+time one of the gnats,--I was sure this was he,--having driven off an
+enemy, flipped his tail by the nest with a paternal air of satisfaction.
+The birds made one especially pretty picture; the little pair stood
+facing each other close to the nest, and the sun, filtering through the
+green leaves over their heads, touched them gently as they lingered near
+their home.
+
+One morning when a gnat was in the nest a leaf blew down past it,
+startling it so it hopped out in such a hurry that the first I knew it
+was seated beneath the nest, flashing its tail.
+
+Back and forth the dainty pair flew across the space of blue sky between
+the oak and the brush. They went so fast and carried so little it seemed
+as if they might have made their heads save their heels--they brought so
+little I couldn't see that they brought anything; but I feel delicate
+about telling what I know about nest-making, and it may be that this was
+just the secret of the wonderfully compact solid walls of the nest; a
+little at a time, and that drilled in to stay.
+
+When one of the small builders flew down near me--within two yards--for
+material, I felt greatly pleased and flattered. Her mate warned her, but
+she paid no particular attention to him, and with jaunty twists and
+turns hopped about on the dead limbs, giving hurried jabs at the cobwebs
+she was gathering. Once she rubbed her little cheek against a twig as if
+a thread of the cobweb had gotten in her eye. She dashed in among the
+dead leaves after something, but flew back with a start as if she had
+seen a ghost. She was not to be daunted, however, and after whipping her
+tail and peering in for a moment, hopped bravely down again. Sometimes,
+when collecting cobweb, the gnat would whip its tail and snap its bill
+snip, snip, snip, as if cutting the web with a pair of scissors.
+
+I was amused one day by seeing a gnat fly down from the oak to the brush
+with what looked like a long brown caterpillar. The worm dangling from
+the tip of his beak was almost as large as the bird, and the little
+fellow had to crook his tail to keep from being overbalanced and going
+on his bill to the ground.
+
+As the nest went up, the leaves hid it; but I could still see the small
+wings and tails flip up in the air over the edge of the cup and jerk
+about as the bird moulded. I watched the workers so long that I felt
+quite competent to build a nest myself, till happening to remember that
+it required gnatcatcher tools.
+
+Ornithologists are discouraging people to wait for, and Mountain Billy
+got so restless under the gnat tree that he had to invent a new
+fly-brush for himself. On one side of the oak the branches hung low to
+the ground, and he pushed into the tangle till the green boughs rested
+on his back and he was almost hidden from view. Meanwhile I sat close
+beside the chaparral wall, where all sorts of sounds were to be heard,
+suggestive of the industries of the population hidden within the brush
+at my back. Hearing small footsteps, I peered in through the brown
+twigs, and to my delight saw a pair of stately quail walking over the
+ground, promenading through the brush avenues. Afterwards I caught sight
+of a gray animal, probably a wood rat, running down a branch behind me,
+and heard queer muffled sounds of gnawing.
+
+Suddenly, looking back, I was startled to see a big ringed brown and
+yellow snake lying like a rope at the foot of the gnat's tree, just
+where I had sat. He was about four feet long, and had twenty-three
+rings. He started to wind into the crotch of the oak as if meaning to
+climb the tree, but instead, crept to a stump and festooned himself
+about it worming around the holes as he might do if looking for nest
+holes. Imagine how a mother bird would feel to have him come stealing
+upon her little brood in that horrid way! When he crawled over the dead
+leaves I noted with a shiver that he made no sound. Thinking of the
+gnats, I watched his every movement till he had left the premises and
+wormed his way off through the brush. Though quite engrossed with the
+gnats, it was finally forced upon me that there is more than one family
+in the world. The blue-gray's oak was a favored one. A pair of
+hang-birds had built there before the gnats came, and now two more
+families had come, making four for the big oak.
+
+When first suspecting a house on the north side of the tree, I moved my
+chair over there. Presently a vireo with disordered breast feathers flew
+down on a dead twig close to the ground and leaned over with a tired
+anxious look, and craning her neck, turned her head on one side, and
+bent her eyes on the ground scrutinizingly. Then she hopped down, picked
+up something, threw it away, picked up another piece and flew back to
+her perch with it, as if to make up her mind if she really wanted that.
+Then her mate came, raised his crown and looked down at the bit of
+material with a puzzled air as if wishing he knew what to say; as if he
+felt he ought to be able to help her decide. But he seemed helpless and
+could only follow her around when she was at work, singing to her
+betimes, and keeping off friends or enemies who came too near. When the
+young hatched I noticed a still more marked difference between the
+nervous manners of the gnats, and the repose of vireos. While the gnat
+flipped about distractedly, the vireo sat calmly beside her nest, an
+exquisite white basket hanging under the leaves in the sun, or walked
+carefully over the branches looking for food for the young. Some days
+before finding out the facts, I suspected that the wood pewee perching
+on the old tree had more important business there, for the way he and
+his mate flew back and forth to the oak top was very pointed. So again I
+moved my chair. To my delight the wood pewee flew up in the tree, sat
+down on a horizontal crotch, and went through the motions of moulding.
+
+There were two birds, however, that simply used the tree as a
+resting-place, as far as I ever knew. A hummingbird perched on the tip
+of a twig, looking from below like a good sized bumblebee as he preened
+his feathers and looked off upon the world below. At the other side of
+the oak a pretty pink dove perched on a sunny branch that arched against
+the blue sky. It sat close to the branch beside the green leaves and
+dressed its feathers or dozed quietly in the sun. We had other visitors
+that the house owners did not accept so willingly. The gnatcatchers up
+the sand ditch whose nest had been broken up by the thief-in-the-night
+did not object to brown chippies, but perhaps, if this were the same
+pair, they had been made suspicious by their trouble. In any case, when
+a brown chippie lit on a limb near the nest, quite accidentally I
+believe, and turned to look at the pretty structure, quite innocently I
+feel sure, the little gnats fell on him tooth and nail, and when he hid
+under the leaves where they could not reach him they fluttered above the
+leaves, and the moment he ventured from under cover were both at him
+again so violently that at the first opportunity he took to his wings.
+There was one curious thing about this attack and expulsion; the gnats
+did not utter a word during the whole affair! I had never known them to
+be silent before when anything was going on--rarely when there wasn't.
+
+Another morning when I rode in there was a great commotion up in the
+oak. A chorus of small scolding voices, and a fluttering of little wings
+among the branches told that something was wrong, while a large form
+moving deliberately about in the tree showed the intruder to be a blue
+jay! Aha! the gossips would wag their heads. I disapprove of gossip, but
+as a truthful reporter am obliged to say that I saw the blue jay pitch
+down into the brush with something white in his bill--perhaps a
+cocoon--and that thereupon a great weeping and wailing arose from the
+little folk up in the treetop. A big brown California chewink stood by
+and watched the--robbery(?), great big fellow that he was; and not once
+offered to take the little fellows' part. I felt indignant. Why didn't
+he pitch into the big bully and drive him off before he had stolen the
+little birds' egg--if it was an egg. A grosbeak called _ick'_ from the
+treetop, but thought he'd better not meddle; and--it was a pair of
+wren-tits who looked out from a brush screen and then skulked off,
+chuckling to themselves, I dare say, that some one else was up to their
+tricks. It gave my faith in birds a great shock, this, together with the
+pillage of the gnat's nest by the thief-in-the-night. My spleen was
+especially turned against the brown chewink; he certainly was a good
+fighter, and might at least have helped to clear the neighborhood of
+such a suspicious character.
+
+Where did the egg--if it was an egg--come from? The vireos and pewees
+and gnats were still building, I reflected thankfully, though trembling
+for their future; and fortunately the hangbird had young. Perhaps the
+jay had found a nest that I could not discover.
+
+After that, things went on quietly for several days. The gnats got
+through with their building, and went off for a holiday until it should
+be time to begin brooding. They flitted about the branches warbling, as
+if having nothing special to do; dear little souls, at work as at play,
+always together. One of them unexpectedly found himself near me one day;
+but when he saw it was only I, whipped his tail and exclaimed "_Oh, it's
+you'. I'm' not afraid._"
+
+This peace and quietness, however, did not last. The gnats' house was
+evidently haunted, and they did not like--blue--ghosts. One morning
+when I got to the oak it was all in a hubbub, and the vireo was
+scolding loudly at a blue jay. When the giant pitched into the brush the
+wren-tit chattered, and I thought perhaps the jay was teaching him how
+it feels to have a shoe pinch. A few moments later I was amazed to see a
+gnat jab at the wall till it got a bill full of material and then fly
+off to the brush with it! My little birds had moved! Evidently the
+neighborhood was too exciting for them. More than ten days of hard
+work--no one can tell how hard until after watching a gnatcatcher
+build--had been spent in vain on this nest; and if, as suspected, this
+was their second, how much more work did that mean? It was a marvel that
+the birds could get courage to start in again, especially if they had
+had two homes broken up already.
+
+From my position at the big oak I could see that the gnats were carrying
+the frame of the old house to a small oak in the brush. The wood pewee
+had moved too, and to my surprise and pleasure I found it had begun its
+nest on a branch under the gnats, so that both families could be watched
+at the same time. I nearly got brushed off the saddle promenading
+through the stiff chaparral to find a place where the nests could be
+seen from the ground; but when at last successful, I too, like the rest
+of the old oak's floating population, moved to pastures new. Hanging my
+chair on the saddle, I made Billy carry it for me; then I buckled the
+reins around the trunk of the oak and withdrew into the brush to watch
+my birds. It was a cozy little nook, from which Billy could be heard
+stamping his feet to shake off the flies. The little crack in the
+chaparral was a pleasant place to sit in, protected as it was from the
+wind, with the sun only coming in enough to touch up the brown leaves on
+the ground and warm the fragrant sage, bringing out its delicious spicy
+aromatic smell.
+
+The pewee did not altogether relish having us established under its vine
+and fig-tree. When it saw Billy under the tree it whistled, and the bit
+of grass it had brought for its nest went sailing down to the brush
+disregarded. It did not think us as bad as the blue jay, however, for it
+came back with a long stem of grass in its bill, and, lighting on a high
+branch, called _pee-ree_. To be sure, when it had gone to the nest and I
+was inconsiderate enough to turn a page in my note-book, it dashed off.
+But if murder will out, so will good intentions; and before long the
+timid bird was brooding its nest with Billy and me for spectators.
+
+The gnat's nest here was so much lower than the other one that it was
+much easier to watch. The first day the birds built rapidly. One of them
+got his spider's web from beside the pewee's nest, when the pewee was
+away. He started to go for it once after the owner had returned, caught
+sight of him, stopped short, and much to my amusement concluded to sit
+down and preen his feathers! The pewee had one special bare twig of his
+own that he used for a perch, and when the gnat seated himself there in
+his neighbor's absence he looked so small that I realized what a mite of
+a bird he really was. He sometimes sat there and talked while his mate
+moulded the nest.
+
+When the gnats got to brooding, many of the same pretty performances
+were repeated that had marked the first nest of all, up in the sand
+ditch. When the bird on the nest hopped out and called, "Come, come,"
+its mate, who had been wandering around in the sunny green treetop,
+called out in sweet tones, "Good-by, good-by."
+
+When waiting for the gnats to do something, I heard a little sound in
+the oak brush by my side, and, looking through the brown branches, saw a
+wren-tit come hopping toward me. It came up within three feet of me,
+near enough to see its bright yellow eyes. I began to wonder if it had a
+nest near by, and felt my prejudices melting away and my heart growing
+tender. Some thieves are very honest fellows; it is largely a difference
+in ethical standards! I began to feel a keen interest in the bird and
+its affairs, for the wren-tit was really a most original bird, and one I
+was especially anxious to study.
+
+My newly awakened interest was not chilled by any second tragedy; all
+went well with the little blue-grays. The day the gnat's eggs hatched,
+the old folks performed most ludicrously. Perhaps they were young
+parents, and this being their first brood, maternal and paternal love
+had not yet blinded their eyes to the ridiculous; so that they looked
+down on these skinny, squirming, big-eyeballed prodigies with mingled
+emotions. It looked very much as if they were surprised to find that
+their smooth pretty eggs had suddenly turned into these ugly, weak,
+hungry things they did not know what to do with. At first it seemed that
+something must be wrong at the nest; the little gnat shook her wings and
+tail beside it as if afraid of soiling herself; and when she hopped into
+it, jerked out again and flitted around distractedly. Every time the
+birds looked into the nest they got so excited that, had they been
+girls, they surely would have hopped up and down wringing their hands. I
+laughed right out alone in the brush, they acted so absurdly.
+
+They began feeding the nestlings in the most remarkable way I had ever
+witnessed. When the young mother was on the nest her mate came and
+brought her the food, whereupon, instead of jumping off the nest and
+feeding the young in the conventional way, she simply raised up on her
+feet and, apparently, poked the food backwards into the bills of the
+young under her breast! Even when the gnats got to feeding more in the
+ordinary way, they did it nervously. They fed as if expecting the young
+to bite them. They would fly up on the branch beside the nest, give a
+jab down at the youngsters, whip tails and flee. You would have thought
+the young parents had been playing house before, and their dolls had
+suddenly turned into live hungry nestlings.
+
+I watched this family till the house was deserted, and I had to ride
+along a line of brush before finding them. The young were now pretty
+silvery-breasted creatures who sat up in a small oak while the old birds
+hunted through the brush for food for them. Though I rode Billy into the
+chaparral after them, and got near enough to see the black line over the
+bill of the father bird, they did not mind, but hunted away quite
+unconcernedly; for we had been through many things together, and were
+now old and fast friends.
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+LITTLE PRISONERS IN THE TOWER.
+
+
+I HAD not spent many days in The Little Lover's door-yard before
+realizing that there was something in the wind. If an inoffensive person
+fancies sitting in the shade of a sycamore with her horse grazing
+quietly beside her, who should say her nay? If, at her approach,
+a--feathered--person steals away to the top of the highest, most distant
+oak within sight and, silent and motionless, keeps his eye on her till
+she departs; if, as she innocently glances up at the trees, she
+discovers a second--feathered--person's head extended cautiously from
+behind a trunk, its eyes fixed on hers; or if, as she passes along
+a--sycamore--street, a person comes to a window and cranes his neck to
+look at her, and instantly leaves the premises; then surely, as the
+world wags, she is quite justified in having a mind of her own in the
+matter. Still more, when it comes to finding chips under a window--who
+could do aught but infer that a carpenter lived within? Not I. And so it
+came about that I discovered that one of the apartments in the back of
+the wren sycamore had been rented by a pair of well-meaning but
+suspicious California woodpeckers, first cousins of the eastern
+red-heads.
+
+[Illustration: California Woodpecker.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+[Illustration: Red-headed Woodpecker--Eastern.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+It is unpleasant to be treated as if you needed detectives on your
+track. It strains your faith in human nature; the rest of the world must
+be very wicked if people suspect such extremely good creatures as you
+are! And then it reflects on the detectives; it shows them so lacking in
+discernment. Nevertheless, "A friend should bear his friend's
+infirmities," and I was determined to be friends with the woodpeckers.
+One of them kept me waiting an hour one morning. When I first saw it, it
+was on its tree trunk, but when it first saw me, it promptly left for
+parts unknown. I stopped at a respectful distance from its tree--several
+rods away--and threw myself down on the warm sand in the bed of the dry
+stream, between high hedges of exquisite lemon-colored mustard. Patient
+waiting is no loss, observers must remember if they would be consoled
+for their lost hours. In this case I waited till I felt like a
+lotus-eater who could have stayed on forever. A dove brooded her eggs on
+a branch of the spreading sycamore whose arms were outstretched
+protectingly above me; the sun rested full on its broad leaves, and bees
+droned around the fragrant mustard, whose exquisite golden flowers waved
+gently against a background of soft blue California sky.
+
+But that was not the last day I had to wait. It was over a month before
+the birds put any trust in me. The nest hole was excavated before the
+middle of May; on June 15 I wrote in my note-book, "The woodpecker has
+gotten so that when I go by she puts her head out of the window, and
+when I speak to her does not fly away, but cocks her head and looks down
+at me."[3] That same morning the bird actually entered the nest in my
+presence. She came back to her sycamore while I was watching the wrens,
+and flew right up to the mouth of the nest. She was a little nervous.
+She poked in her bill, drew it back; put in her head, drew that back;
+then swung her body partly in; but finally the tip of her tail
+disappeared down the hole.
+
+The next morning, in riding by, I heard weak voices from the woodpecker
+mansion. If young were to be fed, I must be on hand. Such luxurious
+observing! Riding Mountain Billy out into the meadow, I dismounted, and
+settled myself comfortably against a haycock with the bridle over my
+arm. It was a beautiful quiet morning. The night fog had melted back and
+the mountains stood out in relief against a sky of pure deep blue. The
+line of sycamores opposite us were green and still against the blue; the
+morning sun lighting their white trunks and framework. The songs of
+birds filled the air, and the straw-colored field dotted with haycocks
+lay sunning under the quiet sky. In the East we are accustomed to speak
+of "the peace of evening," but in southern California in spring there is
+a peculiar interval of warmth and rest, a langorous pause in the growth
+of the morning, between the disappearance of the night fog and the
+coming of the cool trade wind, when the southern sun shines full into
+the little valleys and the peace of the morning is so deep and serene
+that the labor of the day seems done. Nature appears to be slumbering.
+She is aroused slowly and gently by the soft breaths that come in from
+the Pacific. On this day I watched the awakening. Up to this time not a
+grass blade had stirred, but while I dreamed a brown leaf went whirling
+to the ground, the stray stalks of oats left from the mowing began to
+nod, and the sycamore branches commenced to sway. Then the breeze
+swelled stronger, coming cool and fresh from the ocean; the yellow
+primroses, around which the hummingbirds whirred, bowed on their stately
+stalks, and I could hear the wind in the moving treetops.
+
+Mountain Billy grazed near me till it occurred to him that stubble was
+unsatisfactory, when he betook him to my haycock. Though I lectured him
+upon the rights of property and enforced my sermon with the point of the
+parasol, he was soon back again, with the amused look of a naughty boy
+who cannot believe in the severity of his monitor; and later, I regret
+to state, when I was engrossed with the woodpeckers, a sound of munching
+arose from behind my back.
+
+The woodpeckers talked and acted very much like their cousins, the
+red-heads of the East. When they went to the nest they called
+_chuck'-ah_ as if to wake the young, flying away with the familiar
+rattling _kit-er'r'r'r'_. They flew nearly half a mile to their regular
+feeding ground, and did not come to the nest as often as the wrens when
+bringing up their brood. Perhaps they got more at a time, filling their
+crops and feeding by regurgitation, as I have seen waxwings do when
+having a long distance to go for food.
+
+I first heard the voices of the young on June 16; nearly three weeks
+later, July 6, the birds were still in the nest. On that morning, when
+I went out to mount Billy, I was shocked to find the body of one of the
+old woodpeckers on the saddle. I thought it had been shot, but found it
+had been picked up in the prune orchard. That afternoon its mate was
+brought in from the same place. Probably both birds had eaten poisoned
+raisins left out for the gophers. The dead birds were thrown out under
+the orange-trees near the house, and not many hours afterward, when I
+looked out of the window, two turkey vultures were sitting on the
+ground, one of them with a pathetic little black wing in his bill. The
+great black birds seemed horrible to me,--ugly, revolting creatures. I
+went outside to see what they would do, and after craning their long red
+necks at me and stalking around nervously a few moments they flew off.
+
+Now what would become of the small birds imprisoned in the tree trunk,
+with no one to bring them food, no one to show them how to get out, or,
+if they were out, to feed them till they had learned how to care for
+themselves? Sad and anxious, I rode down to the sycamore. I rapped on
+its trunk, calling _chuck'-ah_ as much like the old birds as possible.
+There was an instant answer from a strong rattling voice and a weak
+piping one. The weak voice frightened me. If that little bird's life
+were to be saved, it was time to be about it. The ranchman's son was
+pruning the vineyard, and I rode over to get him to come and see how we
+could rescue the little prisoners.
+
+On our way to the tree we came on a gopher snake four feet long. It was
+so near the color of the soil that I would have passed it by, but the
+boy discovered it. The creature lay so still he thought it was dead; but
+as we stood looking, it puffed itself up with a big breath, darted out
+its tongue, and began to move off. I watched to see how it made the
+straight track we so often saw in the dust of the roads. It bent its
+neck into a scallop for a purchase, while its tapering tail made an S,
+to furnish slack; and then it pulled the main length of its body along
+straight. It crawled noiselessly right to the foot of the woodpecker
+tree, but was only hunting for a hole to hide in. It got part way down
+one hole, found that it was too small, and had to come backing out
+again. It followed the sand bed, taking my regular beat, from tree to
+tree! To be sure, gopher snakes are harmless, but they are suggestive,
+and you would rather their ways were not your ways.
+
+Although the little prisoners welcomed us as rescuers should be
+welcomed, they did it by mistake. They thought we were their parents. At
+the first blow of the axe their voices hushed, and not a sound came from
+them again. It seemed as if we never should get the birds out.
+
+It looked easy enough, but it wasn't. The nest was about twelve feet
+above the ground. The sycamore was so big the boy could not reach around
+it, and so smooth and slippery he could not get up it, though he had
+always been a good climber. He clambered up a drooping branch on the
+back of the tree,--the nest was in front,--but could not swing himself
+around when he got up. Then he tried the hollow burned at the foot of
+the tree. The charred wood crumbled beneath his feet, but at last, by
+stretching up and clinging to a knothole, he managed to reach the nest.
+
+As his fingers went down the hole, the young birds grabbed them,
+probably mistaking them for their parents' bills. "Their throats seem
+hot," the boy exclaimed; "poor hungry little things!" His fingers would
+go through the nest hole, but not his knuckles, and the knothole where
+he steadied himself was too slippery to stand on while he enlarged the
+hole. It was getting late, and as he had his chores to do before dark I
+suggested that we feed the birds and leave them in the tree till
+morning; but the rescuer exclaimed resolutely, "We'll get them out
+to-night!" and hurried off to the ranch-house for a step-ladder and axe.
+
+The ladder did not reach up to the first knothole, four or five feet
+below the nest; but the boy cut a notch in the top of the knot and stood
+in it, practically on one foot, and held on to a small branch with his
+right hand--the first limb he trusted to broke off as he caught
+it--while with the left hand he hacked away at the nest hole. It was a
+ticklish position and genuine work, for the wood was hard and the
+hatchet dull.
+
+I stood below holding the carving-knife,--we hadn't many tools on the
+ranch,--and as the boy worked he entertained me with an account of an
+accident that happened years before, when his brother had chopped off a
+branch and the axe head had glanced off, striking the head of the boy
+who was watching below. I stood from under as he finished his story, and
+inquired with interest if he were sure his axe head was tight! Before
+the lad had made much impression on the hard sycamore, he got so tired
+and looked so white around the mouth that I insisted on his getting down
+to rest, and tried to divert him by calling his attention to the sunset
+and the voices of the quail calling from the vineyard. When he went up
+again I handed him the carving-knife to slice off the thinner wood on
+the edge of the nest hole, warning him not to cut off the heads of the
+young birds.
+
+At last the hole was big enough, and, sticking the hatchet and knife
+into the bark, the lad threw one arm around the trunk to hold on while
+he thrust his hand down into the nest. "My, what a deep hole!" he
+exclaimed. "I don't know as I can reach them now. They've gone to the
+bottom, they're so afraid." Nearly a foot down he had to squeeze, but at
+last got hold of one bird and brought it out. "Drop him down," I cried,
+"I'll catch him," and held up my hands. The little bird came fluttering
+through the air. The second bird clung frightened to the boy's coat,
+but he loosened its claws and dropped it down to me. What would the
+poor old mother woodpecker have thought had she seen these first flights
+of her nestlings!
+
+I hurried the little scared brothers under my jacket, my best substitute
+for a hollow tree, and called _chuck'-ah_ to them in the most
+woodpecker-like tones I could muster. Then the boy shouldered the
+ladder, and I took the carving-knife, and we trudged home triumphant; we
+had rescued the little prisoners from the tower!
+
+When we had taken them into the house the woodpeckers called out, and
+the cats looked up so savagely that I asked the boy to take the birds
+home to his sister to keep till they were able to care for themselves.
+On examining them I understood what the difference in their voices had
+meant. One of them poked his head out of the opening in my jacket where
+he was riding, while the other kept hidden away in the dark; and when
+they were put into my cap for the boy to carry home, the one with the
+weak voice disclosed a whitish bill--a bad sign with a bird--and its
+feeble head bent under it so weakly that I was afraid it would die.
+
+Three days later, when I went up to the lad's house, it was to be
+greeted by loud cries from the little birds. Though they were in a box
+with a towel over it, they heard all that was going on. Their voices
+were as sharp as their ears, and they screamed at me so imperatively
+that I hurried out to the kitchen and rummaged through the cupboards
+till I found some food for them. They opened their bills and gulped it
+down as if starving, although their guardian told me afterwards that she
+had fed them two or three hours before.
+
+When held up where the air could blow on them, they grew excited; and
+one of them flew down to the floor and hid away in a dark closet,
+sitting there as contentedly as if it reminded him of his tree trunk
+home.
+
+I took the two brothers out into the sitting-room and kept them on my
+lap for some time, watching their interesting ways. The weak one I
+dubbed Jacob, which is the name the people of the valley had given the
+woodpeckers from the sound of their cries; the stronger bird I called
+Bairdi, as 'short' for _Melanerpes formicivorus bairdi_--the name the
+ornithologists had given them.
+
+Jacob and Bairdi each had ways of his own. When offered a palm, Bairdi,
+who was quite like 'folks,' was content to sit in it; but Jacob hung
+with his claws clasping a little finger as a true woodpecker should; he
+took the same pose when he sat for his picture. Bairdi often perched in
+my hand, with his bill pointing to the ceiling, probably from his old
+habit of looking up at the door of his nest. Sometimes when Bairdi sat
+in my hand, Jacob would swing himself up from my little finger, coming
+bill to bill with his brother, when the small bird would open his mouth
+as he used to for his mother to feed him. Poor little orphans, they
+could not get used to their changed conditions!
+
+They did other droll things just as their fathers had done before them.
+They used to screw their heads around owl fashion, a very convenient
+thing for wild birds who cling to tree trunks and yet need to know what
+is going on behind their backs. Once, on hearing a sudden noise, one of
+them ducked low and drew his head in between his shoulders in such a
+comical way we all laughed at him.
+
+I often went up to the ranch to visit them. We would take them out under
+a big spreading oak beside the house, where the little girl's mother sat
+with her sewing, and then watch the birds as we talked. When we put them
+on the tree trunk, at first they did not know what to do, but soon they
+scrambled up on the branches so fast their guardian had to climb up
+after them for fear they would get away. Poor little Jacob climbed as if
+afraid of falling off, taking short hops up the side of the tree,
+bending his stiff tail at a sharp angle under him to brace himself
+against the bark. Bairdi, his strong brother, was less nervous, and
+found courage to catch ants on the bark. Jacob did a pretty thing one
+day. When put on the oak, he crept into a crack of the bark and lay
+there fluffed up against its sides with the sun slanting across,
+lighting up his pretty red cap. He looked so contented and happy it was
+a pleasure to watch him. Another time he started to climb up on top of
+my head and, I dare say, was surprised and disappointed when what he had
+taken for a tree trunk came to an untimely end. When we put the brothers
+on the grass, one of them went over the ground with long hops, while the
+other hid under the rocking-chair. One bird seemed possessed to sit on
+the white apron worn by the little girl's mother, flying over to it from
+my lap, again and again.
+
+The woodpeckers had brought from the nest a liking for dark, protected
+places. Bairdi twice clambered up my hair and hung close under the brim
+of my black straw hat. Another time he climbed up my dress to my black
+tie and, fastening his claws in the silk, clung with his head in the
+dark folds as if he liked the shade. I covered the pretty pet with my
+hand and he seemed to enjoy it. When I first looked down at him his eyes
+were open, though he kept very still; but soon his head dropped on my
+breast and he went fast asleep, and would have had a good nap if Jacob
+had not called and waked him up.
+
+Jacob improved so much after the first few days--and some doses of red
+pepper--that we had to look twice to tell him from his sturdy brother.
+He certainly ate enough to make him grow. The birds liked best to be
+fed with a spoon; probably it seemed more like a bill. After a little,
+they learned to peck at their food, a sign I hailed eagerly as
+indicative of future self-support; for with appetites of day laborers
+and no one to supply their wants, they would have suffered sorely, poor
+little orphans! Sometimes, when they had satisfied their first hunger,
+they would shake the bread from their bills as if they didn't like it
+and wanted food they were used to.
+
+[Illustration: JACOB AND BAIRDI VISITING THE OLD NEST TREE]
+
+When one got hungry he would call out, and then his brother would begin
+to shout. The little tots gave a crooning gentle note when caressed, and
+a soft cry when they snuggled down in our hands or cuddled up to us as
+they had done under their mother's wing. Their call for food was a
+sibilant chirr, and they gave it much oftener than any of the grown-up
+woodpecker notes. But they also said _chuck'-ah_ and rattled like the
+old birds.
+
+I was glad there were two of them so they would not be so lonely. If
+separated they showed their interest in each other. If Bairdi called,
+Jacob would keep still and listen attentively, raising his topknot till
+every microscopic red feather stood up like a bristle, when he would
+answer Bairdi in a loud manly voice.
+
+It was amusing to see the small birds try to plume themselves. Sometimes
+they would take a sudden start to make their toilettes, and both work
+away vigorously upon their plumes. It was comical to see them try to
+find their oil glands. Had the old birds taught them how to oil their
+feathers while they were still in the nest? They were thickly feathered,
+but when they reached back to their tails the pink skin showed between
+their spines and shoulders, giving a good idea of the way birds'
+feathers grow only in tracts.
+
+When the little princes were about a month old, I arranged with a
+neighboring photographer to have them sit for their picture. He drove
+over to the sycamore, and the lad who had rescued the prisoners took
+them down to keep their appointment. One of them tried to tuck its head
+up the boy's sleeve, being attracted by dark holes. While we were
+waiting for the photographer, the boy put Jacob in a hollow of the tree,
+where he began pecking as if he liked it. He worked away till he
+squeezed himself into a small pocket, and then, with his feathers
+ruffled up, sat there, the picture of content. Indeed, the little fellow
+looked more at home than I had ever seen him anywhere. The rescuer was
+itching to put the little princes back in their hole, to see what they
+would do, but I wouldn't listen to it, being thankful to have gotten
+them out once.
+
+When Bairdi was on the bark and Jacob was put below him, he turned his
+head, raised his red cap, and looked down at his brother in a very
+winning way.
+
+Soon the photographer came, and asked, "Are these the little chaps that
+try to swallow your fingers?" We were afraid they would not sit still
+enough to get good likenesses, but we had taken the precaution to give
+them a hearty breakfast just before starting, and they were too sleepy
+to move much. In the picture, Jacob is clinging to the boy's hand in his
+favorite way, and Bairdi is on the tree trunk.
+
+Mountain Billy pricked up his ears when he discovered the woodpeckers
+down at the sycamore, but he often saw them up at the ranch and took me
+to make a farewell call on them before I left for the East. We found the
+birds perched on the tobacco-tree in front of the ranch-house, with a
+tall step-ladder beside it so the little girl could take them in at
+night. Their cup of bread and milk stood on the ladder, and when I
+called them they came over to be fed. They were both so strong and well
+that they would soon be able to care for themselves, as their fathers
+had done before them. And when they were ready to fly, they might have
+help; for an old woodpecker of their family--possibly an unknown
+uncle--had been seen watching them from the top of a neighboring oak,
+and may have been just waiting to adopt the little orphans. In any case,
+however they were to start out in the world, it was a great satisfaction
+to have rescued them from their prison tower.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[3] The difference in the dress of the woodpeckers is so slight that the
+sexes were not distinguished at this nest.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+HINTS BY THE WAY.
+
+
+ON our way back and forth along the line of oaks and sycamores belonging
+to the little prisoners, the little lover, and the gnatcatchers,
+Mountain Billy and I got a good many hints, he of places to graze, and I
+of new nests to watch.
+
+While waiting for the woodpeckers one day I saw a small brownish bird
+flying busily back and forth to some green weeds. She was joined by her
+mate, a handsome blue lazuli bunting, even more beautiful than our
+lovely indigo bunting, and he flew beside her full of life and joy. He
+lit on the side of a cockle stem, and on the instant caught sight of me.
+Alas! he seemed suddenly turned to stone. He held onto that stalk as if
+his little legs had been bars of iron and I a devouring monster. When he
+had collected his wits enough to fly off, instead of the careless gay
+flight with which he had come out through the open air, he timidly kept
+low within the cockle field, making a circuitous way through the high
+stalks.
+
+He could be afraid of me if he liked, I thought,--for after a certain
+amount of suspicion an innocent person gets resentful; at any rate, I
+was going to see that nest. Creeping up cautiously when the mother bird
+was away, so as not to scare her, and carefully parting the mallows, I
+looked in. Yes, there it was, a beautiful little sage-green nest of old
+grass laid in a coil. I felt as pleased as if having a right to share
+the family happiness.
+
+After that I watched the small worker gather material with new interest,
+knowing where she was going to put it. She worked fast, but did not take
+the first thing she found, by any means. With a flit of the wing she
+went in nervous haste from cockle to cockle, looking eagerly about her.
+Jumping down to the ground, she picked up a bit of grass, threw it down
+dissatisfied, and turned away like a person looking for something. At
+last she lit on the side of a thistle, and tweaking out a fibre flew
+with it to the nest.
+
+When the house was done, one morning in passing I leaned down from the
+saddle, and through the weeds saw her brown wings as she sat on the
+nest. A month after the first encounter with the father lazuli, I found
+him looking at me around the corner of a cockle stalk, and in passing
+back again caught him singing full tilt, though his bill was full of
+insects! After we had turned our backs, I looked over my shoulder and
+had the satisfaction of seeing him take his beakful to the nest. You
+couldn't help admiring him, for though not a warrior who would snap his
+bill over the head of an enemy of his home, he had a gallant holiday air
+with his blue coat and merry song, and you felt sure his little brown
+mate would get cheer and courage enough from his presence to make family
+dangers appear less frightful. Even this casual acquaintance with the
+little pair gave me a new and tender interest in all of their name I
+might know in future.
+
+While watching the lazulis from the sycamores, on looking up on a level
+with Billy's ears, I discovered a snug canopied nest held by a jointed
+branch of the twisted tree, as in the palm of your hand. It was as if
+the old sycamore were protecting the little brood, holding it secure
+from all dangers. Looking at the nest, I spied a brown tail resting
+against the limb, and then a small brown head was raised to look at me
+from between the leaves. It was the little bird whose sweet home-like
+song had so cheered my heart in this far-away land, the home song
+sparrow, dearer than all the birds of California. It was such a pleasure
+to find her that I sat in the saddle and talked to the pretty bird while
+she brooded her eggs under the green leaves.
+
+The next time we went down to the sycamore the bird was away, and it
+seemed as if the tree had been deserted. It was empty and uninteresting.
+Again I came, and this time the father song sparrow sang blithely in
+the old tree, while his gentle mate went about looking for food for her
+brood. Her little birds had come! How happy and full of business she
+seemed! She ran nimbly over the ground, weaving in and out between the
+stalks of the oats and the yellow mustard, as if there were paths in her
+forest. When she had to run across the sand bed, out in open sight, she
+put up her tail, held her wings tight at her sides, and scudded across.
+Then with the sunlight through the leaves dappling her back, she ran
+around the foot of the sycamore. She had something in her bill, and with
+a happy chirp was off to her brood.
+
+There was another family abroad on our beat. When riding past the little
+lover's, I heard voices of young birds beyond, and rode out to the oak
+in the middle of the field from which they came, to see who it was. It
+was a surprise to find a family of full-fledged blue jays--a surprise,
+because the jays had been terrorizing the small birds of the
+neighborhood till it seemed strange to think they had any family life
+themselves. I had come to feel that they were great hobgoblins going
+about seeking whom they could devour; but such harsh judgments are
+usually false, whether of birds or beasts, and I was convinced against
+my will on hearing the tender tone in which the old jays called to their
+young.
+
+To be sure, they were imperative in their commands. As I rode, around
+the tree, one of them looked at me sharply and proceeded to take
+measures to protect his brood. When one of the children told me where he
+was, his parent promptly flew over and shouted in his ear, "Be quiet!"
+with such a ring of command that an unbroken hush followed. Moreover,
+when one child, probably a greedy one, teased for food, its parent ran
+down the branch to drive it off; and in some way best known to
+themselves the old birds hushed up the boisterous young ones and
+spirited them out of my sight. But all these things were in line with
+good family government and the best interests of the children, and were
+more than atoned for by the soft gentle notes the old birds used when
+they were leading around their cherished brood out of harm's way.
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+AROUND OUR RANCH-HOUSE.
+
+
+CLOSE up under the hills, the old vine-covered ranch-house stood within
+a circle of great spreading live oaks. The trees were full of noisy,
+active blackbirds--Brewer's blackbirds, relatives of the rusty that we
+know in New York. The ranchman told me that they always came up the
+valley from the vineyard to begin gathering straws for their nests on
+his brother's birthday, the twenty-fifth of March. After that time it
+was well for passers below to beware. If an unwary cat, or even a hen or
+turkey gobbler, chanced under the blackbirds' tree, half a dozen birds
+would dive down at it, screaming and scolding till the intruders beat an
+humble retreat. But the blackbirds were not always the aggressors. I
+heard a great outcry from them one day, and ran out to find them
+collecting at the tree in front of the house. A moment later a hawk flew
+off with a young nestling, and was followed by an angry black mob.
+
+One pair of the blackbirds nested in the oak by the side of the house,
+over the hammock. Though making themselves so perfectly at home on the
+premises, driving off the ranchman's cats and gobblers, and drinking
+from his watering-trough, if they were taken at close quarters, with
+young in their nests, the noisy birds were astonishingly timid. One
+could hardly understand it in them.
+
+One afternoon I sat down under the tree to watch them. Mountain Billy
+rested his bridle on my knee, and the ranchman's dog came out to join
+us; but the mother blackbird, though she came with food in her bill and
+started to walk down the branch over our heads, stopped short of the
+nest when her eye fell on us. She shook her tail and called _chack_, and
+her mate, who sat near, opened wide his bill and whistled _chee_. The
+small birds were hungry and grew impatient, seeing no cause for delay,
+so raised their three fuzzy heads above the edge of the nest and sent
+imperative calls out of their three empty throats. As the parents did
+not answer the summons, the young dozed off again, but when the old ones
+did get courage to light near the nest there was such a rousing chorus
+that they flew off alarmed for the safety of their clamorous brood.
+After that outbreak, it seemed as if the mother bird would never go back
+to her children; but finally she came to the tree and, after edging
+along falteringly, lit on a branch above them. The instant she touched
+foot, however, she was seized with nervous qualms and turned round and
+round, spreading her tail fan-fashion, as if distracted.
+
+To my surprise, it was the father bird who first went to the nest,
+though he had the wit to go to it from the outside of the tree, where he
+was less exposed to my dangerous glance. I wondered whether it was
+mother love that kept her from the nest when he ventured, or merely a
+case of masculine common-sense versus nerves. How birds could imagine
+more harm would be done by going to the nest than by making such a fuss
+five feet away from it was a poser to me. Perhaps they attribute the
+same intelligence to us that some of us do to them!
+
+While the blackbirds were making such a time over our heads, I watched
+the hummingbirds buzzing around the petunias and pink roses under the
+ranch-house windows, and darting off to flutter about the tubular
+flowers of the tobacco-tree by the well. One day the small boy of the
+family climbed up to the hummingbird's nest in the oak "to see if there
+were eggs yet," and the frightened brood popped out before his eyes. His
+sister caught one of them and brought it into the house. When she held
+it up by the open door the tiny creature spread its little wings and
+flew out into the vines over the window. The child was so afraid its
+mother would not find it she carried it back to its oak and watched till
+the mother came with food. The hummers were about the flowers in front
+of the windows so much that when the front door was left open they often
+came into the room.
+
+In an oak behind the barn I found a hummingbird's nest, and, yielding to
+temptation, took out the eggs to look at them. In putting them back one
+slipped and dropped on the hard ground, cracking the delicate pink shell
+as it fell. The egg was nearly ready to hatch, and I felt as guilty as
+if having killed a hummingbird.
+
+[Illustration: Arizona Hooded Oriole.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+[Illustration: Baltimore Oriole--Eastern.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+When in the hammock under the oak one day, I saw a pair of the
+odd-looking Arizona hooded orioles busily going and coming to a drooping
+branch on the edge of the tree. They had a great deal to talk about as
+they went and came, and when they had gone I found, to my great
+satisfaction, that they had begun a nest. They often use the gray
+Spanish moss, but here had found a good substitute in the orange-colored
+parasitic vine of the meadows known among the people of the valley as
+the 'love-vine' (dodder). The whole pocket was composed of it, making a
+very gaudy nest.
+
+Linnets nested in the same old tree. Indeed, it is hard to say where
+these pretty rosy house finches, cousins of our purple finches, would
+not take it into their heads to build. They nested over the front door,
+in the vines over the windows, in the oaks and about the outbuildings,
+and their happy musical songs rang around the ranch-house from morning
+till night. As I listened to their merry roundelay day after day during
+that beautiful California spring, it sounded to me as though they said,
+"_How-pretty-it-is'-out, how-pretty-it-is'-out, how-pretty-it-is'!_" The
+linnets are ardent little wooers, singing and dancing before the
+indifferent birds they would win for their mates. I once saw a rosy
+lover throw back his pretty head and hop about before his brown lady
+till she was out of patience and turned her back on him. When that had
+no effect, she opened her bill, spread her wings, and leaned toward him
+as if saying, "If you don't stop your nonsense, I'll----" But the fond
+linnets' gallantry and tenderness are not all spent in the wooing. When
+the mother bird was brooding her nest over our front door, her
+crimson-throated mate stood on the peak of the ridgepole above and sang
+blithely to her, turning his head and looking down every little while to
+make sure that she was listening to his pretty prattle.
+
+One of the birds that nested in the trees by the ranch-house was the
+bee-bird, who was soft gray above and delicate yellow below, instead of
+dark gray above and shining white below, like his eastern relative, the
+kingbird. The birds used to perch on the bare oak limbs, flycatching. It
+was interesting to watch them. They would fly obliquely into the air and
+then turn, with bills bristling with insects, and sail down on
+outstretched wings, their square tails set so that the white outer
+feathers showed to as good advantage as the white border of the
+kingbird's does in similar flights. They made a bulky untidy nest in the
+oaks by the barn, using a quantity of string borrowed from the ranchman.
+Their voices were high-keyed and shrill with an impatient emphasis, and
+at a distance suggested the shrill yelping of the coyote. _Kee'-ah,
+kee-kee' kee'-ah_, they would cry. The wolves were so often heard around
+the ranch-house that in the early morning I have sometimes mistaken the
+birds for them.
+
+One of the favorite hunting-grounds of the bee-birds was the orchard,
+where they must have done a great deal of good destroying insects. They
+were quarrelsome birds, and were often seen falling through the air
+fighting vigorously. I saw one chase a sparrow hawk and press it so hard
+that the hawk cried out lustily. The ranchman's son told me of one
+bee-bird who defended his nest with his life. Two crows lit in a tree
+where the flycatcher had a nest containing eggs. The crows had
+difficulty in getting to the tree to begin with, for the bee-birds
+fought them off; and though they lighted, were soon dislodged and chased
+down the vineyard. The man was at work there, and as the procession
+passed over his head the bee-bird dove at the crow; the crow struck back
+at him, crushing his skull, and the flycatcher dropped through the air,
+dead! The other bee-bird followed its dead mate to the ground, and then,
+without a cry, flew to a tree and let the crows go on their way.
+
+The bee-bird was one of the noisiest birds about the ranch-house, but
+commoner than he; in fact, the most abundant bird, next to the linnet
+and blackbird, was the California chewink, or, as the ranchman
+appropriately called him, the 'brown chippie;' for he does not look like
+the handsome chewink we know, but is a fat, dun brown bird with a thin
+_chip_ that he utters on all occasions. He is about the size of the
+eastern robin, and, except when nesting, almost as familiar. There were
+brown chippies in the door-yard, brown chippies around the barns, and
+brown chippies in the brush till one got tired of the sight of them.
+
+The temptations that come to conscientious observers are common to
+humanity, and one of the subtlest is to undervalue what is at hand and
+overvalue the rare or distant. Unless a bird is peculiarly interesting,
+it requires a definite effort to sit down and study him in your own
+dooryard, or where he is so common as to be an every-day matter. The
+chippies were always sitting around, scratching, or picking up seeds; or
+else quarreling among themselves. Feeling that it was my duty to watch
+them, I reasoned with myself, but they seemed so mortally dull and
+uninteresting it was hard work to give up any time to them. When they
+went to nesting, their wild instincts asserted themselves, and they hid
+away so closely I was never sure of but one of their nests, and that
+only by most cautious watching. Then for the first time they became
+interesting! To my surprise, one day I heard a brown chippie lift up his
+voice and sing. It was in a sunny grove of oaks, and though his song was
+a queer squeaky warble, it had in it a good deal of sweetness and
+contentment; for the bird seemed to find life very pleasant. The
+ranchman's son told me that up in the canyons at dusk he had sometimes
+heard towhee concerts, the birds answering each other from different
+parts of the canyon.
+
+[Illustration: California Chewink.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+[Illustration: Eastern Chewink.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+There was a nest in the chaparral which probably belonged to these
+chewinks. It was in a mass of poison ivy that had climbed up on a
+scrub-oak. I spent the best part of a morning waiting for the birds to
+give in their evidence. Brown sentinels were posted on high bare brush
+tops, where they chipped at me, and once a brown form flew swiftly away
+from the nest bush; but like most people whose conversation is limited
+to monosyllables, the towhees are good at keeping a secret. While
+watching for them, I heard a noise that suggested angry cats spitting at
+each other; and three jack-rabbits came racing down the
+chaparral-covered knoll. One of them shot off at a tangent while the
+other two trotted along the openings in the brush as if their trails
+were roads in a park. Then a cottontail rabbit came out on a spot of
+hard yellow earth encircled by bushes, and lying down on its side kicked
+up its heels and rolled like a horse; after which the pretty thing
+stretched itself full length on the ground to rest, showing a pink light
+in its ears. After a while it got up, scratched one ear, and with a kick
+of one little furry leg ran off in the brush. Another day, when I sat
+waiting, I saw a jack-rabbit's ears coming through the brush. He trotted
+up within a few feet, when he stopped, facing me with head and ears up;
+a noble-looking little animal, reminding me of a deer with antlers
+branching back. He stood looking at me, not knowing whether to be
+afraid or not, and turning one ear trumpet and then the other. But
+though smiling at him, I was a human being, there was no getting around
+that; and after a few undecided hops, this way and that, he ran off and
+disappeared in the brush. Near where he had been was a spot where a
+number of rabbit runways came to a centre, and around it the rabbit
+council had been sitting in a circle, their footprints proved.
+
+Brown chippies were not much commoner around the ranch-house than
+western house wrens were, but the big prosaic brown birds seemed much
+more commonplace. The wrens were strongly individual and winning
+wherever they were met. They nested in all sorts of odd nooks and
+corners about the buildings. One went so far as to take up its abode in
+the wire-screened refrigerator that stood outside the kitchen under an
+oak! Another pair stowed their nest away in an old nosebag hanging on a
+peg in the wine shed; while a third lived in one of the old grape crates
+piled up in the raisin shed.
+
+The crate nest was delightful to watch. The jolly little birds, with
+tails over their backs and wings hanging, would sing and work close
+beside me, only three or four feet away. They would look up at me with
+their frank fearless eyes and then squeeze down through their crack into
+the crate, and sit and scold inside it--such an amusing muffled little
+scold! The nest was so astonishingly large I was interested to measure
+it. Twigs were strewn loosely over one end of the box, covering a square
+nearly sixteen inches on a side. The compact high body of the nest
+measured eight by ten inches, and came so near the top of the crate that
+the birds could just creep in under the slats. Some of the twigs were
+ten inches long, regular broom handles in the bills of the short bobbing
+wrens. One of the birds once appeared with a twig as long as itself. It
+flew to the side of a beam with it, at sight of me, and stood there
+balancing the stick in its bill, in pretty fashion. Another time it flew
+to the peak of the shed to examine an old swallow's nest now occupied by
+linnets, and amused itself throwing down its neighbors' straws--the
+naughty little rogue!
+
+Such jolly songsters! They were fairly bubbling over with happiness all
+the time. They had an old stub in front of the shed that might well have
+been called the singing stub, for they kept it ringing with music when
+they were not running on inside the shed. They seemed to warble as
+easily as most birds breathe; in fact, song seemed a necessity to them.
+There was a high pole in front of the shed, and one day I found my
+ebullient little friend squatting on top to hold himself on while he
+sang out at the top of his lungs! Another time I came face to face with
+a pair when the songster was in the midst of his roundelay. He stopped
+short, bobbed nervously from side to side, and then, rising to his feet
+and putting his right foot forward with a pretty courageous gesture,
+took up his song again. When the pair were building in the crate, I
+stuck some white hen's feathers there, thinking they might like to use
+them. Mr. Troglodytes came first, and seeing them, instead of turning
+tail as I have known brave guardians of the nest to do, burst out
+singing, as if it were a huge joke. Then he hopped down on the rim of
+the box to scrutinize the plumes, after which he flew out. But he had to
+stop to sing atilt of an elder stem before he could go on to tell his
+spouse about them.
+
+One day, when riding back to the ranch, I saw half a dozen turkey
+buzzards soaring over the meadow--perhaps there was a dead jack-rabbit
+in the field. It was astonishing to see how soon the birds would
+discover small carrion from their great height. The ranchman never
+thought of burying anything, they were such good scavengers. A few hours
+after an animal was thrown out in the field the vultures would find it.
+They would stand on the body and pull it to pieces in the most revolting
+way. The ranchman told me he had seen them circle over a pair of
+fighting snakes, waiting to devour the one that was injured. They were
+grotesque birds. I often saw them walk with their wings held out at
+their sides as if cooling themselves, and the unbird-like attitude
+together with the horrid appearance of their red skinny heads made them
+seem more like harpies than before.
+
+They were most interesting at a distance. I once saw three of them
+standing like black images on a granite bowlder, on top of a hill
+overlooking the valley. After a moment they set out and went circling in
+the sky. Although they flew in a group, it seemed as if the individual
+birds respected one another's lines so as not to cover the same ground.
+Sometimes when soaring they seemed to rest on the air and let themselves
+be borne by the wind; for they wobbled from one side to the other like a
+cork on rough water.
+
+One of the most interesting birds of the valley is the road-runner or
+chaparral cock, a grayish brown bird who stands almost as high as a crow
+and has a tail as long as a magpie's. He is noted for his swiftness of
+foot. Sometimes, when we were driving over the hills, a road-runner
+would start out of the brush on a lonely part of the road and for quite
+a distance keep ahead of the horses, although they trotted freely along.
+When tired of running he would dash off into the brush, where he stopped
+himself by suddenly throwing his long tail over his back. A Texan, in
+talking of the bird, said, "It takes a right peart cur to catch one,"
+and added that when a road-runner is chased he will rise but once, for
+his main reliance is in his running, and he does not trust much to his
+short wings. The chaparral cocks nested in the cactus on our hills, and
+were said to live largely on lizards and horned toads.
+
+[Illustration: Valley Quail and Road-Runner.]
+
+It became evident that a pair of these singular birds had taken up
+quarters in the chaparral on the hillside back of the ranch-house, for
+one of them was often seen with the hens in the dooryard. One day I was
+talking to the ranchman when the road-runner appeared. He paid no
+attention to us, but went straight to the hen-house, apparently to get
+cocoons. Looking between the laths, I could see him at work. He flew up
+on the hen-roosts as if quite at home; he had been there before and knew
+the ways of the house. He even dashed into the peak of the roof and
+brought down the white cocoon balls dangling with cobweb. When he had
+finished his hunt he stood in the doorway, and a pair of blackbirds lit
+on the fence post over his head, looking down at him wonderingly. Was he
+a new kind of hen? He was almost as big as a bantam. They sat and looked
+at him, and he stood and stared at them till all three were satisfied,
+when the blackbirds flew off and the road-runner walked out by the
+kitchen to hunt among the buckets for food.
+
+These curious birds seem to be of an inquiring turn of mind, and
+sometimes their investigations end sadly. The windmills, which are a new
+thing in this dry land, naturally stimulate their curiosity. A small boy
+from the neighboring town--Escondido--told me that he had known four
+road-runners to get drowned in one tank; though he corrected himself
+afterwards by saying, "We fished out _one_ before he got drowned!"
+
+Another lad told me he had seen road-runners in the nesting season call
+for their mates on the hills. He had seen one stand on a bowlder fifteen
+feet high, and after strutting up and down the rock with his tail and
+wings hanging, stop to call, putting his bill down on the rock and going
+through contortions as if pumping out the sound. The lad thought his
+calls were answered from the brush below.
+
+In April the ranchman reported that he had seen dusky poor-wills,
+relatives of our whip-poor-wills, out flycatching on the road beyond the
+ranch-house after dark. He had seen as many as eight or nine at once,
+and they had let him come within three feet of them. Accordingly, one
+night right after tea I started out to see them. The poor-wills choose
+the most beautiful part of the twenty-four hours for their activity.
+When I went out, the sky above the dark wall of the valley was a quiet
+greenish yellow, and the rosy light was fading in the north at the head
+of the canyon. White masses of fog pushed in from the ocean. Then the
+constellations dawned and brightened till the evening star shone out in
+her full radiant beauty. Locusts and crickets droned; bats zigzagged
+overhead; and suddenly from the dusty road some black objects started
+up, fluttered low over the barley, and dropped back on the road again.
+At the same time came the call of the poor-will, which, close at hand,
+is a soft burring _poor-will, poor-wil'-low_. Two or three hours later
+I went out again. The full moon had risen, and shone down, transforming
+the landscape. The road was a narrow line between silvered fields of
+headed grain, and the granite bowlders gleamed white on the hills
+inclosing the sleeping valley. For a few moments the shrill barking of
+coyote wolves disturbed the stillness; then again the night became
+silent; peace rested upon the valley, and from far up the canyon came
+the faint, sad cry, _poor-wil'-low, poor-wil'-low_.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+POCKET MAKERS.
+
+
+THE bush-tits are cousins of the eastern chickadees, which is reason
+enough for liking them, although the California fruit growers have a
+more substantial reason in the way the birds eat the scale that injures
+the olive-trees. The bush-tits might be the little sisters of the
+chickadee family, they are so small. They look like gray balls with long
+tails attached, for they are plump fluffy tots, no bigger than your
+thumb, without their tails. One of them, when preoccupied, once came
+within three feet of where I stood. When he discovered me a comical look
+of surprise came into his yellow eyes and he went tilting off, for his
+long tail gave him a pitching flight as if he were about to go on his
+bill, a flight that reminds one of the tail that wagged the dog.
+
+[Illustration: Nest of the Bush-tit.]
+
+There were so many of the gray pocket nests in the oaks that it was hard
+to choose which to watch, but one of the most interesting hung from a
+branch of the big double oak of the gnatcatchers, above the ranch-house,
+where I could see it when sitting in the crotch of the tree. While
+watching it I looked beyond over the chaparral wall away to a dark
+purple peak standing against a sky flecked with sun-whitened clouds. The
+nest was like an oriole's, but nearly twice as long, though the builders
+were less than half the size of the orioles. Instead of being open at
+the top, it was roofed over, and the only entrance was a small round
+hole, the girth of the bird, about two inches under the roof.
+
+One might imagine that such big houses would be dark with only one small
+dormer window, and the valley children assured me that the birds hung
+living firefly lamps on their walls! I suggested that a Society for the
+Prevention of Cruelty to Fireflies would be needed if that were the
+case; but when it comes to that, what bird would choose to brood by
+gaslight?
+
+When I first saw the bush-tit in its round doorway, it suggested Jack
+Horner's famous plum, comical little ball of feathers! When first
+watching the nest the small pair put me on their list of enemies, along
+with small boys, blue jays, and owls. To go down into the pocket under
+my stare seemed a terrible thing. When one of them came with a bit of
+moss for lining, it started for the front door, saw me, stopped, and
+turned to go to the back of the nest. Then it tried to get up courage to
+approach the house from the side, got in a panic and dashed against the
+wall as if expecting a door would open for it. When at last it did make
+bold to dart into the nest it was struck with terror, and, whisking
+around, jabbed the moss into the outside wall and fled!
+
+Seeing that nothing awful happened, the birds finally took me off the
+black list and allowed me to oversee their work, as long as I gave no
+directions. Sometimes both little tots went down into the bag to work
+together; surely there was plenty of room for many such as they. But it
+is not always a matter of cubic inches, and one morning when the second
+bird was about to pop in, apparently it was advised to wait a minute.
+There was no ill feeling, though, for when the small builder came out it
+flew to the twig in front of the door, where its mate was waiting, and
+sat down beside it, a little Darby by his Joan.
+
+They worked busily. Sometimes they popped in only to pop out again; at
+other times they stayed inside as long as if they had been human
+housekeepers, hanging pictures, straightening chairs, and setting their
+bric-a-brac in order for the fortieth time; each change requiring mature
+deliberation.
+
+One morning--after the birds had been putting in lining long enough to
+have wadded half a dozen nests--if my judgment is of any value in such
+matters--I discovered that the roof was falling in; it was almost on top
+of the front door! The next day, to my dismay, the door had vanished.
+What was the trouble? Were the pretty pair young builders; was this
+their first nest, and had they paid more attention to decorating their
+house inside than to laying strong foundations; or had their pocket been
+too heavy for its frame?
+
+However it came about, the wise birds concluded that they would not
+waste time crying over spilt milk. They calmly went to work to tear the
+first nest to pieces and build a second one out of it. One of them
+tweaked out its board with such a jerk it sent the pocket swinging like
+a pendulum. But the next time it wisely planted its claw firmly to
+steady itself, while it cautiously pulled the material out with its
+bill.
+
+If the birds were inexperienced, they were bright enough to profit by
+experience. This time they hung their nest between the forks of a strong
+twig which had a cross twig to support the roof, so that the accident
+that had befallen them could not possibly occur again. They began work
+at the top, holding onto the twig with their claws and swinging
+themselves down inside to put in their material; and they moulded and
+shaped the pocket as they went along.
+
+After watching the progress of the new nest, I went to see what had
+become of the old one. It was on the ground. On taking it home and
+pulling it to pieces, I found that the wall was from half an inch to an
+inch thick, made of fine gray moss and oak blossoms. There was a thick
+wadding of feathers inside. I counted _three hundred_, and there were a
+great many more! The amount of hard labor this stood for amazed me. No
+wonder the nest pulled down, with a whole feather-bed inside! Why had
+they put it in? I asked some children, and one said, "To keep the eggs
+warm, I guess;" while the other suggested, "So the eggs wouldn't break."
+Most of the feathers were small, but there must have been several dozen
+chicken's feathers from two to three inches long. Among them was a plume
+of an owl.
+
+[Illustration: POCKET NEST IN AN OAK]
+
+Much to my surprise, in the bush-tit's nest there was a broken eggshell.
+Had the egg broken in falling, or had a snake been there? One of the
+boys of the valley told me about seeing a racer snake go into a
+bush-tit's pocket. The cries of the birds rallied several other pairs,
+and they all flew about in distress, though not one of them dared touch
+the dreadful tail that hung out of the nest hole. As the snake was about
+three feet long, the pocket bulged as it moved around inside. There were
+four nestlings about a quarter grown, and the relentless creature
+devoured them all. The boy waited below with a stick, and when it came
+out, killed it and shook it by the tail till the small birds popped out
+of its mouth. If my broken eggshell pointed to any such tragedy, it
+cleared the birds of the accusation of being poor builders.
+
+The nest, which the first day was a filmy spot in the leaves, by the
+next day had become a gray pocket over eight inches long, although I
+could still see daylight through it. In working, the birds flew to the
+top of the open bag and hopped down inside. I could see the pocket shake
+and bulge as they worked within. When they flew away to any distance,
+on their return they almost always came with their little call of
+_schrit, schrit_.
+
+This nest was so low that I used to throw myself on the sand beneath the
+tree to watch it, taking many a sunbath there, with hat drawn down till
+I could just see the nest in the pendent branches, and watch the
+changing mosaics made by the sky through the moving leaves. When resting
+on the sand the thought of rattlesnakes came to me, for the brush on
+either side was a shelter for them, and they might easily have crept up
+beside me without my hearing them.
+
+The second bush-tit's nest was shorter than the first one. Perhaps the
+builders thought the length had something to do with the fall of the
+first; or perhaps they didn't feel like collecting three hundred more
+feathers, with oak blossoms and moss to match. They first put the frame
+of the front door below the supporting cross twig, and then, as if they
+thought it needed more support, changed it and put the door above the
+twig, so that the roof could not possibly close the hole, even if it did
+fall in. The doorway was also made much larger than that of the first
+nest.
+
+After making away with the old nest, my conscience smote me. Perhaps the
+little pocket makers were not through with it, even if it was on the
+ground; so I brought a piece of it back and tied it with a grass stem to
+a twig below the nest they were at work on, to save them as much
+trouble as might be. When my bird came, her bright eyes were quick to
+espy the old nest. She looked around, bewildered, as if wondering
+whether she was really awake, and making sure that this strange looking
+affair were not her second nest, come to grief in her absence. Being
+reassured by her examination, she came back and hopped from twig to twig
+inspecting the old piece of nest. At last she caught sight of a feather.
+That, apparently, was just what she wanted. She quickly flew over,
+pulled out the white plume, and went straight to the new house with it!
+
+I was not able to watch any of my bush-tits through the season, that
+year, but five years later, when again in southern California, to my
+delight I found the tits building in almost the same tree where they had
+been before.
+
+One day an interesting brood was out in the brush, and I took notes on
+their proceedings: "A family of young were abroad this morning filling
+the leaves with their little moving forms, and the air with their
+fledgling cry of _schrit_. As nearly as I could judge, there were ten in
+the family--eight young tagging after two old birds. While I watched, a
+droll thing happened, proving that a family of eight may affect a
+parent's breakfast as well as his nerves. One of the family, which I
+took to be the father bird, had some goody in his bill, and one of the
+young, presumably, followed him for it, flying up on his twig. The old
+bird turned his back upon the little one and went on shaking the grub.
+Presently a second one flew down on the other side of him,--he was
+between two fires; they touched him on both sides. I watched with
+interest to see what he would do about it, and was much amused when he
+opened his wings and flew up over their heads out of reach! Would he
+come back to feed them after his food was properly prepared? No,--he sat
+up on the branch and ate the morsel himself! I was rather shocked by
+such a deliberate proceeding, but then it occurred to me that parent
+birds have to take a bite themselves once in a while; though of course
+their business is to feed the children!"
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+THE BIG SYCAMORE.
+
+
+BEFORE going home from my morning sessions with the little lover and
+other feathered friends, I often took a gallop at the foot of the hills
+to visit a gigantic old tree, the king of the valley. One such ride is
+especially marked in my memory. It was on one of California's most
+perfect mornings. When the sun had risen over the valley, the fog
+dissolved before it, sinking away until only small white clouds were
+left in the tender blue of the notches between the red hills; while the
+bared vault overhead had that pure, deep, satisfying color peculiar to
+fog-cleared skies; and the cool fresh air was full of exhilaration. It
+put Mountain Billy so in tune with the morning that, when I chirrupped
+to him, shaking the reins on his neck, he quickly broke into a lope and
+his ringing hoofs beat time to my song as we sped down the valley, past
+vineyards and orchards and yellow fields of ripening grain. The free
+swift motion was a delight in itself, and after days and weeks given to
+the details of nest-making, shut away from the world in our little
+remote valley at the foot of the mountains, now, when we came to a
+break in the hills and our nostrils were greeted by the cool salt breeze
+coming from the Pacific, suddenly the whole horizon broadened; the
+inclosing valley walls were overlooked; we were galloping under the high
+arching heavens in a wind blowing from far over the wide ocean.
+
+Here stood the great sycamore, with branches swaying; for the tree faced
+this break in the hills. It seemed as if the old monarch, with roots
+firmly planted, had battled for its ground; and now, as a conqueror,
+stood with arms uplifted to meet the ocean gales. I had never before
+appreciated the dignity of those straight upreared shafts, the vital
+strength of those deep grappling roots, the mighty grandeur of this old
+battle king.
+
+When one of the trunks fell, I had to hunt the sycamore over to find
+where it came from, not missing it in the massive framework that was
+left. The giant measured twenty-three feet and a half in circumference,
+three feet from the ground. Its enormous branches stretched out
+horizontally so far that, between the body of the tree and the tips that
+hung to the earth, there was a wide corridor where one could promenade
+on horseback. In fact, the tree spanned, from the tip of one branch to
+the tip of the other, one hundred and fifty-eight feet. In the
+photograph, the figure of a person is almost lost in the complicated
+network of the frame of the tree. The treetop was a grove in itself. A
+flock of blackbirds flying up into it was lost among the branches.
+
+[Illustration: THE BIG SYCAMORE]
+
+The ranchman knew the sycamore as the 'swallow tree,' because in former
+years, before the valley was settled, swallows that have since taken to
+barns built there. Between three and four hundred of them plastered
+their nests on the underside of the big limbs, about half way up the
+tree, where the bark was rough. They built so close together that the
+nests made a solid mass of mud. For several seasons, it was said, "they
+had bad luck." They began building before the rainy season was over, and
+all but a few dozen nests which were in especially protected places were
+swept away. The number of nests was so enormous that the ground was
+covered several inches deep with mud.
+
+Billy used to improve his time by nibbling barley while I watched birds
+in the sycamore corridor. We had not been there long before I discovered
+a bee's nest in the hollow of one of the trunks. The owners were busily
+flying in and out, and a pair of big bee-birds flew down from their nest
+in the treetop and saved themselves trouble by lunching at this
+convenient ground floor restaurant. As I sat on Billy, facing the nest,
+one of the pair swept down over the mouth of the hole, caught a bee and
+settled back on the branch to swallow it. This seemed to be the regular
+performance, and was kept up so continuously, even when we were
+standing close by, that if, as is supposed, the birds eat only drones,
+few but workers would be left in that hive.
+
+The flycatchers seemed well suited to the sycamore; they were birds of
+large ideas and sweeping flights. Their nest was at the top of the tree;
+probably eighty feet from the ground, but when one of them flew down,
+instead of coming a branch at a time, he would set his wings and, giving
+a loud cry,--as a child shouts when pushing off his sled at the top of a
+steep hill,--he would sail obliquely down from the treetop to the foot
+of the hillside beyond. When looking for his material he would hover
+over the field like a ph[oe]be. Then, on returning, unlike the other
+birds who lived in the tree and used the branches as ladders, he would
+start from the ground and with labored flights climb obliquely up the
+air to the treetop. Once his material dangled a foot behind him. The
+birds seemed to enjoy these great flights.
+
+Their nest was not finished, and while one went for material, the
+other--presumably the male--guarded the nest. As there was nothing to
+guard as yet, it often seemed a matter of venting his own spleen! When
+not occupied in arranging his plumes, he would shoot down at every small
+bird that came upstairs; a cowardly proceeding, but perhaps he thought
+it necessary to keep his hand in against meeting bigger boys than he!
+When coming with material, one of the bee-birds got caught in a heavy
+rope of cobweb that dangled from the nest, and had to flutter hard to
+extricate itself. About their nests these birds seemed as home-loving as
+any others. Their domesticity quite surprised me; they had always seemed
+such harsh, scolding, aggressive birds! When one of them sat among the
+green leaves, pluming the soft sulphur yellow feathers of its breast, it
+looked so gentle and attractive that it was a shock when the familiar
+petulant screams again jarred the air. The birds often hunted from the
+fence beyond the sycamore, and flew from post to post with legs
+dangling, shaking their wings as they lit, with a shrill _kit'r'r'r'r'_.
+
+The sycamore was a regular apartment house; so many birds were moving
+among the boughs it was impossible to tell where they all lived. One day
+I found a pair of doves sitting on a sunny branch above me. The one I
+took to be the male sat perched crosswise, while his mate sat facing
+him, lengthwise of the limb. He calmly fluffed out his feathers and
+preened himself, while his meek spouse watched him. She fluttered her
+wings, teasing him to feed her, but he kept on dressing out his plumes.
+Then she edged a little closer, and almost essayed to touch his majesty
+with her pretty blue bill, but he sat with lordly composure quite
+ignoring her existence till a blackbird bustled up, when they both
+started nervously, and turning, sat demurely side by side on the limb,
+the wind tilting their long tails.
+
+A pair of bright orange orioles had a nest in the sycamore, though I
+never should have known it had I not seen them go to it to feed their
+young. It was a well shaded cradle surely, with its canopy of big green
+leaves.
+
+There were a good many hints to be had, first and last. A song sparrow
+appeared and stood on a branch with its tail perked up in a
+business-like way as if it had been feeding a brood. A wren came to the
+tree,--a mere pinch of feathers in the giant sycamore,--and though I
+lost sight of it, many a hollow up in the fourteenth story might have
+afforded a home for the pretty dear without any one's being the wiser,
+unless it were the bee-bird in the attic. A family of bush-tits flew
+about in the sycamore top, looking like pin-heads in a grove of trees. A
+black ph[oe]be sometimes lit on the fence posts under the branches--it
+wanted to find a nesting place about the windmill in the opposite field,
+I felt sure, though a boy had told me that the bird sometimes plastered
+its nest onto the branches of the big tree itself. Besides all the rest,
+rosy linnets and blue lazuli buntings made the old tree ring with their
+musical roundelays.
+
+One day when I rode down to the sycamore, the meadow bordering it was
+full of haycocks, and a rabbit ran out from under one of them,
+frightened by the clatter of Billy's hoofs. That morning the tree was
+fairly alive with blackbirds and doves--what a deafening medley the
+blackbirds made! In the fields near the sycamore flocks of redwings went
+swinging over the tall gleaming mustard. This was a great place for
+blackbirds, for the big tree was on the edge of the one piece of marsh
+land in the valley, and they were quick to take advantage of its reeds
+for nesting places.
+
+The cienaga--as they called the swamp--was used as a pasture. It was
+pleasant to look out upon, from under the branches of the great tree. A
+group of horses stood in the shade of a cluster of oaks on the farther
+side of it, while the cows, a beautiful herd of buff and white
+Guernseys, waded through the swamp grass to drink near the sycamore, and
+the blackbirds wound in and out among them. I had been in a dry land so
+long it was hard to believe there was actual water in the marsh till I
+saw it drip from their chins and heard the sucking sound as they
+laboriously dragged their feet out of the mud--a noise that took me back
+to eastern pastures, but sounded strangely unfamiliar here in this
+rainless land. One of the pretty Guernseys with a white star in her
+forehead strayed up under the tree, and the shadows of the leaves moved
+over her as she raised her sensitive face to see who was there.
+
+The son of the ranchman who owned the dairy--the one who invited me down
+to see the play between his dog Romulus and the burrowing owl--said that
+when herding cows by the sycamore he once caught sight of a coyote wolf.
+He clapped his hands to send his dog, Romulus, after the wolf; and the
+noise frightened the wild creature so that he started to run up the hill
+across the road from the sycamore. Romulus followed hard at his heels
+till they got well up the hillside, when the coyote felt that he was on
+his own ground and turned on the dog, who fled back to his master with
+his tail between his legs. The lad, clapping his hands, set the dog on
+the coyote again, and this animated but bloodless performance was
+repeated and kept up till both were tired out, the animals chasing each
+other back and forth from the sycamore to the hillside with as much
+energy and perhaps as much courage as was displayed by that historic
+king of France who had five thousand men and--
+
+          "... marched them up a hill and then
+           He marched them down again."
+
+On one side of the sycamore was a great wall of weeds higher than my
+head when on horseback; a dense mass of yellow mustard, and fragrant
+wild celery which was covered with delicate white bloom. I saw
+blackbirds carrying material into this thicket, but as I had known of
+neighbors' horses getting bitten by rattlesnakes among the high weeds,
+did not think it worth while to wade around in it much for such common
+birds as they. But one day, seeing a pair of rare blue grosbeaks fly
+down into the tangle, I turned Billy right in after them, though holding
+his head well up in consideration of the snakes. The birds vanished, so
+we stood still to wait. Suddenly I heard a slight sound as of something
+slipping through the weeds at Billy's feet, and looking down saw a snake
+marked like a rattler; and as it slid by Billy's hoof I noticed with
+horror that the end of its tail was blunt--the harmless gopher snake
+that resembles the rattler has a tapering tail! I gazed at it
+spellbound, but in the dim light could not make out whether it had
+rattles or not. I had seen enough, however, and whipping up Billy was
+out of those weeds in a hurry. Safely outside, I looked at my little
+horse remorsefully--what if my desire to see a new nest had been the
+cause of his getting a rattlesnake bite!
+
+The next day when I went down to the sycamore a German was mowing there
+with a pair of mules. He was a typical Rhinelander, with blue eyes and
+long curling hair and beard, and as he drove he sang in a deep rich
+voice one of the beautiful melodies of his fatherland. Screened by the
+branches, I listened quite unmindful of my work till my reverie was
+interrupted by the man's giving a harsh cry to his mules. It was only an
+aside, however, for he dropped back into his song in the same rich
+sympathetic voice.
+
+In riding out from the tree on my way home, I saw that he was mowing
+just where the snake had been, and warned him to be careful lest the
+horses get bitten. At the word rattlesnake his blue eyes dilated, and he
+assured me that he would be on his guard. Seeing my glasses and
+note-book, he asked if I were studying birds. When told that I was, from
+his seat on the mowing-machine he took off his hat and bowed with the
+air of a lord, saying in broken English, "I am pleased to meet you!"--a
+pleasant tribute to the profession. A few days later, on meeting him, he
+asked if I had found the rattlesnake--he had killed it under the
+sycamore and hung it on a branch for me to see.
+
+As the memory of my morning rides down to the sycamore brings to mind
+the wonderful freshness of California's fog-cleared skies, so my sunset
+rides home from the great tree recall the peacefulness of the quiet
+valley at twilight. One sunset stands out with peculiar distinctness. As
+Mountain Billy turned from the sycamore marsh its leaning blades gleamed
+in the evening light, and the sun warmed the sides of the line of buff
+Guernseys wading in procession through the high swamp grass to their
+out-door milking stand. Beyond, a load of hay was crossing the meadows
+with sun on the reins and the pitchforks the men carried over their
+shoulders; and beyond, at the head of the valley, the western canyons
+were filled with golden haze, while the last shafts of yellow light
+loitered over the apricot orchards below, where the tranquil birds were
+singing their evening songs. Slowly the long shadows of the mountain
+crept over orchard and vineyard until, finally, the sun rounded the last
+peak and left our little valley in darkness.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+AMONG MY TENANTS.
+
+
+THE first year I was in California the thought of the orchards that were
+to be set out on my ranch appealed to me much less than what the place
+already possessed. As an inheritance from the stream that came down in
+spring through the Ughland canyon--past the homes of the little lover,
+the gnatcatchers, the little prisoners, and the lazulis and blue
+jays--there was a straggling line of old sycamores, full of birds'
+nests; and a patch of weeds, wild mustard, and willows, which was a
+capital shelter for wandering warblers; and a bright sunny spot always
+ringing with songs.
+
+So many houses were being put up without so much as a by-your-leave that
+it was high time for an ornithological landlady to bestir herself and
+look to her ornithological squatters; so, day after day I turned my
+horse toward the ranch and spent the morning getting acquainted with my
+tenants, riding along the shady line and making friendly calls at each
+tree.
+
+Half of the blackbirds who worked in the vineyard must have been
+beholden to me for rent, I should judge by the jolly choruses of the
+sable hordes moving about my treetops. There was a bee's nest in one of
+the sycamores, and one day the buzzing mob 'took after me' so madly that
+I had to whip up Canello and beat about with my hat to get clear of
+them.
+
+[Illustration: ALONG THE LINE OF SYCAMORES]
+
+Another day, when we stopped under a sycamore, such a loud shrill
+whistle sounded suddenly overhead that the horse started. A big bird in
+black sat with feathers bristled up about him like a threatening raven,
+croaking away sepulchrally directly overhead, bending down gazing at us
+out of his yellow eyes as if to see how we took it. It was a laughable
+sight. Blackbirds seem such human, humorous birds one can almost fancy
+them playing such pranks just for the fun of it.
+
+The blackbird colony was a busy one nesting-time. The builders would fly
+down to the road to get material, stepping along quickly, looking from
+side to side with an alert, business-like air, as if they knew just what
+they wanted. Some of them used the button-balls to line their nests.
+
+A pair had built in one of the round mats of mistletoe at the end of a
+branch, and while looking at the nest one day I was amazed to see a
+butcherbird come flying in a straight line toward it. He did not reach
+his destination, for while still in air both blackbirds darted down at
+him and drove him back faster than he had come. The guardian of the nest
+escorted him almost home, and when the victorious pair were returning
+they were joined by a noisy band of indignant members of the blackbird
+clan.
+
+I watched this attack with great interest, not knowing that shrikes were
+concerned in blackbird matters, and also because it was welcome news
+that one of these strange characters had rented a lot of me. I made a
+note of the direction my outlaw tenant took when driven ignominiously
+home, and at my earliest convenience called. Such cruel tales are told
+of his cold-blooded way of impaling birds and beasts upon thorns and
+barbed wires that one naturally looks upon him as a monster; but I found
+that he, like many another villain, turns a gentle face to his nest.
+
+He had pitched his tent on the farthest outpost of my ranch in a little
+bunch of willows, weeds, and mustard--long since converted into a
+well-kept prune orchard. The nest, which was a big round mass of sticks,
+was inside the willows in a clump of dry stalks about six feet from the
+ground. I had hardly found it before one of the builders swooped down to
+it right before my eyes, with the hardihood of one who fears no man;
+though it must be acknowledged that the shrikes, like other birds on the
+ranch, were so used to grazing horses they quite naturally took me for a
+cattle herder.
+
+In this case Canello did not act as my ally. He had been quiet and
+docile most of the morning, but now was hungry and saw some grass he
+was bent on having, so took the bit in his teeth and made such an
+obstinate fight that, before I had conquered him, the shrikes had left
+the premises and my call was finished without my hosts.
+
+On my next visit Canello behaved in more seemly manner, and permitted me
+to see something of the ways of the maligned birds. You would not have
+known them from any one else except for the remarkable stillness of
+their neighborhood. Some finches flew overhead as if meaning to stop,
+but saw the shrike and went on. I could hear the merry songs of the
+assembly down in the sycamores, but not a bird lit while we were
+there--the shrikes certainly have a bad name among their neighbors. They
+had a proud bearing and an imperative manner, but seemed so gentle and
+human in their domestic life that my prejudices were softened, as one's
+generally are by near acquaintance, and I became really very fond of my
+handsome tenants.
+
+It looked as if the shrike fed his mate. At any rate, they worked
+together and rested together, perching in lordly fashion high on the
+willows overlooking their home. They did not object to observers when at
+work. One day, when Canello's nose appeared by the nest, the builder
+looked at him over her shoulder and then quietly slid off the nest,
+flying up on her perch to wait till he should leave. It was a temptation
+to keep her waiting some time, for the shrike's corner was a pleasant
+place to linger in. The sea-breeze was so strong it turned the willow
+leaves white side out, and the beautiful glistening mustard grew so high
+there that when Canello walked into it, the golden blossoms waved over
+our heads. We haunted the premises till the birds had finished their
+framework, put in a lining of snow-white plant cotton, and had laid four
+eggs.
+
+But when getting to feel like an old friend of the family, on riding
+down one day I found the nest lying in the dust of the road broken and
+despoiled. It made me as unhappy as if the outlaws had been
+unimpeachable bird citizens--which comes of knowing both sides of a
+person's character! Do birds hand down traditions of ill luck? However
+it may be, five years later I found the nest of a pair in a dark mat of
+mistletoe at the end of a high oak branch, which was a much safer place
+than the low willow.
+
+While I was watching the first shrike family, Canello had two scares.
+Once when we were standing still by the willow we heard what sounded
+like a rattlesnake springing its rattle. The nervous horse pricked up
+his ears, raised his head, and looked in the grass as if he saw snakes,
+and though I succeeded in quieting him, when we went home he started at
+every stick and was ready to shy at every shadow. Another morning he saw
+a Mexican riding along by the vineyard, a man with a very dark face and
+a red shirt. Canello acted much as he had when hearing the rattlesnake,
+and did not quiet down till horse and rider were out of sight. The
+ranchman told me he had been cruelly treated by the Mexican who broke
+him, so perhaps it was another case of association of ideas.
+
+East of the willows, and separated from them by the dark green mallows
+and bright yellow California forget-me-nots, was the sycamore where the
+shrike was driven off by the blackbirds. Here a little brown wren had
+taken up her abode. The nest was in a dead limb with a lengthwise slit,
+and a scoop at the end like an apple-corer, so when one of the wrens
+flew down its hole with a stick, the twig stuck out of the crack as she
+ran along with it. She quite won my heart by her frank way of meeting
+her landlady. Instead of flying off, she looked me over and then quietly
+sat down in her doorway to wait for her mate.
+
+On the road to my sycamores was a deserted whitewashed adobe. The place
+had become overgrown with weeds, vines, and bushes, and was taken
+possession of by squirrels and birds. Nature had reclaimed it, covering
+its ugly scars with garlands, and making it bloom under her tender
+touch. One morning, as I rode by, a black ph[oe]be was perched on the
+old adobe chimney of the little house, while his mate sat on the board
+that covered the well, in a way that made it easy to jump to a
+conclusion. When she flew up to the acacia beside the well and looked
+down anxiously, I put the pair on my calling list. It did not take many
+visits to prove my conclusion--there was a nest down in the well with
+white eggs in it. The ph[oe]bes were most trustful birds, and not only
+let Canello tramp around their yard, but when a pump was put down the
+well, and water pumped up day by day, the brave parents, instead of
+deserting their eggs, went on brooding as if nothing had happened.
+
+[Illustration: Black Ph[oe]be.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+[Illustration: Eastern Ph[oe]be.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+Five years later, on going back to the ranch, I found the ph[oe]bes
+around the old place, but hunted in vain for the nest. A schoolhouse had
+been built in the interval, near the old adobe, and the birds perched on
+its gables, on the hitching posts in front of it, and on my prune-trees,
+that had taken the place of the willows, across the road. They even came
+up to my small ranch-house and filled me with delightful anticipations
+by inspecting the beams of the piazza; but they could not find what they
+wanted and flew off to build elsewhere. Later in the season, a neighbor
+whose ranch was opposite mine showed me a ph[oe]be's nest inside his
+whitewashed chicken house. It was a mud pocket like a swallow's, made of
+large pellets of mud plastered against a board in the peak of the house.
+Of course I could never prove that these birds were my old friends, but
+it seemed very probable.
+
+The smallest of my tenants was a hummingbird. I saw it fly into a low
+spray, and it stayed there so long that when it left I rode up to look,
+and found that it was building on the tip of a twig under a sycamore
+leaf umbrella, one whose veining showed against the light. By rising in
+the saddle I could just reach the twig and pull it down to look inside
+the nest; but afterwards I found so many other hummers who could be
+watched with fewer gymnastics, I rested content with knowing that this
+little friend was there.
+
+One morning, when on the way to the sycamores, I found an oriole's nest
+high in a tree. Canello was hungry, but when permitted to eat barley
+under the branches kept reasonably quiet. There were two species of
+orioles in the valley; and not knowing to which the nest belonged, I
+prepared to wait for the return of the owner. The heat was so oppressive
+that I took off my hat, and a bird flew into the tree with bill open,
+gasping. After my hot ride down the valley the shade of the big tree was
+very grateful; and the cool trade wind coming through a gap in the
+hills most refreshing.
+
+Suddenly there was a flash--we all waked up--was that the house owner?
+What a remarkable bird! and what a display of color!--it had a red head,
+fiery in the sun; a black back, and a vivid yellow breast. On looking it
+up in Ridgway the stranger proved to be the Louisiana tanager, a high
+mountain bird. That was a red letter day for me. No one can know,
+without experiencing it, the delight of such discoveries. The pleasure
+is as genuine as if the world were made anew for you. In the excitement
+the oriole's nest was neglected; but ordinarily the rare unknown birds
+did not detract from the enjoyment of the old, more familiar ones.
+
+So when the brilliant stranger flew away and was seen no more I turned
+with pleasure to the pair of sparrow hawks who had come to live on the
+ranch. A branch had fallen from one of the trees, and the hawks found
+its hollow just suited to their needs. It was a good, spacious house,
+but a pair of their cousins who had built in a tree over the whitewashed
+hovel had made a sad mistake in choosing their dwelling--for the front
+door was so small they could hardly enter! I used to stop to watch them,
+and was very much amused at their efforts to make the best of it.
+
+Canello could stand up to his knees in alfilaree clover under their
+tree, so he allowed me to watch the birds in peace. The first day the
+male sparrow hawk flew to the tree with what looked like a snake
+dangling from his bill, and as he alighted screamed _kit-kit'ar'r'r'r'_,
+spreading his wings and shaking them with emphasis. When this
+brought no response, he flew from branch to branch, crying out lustily.
+He revolved around the end of a broken limb in whose small hollow was
+framed the head of Madame Falco. From her height she looked like a rag
+doll at her window. Her funny round face, which filled the doorway, had
+black spots for bill and eyes, and dark lines down the cheeks that might
+have simulated rag doll tattooing.
+
+Evidently there was some reason why she did not want to come to
+breakfast. Once she started to turn back into the nest, but at last
+laboriously wedged her way out of the hole and flew to a branch. Her
+mate was at her side in an instant, and handed her the snake. She took
+it greedily and flew off with it, let us hope because she was afraid of
+me, not because she did not want to divide with him, or thought he would
+ask her to, after all his devotion and patience!
+
+When the bird went back to her nest, her hesitation about leaving it was
+explained. For a long time she sat on a limb near by with tail bobbing,
+apparently trying to make up her mind to go in. When she did fly up at
+the hole she could not get in, and half fell down. After this failure
+she sat down on a branch, her tail tilting as violently as a pipit's,
+and when Canello moved around too much, took the excuse and flew off.
+Her mate came back with her, but when he saw us, he screamed and flew
+away, leaving her to her fate.
+
+She sat looking at her hole a long time before she tried it again, and
+when she did try, failed. It was not till her fourth attempt that she
+succeeded. The hole was very much too small for her, and the surface of
+the branch below it was so smooth and slippery that it gave her nothing
+to hold to in trying to wedge herself in. She would fly against the hole
+and attempt to hook her bill over the edge, and so draw herself up, but
+her shoulders were too big for the space. She tried to make them smaller
+by drawing down her wings lengthwise. Once, in her efforts, she spread
+her tail like a fan. After her third struggle, she sat for a long time
+smoothing her ruffled feathers, shaking herself, scratching her face
+with her foot and trying to get her plumes in order.
+
+While making her toilet she apparently thought of a new plan. She went
+back to the hole and, raising her claw, fastened it inside the hole and
+with a spasmodic effort wedged in her body and disappeared down the
+black hollow. Her mate came a moment after, but she did not even appear
+in the doorway when he called. Again he came, crying _keek' keek'
+kick-er' r' r'_, in tender falsetto; but it was no use. Madame Falco had
+had altogether too hard a time getting in, to go out again in a hurry.
+He held a worm in his bill till he was tired, changed it to his claw,
+letting it dangle from that for a while; and then, as she would make no
+sign, finally flew off.
+
+The next day we had another session with the sparrow hawk. She had
+evidently profited by experience. She did not fly at the hole in the
+violent way she had done the day before, but ambled along a limb to get
+as close to it as possible, and then quietly flew up. She made two or
+three unsuccessful attempts to enter, but kept at the branch,--falling
+back but once. She got half way in once or twice, but could not force
+her wings through. She acted as if determined not to give up, and at
+last, when she found herself falling backwards, with a desperate effort
+drew herself in.
+
+There was another sparrow hawk family across the road from my ranch. In
+riding by one day, I saw a youngster looking out from the nest hole with
+big frightened eyes. Was it the only child, or was it monopolizing the
+fresh air while its brothers were smothering below? Another day there
+were two heads in the window; one was the round domed, top of a fluffy
+nestling whose eyes expressed only vague fear; but the other was the
+strongly marked head of an old sparrow hawk, who eyed us with keen
+intelligence. As I stared up, the young one drew back into the hole
+behind its parent, probably in obedience to her command; and the old
+bird bent such an anxious inquiring gaze upon me that I took the hint
+and rode away to save the poor mother worry.
+
+These were not the only hawks of the valley. Once, seeing one of the
+large Buteos winging its way with nesting sticks hanging from its claws,
+I turned Canello into the field after it, following till it lit in the
+top of a high sycamore. The pair were both gathering material. Sometimes
+they flew with the twigs in their claws; sometimes in their bills; now
+they would fly directly to the nest, again circle around the tree before
+alighting. When one was at work, the other sometimes flew up and soared
+so high in the sky he looked no larger than a sparrow hawk. In swooping
+to the ground suddenly, the hawks would hollow in their backs, stick up
+their tails, drop their legs for ballast, and so let themselves come to
+earth. While one of the birds was peacefully gathering sticks, two
+blackbirds attacked it, apparently on general grounds, because it
+belonged to a family that had been traduced since history began. To tell
+the honest truth, I trembled a little myself at thought of what might
+happen to some of my small tenants, though I reassured myself by
+remembering that the facts prove the maligned hawks much more likely to
+eat gophers than birds.
+
+In the back of the stub occupied by one of the sparrow hawks it was a
+pleasure to find a flicker excavating its nest. Planting its claws
+firmly in the hole with tail braced against the bark, the bird leaned
+forward, thrusting its head in, over and again, as if feeding young. It
+used its feet as a pivot, and swung itself in, farther and farther, as
+it worked. Such gymnastics took strong feet, for the bird raised itself
+by them each time. It worked like an automatic toy wound up for the
+performance. When tired, the flicker hopped up on a branch and vented
+its feelings by shouting _if-if-if-if-if-if-if_, after which it quietly
+returned to work. The wood was so soft that the excavating made almost
+no noise, but it was easy to see what was going on, for the carpenter
+simply drew back its head and tossed out the glistening chips for all
+the world to see. At the end of a week the flicker was working so far
+down in its excavation that only the tip of its tail stuck out of the
+door.
+
+The nest of another Colaptes, I found by accident--a fresh chip dropped
+from mid-air upon my riding skirt. Just then Canello gave a stentorian
+sneeze and the bird came to her window to look down. She did not object
+to us, and was loath to turn back inside the dark hole--such a close
+stuffy place--when outside there were the rich green leaves of the tree,
+the sweet breath of the hayfield and the gentle breeze just springing
+up; all the warmth and sunshine and fragrance of the fields. How could
+she ever leave to go below? Perhaps she bethought her that soon the dark
+hole would be a home ringing with the voices of her little ones; at all
+events, she quickly turned and disappeared in her nest.
+
+At the foot of the ranch I discovered a comical, sleepy little brown
+owl, dozing in a sycamore window. When we waked it up, it went backing
+down the hole. I wondered if it kept awake all day without food, for
+surely owl children do not get many meals by daylight. I spoke to the
+ranchman's son about it, and he said he thought the old birds fed the
+young too much, that he had found about a dozen small kangaroo rats and
+mice in their holes! He told me that he had known old owls to change
+places in the daytime, and both birds to stay in the hole during the
+day. Down the valley, where an old well was only partly covered over, at
+different times he had found a number of drowned owls. They seemed to
+fly into any dark hole that offered. Three barn owls had been taken from
+a windmill tank in the neighborhood in about a month. In a mine at
+Escondido the man had found a number of owls sitting in a crevice where
+the earth, had caved; and he had seen about a dozen of them fifty to a
+hundred feet underground, at the bottom of the mine shaft.
+
+I did not wonder the birds wanted to keep out of sight in the daytime,
+knowing what happened to those that stayed out. A pair nested in the top
+of a high sycamore on my neighbors' premises, and when one stirred away
+from home, it did so to its sorrow. One morning there was such a
+commotion I rode down to see what was the matter. A big dark brown form
+flew down the avenue of sycamores ahead of us, followed by a mob of all
+the feathered house owners in the neighborhood. They escorted it home to
+the top of its own tree, where it seated itself on a limb, its big
+yellow eyes staring and its long ears dropped down, as if home were not
+home with a rout of angry bee-birds and blackbirds screeching and diving
+at you over your own doorsill. Two orioles started to fly over from the
+next tree, but went back, perhaps thinking it wiser not to make open war
+upon such near neighbors; while a sparrow hawk who came to help in the
+attack was judged too dangerous an ally and escorted home by a squad of
+blackbirds dispatched for the purpose. The poor persecuted owl screwed
+its head around to its back as if hoping to see pleasanter sights on
+that side; but the uncanny performance did not seem to please its
+enemies, and a blackbird flew rudely past, close under its bill, as if
+to warn it of what might happen.
+
+The queerest of all my tenants was an old mother barn owl who lived in
+the black charred chimney of one of the sycamores. I found a white
+feather on the black wood one day in riding by, and pulling Canello up
+by the tree, broke off a twig and rapped on the door. She came
+blundering out and flew to a limb over our heads--such a queer old
+crone, with her hooked nose and her weazened face surrounded by a
+circlet of dark feathers. The light blinded her, and with her big round
+eyes wide open she leaned down staring to make out who we were. Then
+shaking her head reproachfully, she swayed solemnly from side to side.
+As the wind blew against her ragged feathers she drew her wings over her
+breast like a cloak, making herself look like a poverty-stricken
+wiseacre. Finding that we did not offer to go, the poor old crone took
+to her wings; but as she passed down the line of sycamores she roused
+the blackbird clan, and a pair of angry orioles flew out and attacked
+her. My conscience smote me for driving her out among her enemies, but
+on our return to the sycamores all was quiet again, and a lizard was
+sunning himself on the edge of the old owl's chimney.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+AN UNNAMED BIRD.
+
+
+SIX years ago, on my first visit to California, I found a dainty cup of
+a nest out in the oaks, but the name of its owner was a puzzle. On
+returning East I consulted those who are wisest in matters of such fine
+china, but they were unable to clear up the matter. For five years that
+mystery haunted me. At the end of that time, when back in California, up
+in those same oaks, I found another cup of the same pattern; but the cup
+got broken and that was the end of it.
+
+The fact of the matter is, you can identify perhaps ninety per cent. of
+the birds you see, with an opera-glass and--patience; but when it comes
+to the other ten per cent., including small vireos and flycatchers, and
+some others that might be mentioned, you are involved in perplexities
+that torment your mind and make you meditate murder; for it is
+impossible to
+
+          Name _all_ the birds without a gun.
+
+On bringing my riddle to the wise men, they shook their heads and asked
+why I did not shoot my bird and find out who he was. On saying the word
+his skin would be sent to me; but after knowing the little family in
+their home it would have been like raising my hand against familiar
+friends. Could I take their lives to gratify my curiosity about a name?
+I pondered long and weighed the matter well, trying to harden my heart;
+but the image of the winning trustful birds always rose before me and
+made it impossible. I will put the case before you, and you can judge if
+you would not have withheld your hand.
+
+One day, hearing the sound of battle up in the treetops, I hurried over
+to the scene of action, when out dashed a pair of courageous little
+dull-colored birds in hot pursuit of a blue jay, whom they dove at till
+they drove him from the field. My sympathies were enlisted at once.
+Fearless little tots to brave a bird four times as big as themselves in
+defense of their home! How hard to have to build and rear a brood in the
+face of such a powerful foe! I wanted to take up the cudgels for them
+and stand guard to see that no harm came.
+
+Planting my camp-stool under their oak, I watched eagerly to have my new
+friends show me their home. As I waited, a pair of turtle doves walked
+about on the sand under the farther branches of the tree; a pair of
+woodpeckers sat on a dead limb lying in wait for their prey; and a
+couple of titmice came hunting through the oak--all the world seemed
+full of happy home-makers.
+
+But soon I saw a sight that made me forget everything else. There were
+my brave little birds up in the oak working upon a beautiful moss cup
+that hung from a forked twig. They were building together, flying
+rapidly back and forth bringing bits of moss from the brush to put in
+their nest.
+
+They worked independently, each hunting moss and placing it to its own
+satisfaction. What one did the other would be well pleased with, I felt
+sure. But while each worked according to its own ideas, they always
+appeared to be working together; they could not bear to be out of sight
+of each other long at a time. When the small father bird found himself
+at the nest alone, after placing his material he would stand and call to
+let his pretty mate know that he was waiting for her; or else sit down
+by the nest and warble over such a contented, happy little lay it warmed
+my heart just to listen to him.
+
+When his mate appeared the merry birds would chase off for a race
+through the treetops. Song and play were mingled with their work, but,
+for all that, the happy builders' house grew under their hands, and they
+kept faithfully at their task of preparing the home for their little
+brood. Once the small, dainty mother bird,--surely it must have been
+she,--after putting in her bit of moss, settled down in the nest and
+sat there the picture of quiet happiness.
+
+This was all I saw of the nest builders that year. A great storm swept
+through the valley, and it must have washed away the frail mossy cup,
+for it was gone and the tree was deserted. Nevertheless, the birds had
+been so attractive, and their nest so interesting, that through the five
+years that passed before my return to California I kept their memory
+green, and could never think of them without tenderness--though I could
+call them by no name. If they had only worn red feathers in their caps,
+it would have been some clue to their coats-of-arms; but, out of hand,
+there seemed to be nothing to mark the plain, little, greenish gray
+birds from half a dozen of their cousins.
+
+When I finally returned to the California ranch, one of my first
+thoughts was for the moss nest makers up in the oaks. Now I had a chance
+to solve the mystery without harming one of their pretty feathers, for
+by long and patient watching I might get near enough to puzzle out the
+'spurious primary' and the subtle distinctions of tint that make such a
+difference in calling birds by their right names.
+
+For six weeks I watched and listened in vain, but one day when riding up
+the canyon rejoicing at the new life that filled the trees, I stopped
+under an oak only a few rods from the one where the nest had been five
+years before, and looking up saw a small dull-colored bird with a bit of
+moss in its bill walking down into a mossy cup right before my eyes! For
+a few moments I was the happiest observer in the land. I had found my
+little friend again, after all these years! It looked over the edge of
+the twig at me several times, but went on gathering material as
+unconcernedly as if it, too, remembered me. The mossy cup seemed
+prettier than any rare bit of Sèvres china, for I looked upon it with
+eyes that had been waiting for the sight for five years.
+
+As the bird worked, a cottontail rabbit rustled the leaves, and Billy
+started forward, frightening the timid animal so that it scampered off
+over the ground, showing the white underside of its tail. But though
+Billy and the rabbit were both terrified, the brave worker only flew
+down to a twig to look at them, and turned back calmly to its task.
+
+The nest was so protectively colored that I could not see it readily,
+and sometimes started to find that I had been looking right at it
+without knowing it. The prospect of identifying my birds was not
+encouraging. You might as well expect to see from the first floor what
+was going on up in a cupola as to expect to see from the ground what
+birds are doing up in the thick oak tops. You have reason to be thankful
+for even a glimpse of a bird in the heavy foliage, and as for 'spurious
+primaries,'--"Woe worth the chase!"
+
+Now and then I got a hint of family matters. My two little friends were
+working together, and occasionally I saw a bit of moss put in; but it
+was evident that the main part of the work was over. One day I waited
+half an hour, and when the bird came it acted as if it had really done
+all that was necessary, and only returned for the sake of being about
+its pretty home.
+
+The birds said a good deal up in the oak, sometimes in sweet lisping
+tones, as though talking to themselves about the nest. They often flew
+away from it not far over my head. The call note was a loud
+whistle--_whee-it'_--and the bird gave it so rapidly that I once took
+out my watch to time him, after which he called seventy times in sixty
+seconds. Often after whistling loudly he would give a soft low call. His
+clear ringing voice was one of the most cheering in the valley.
+
+When the building seemed done and I was looking forward to the brooding,
+as the birds would then, perforce, be more about the nest, one sad
+morning I rode up through the oaks and found the beautiful moss cup torn
+and dangling from its branch. It was the keenest disappointment of the
+nesting season, and there had been many. The pretty acquaintance to
+whose renewal I had looked forward so many years was now ended.
+
+Again I had to leave California without being able to name my winning
+little friends. If I had been too much interested in them before to set
+a price on their heads; now, rather than raise my voice against them,
+they should remain forever unnamed.[4]
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[4] Since this paper was written, I have consulted an authority on
+nests, who thinks that this nameless bird was probably Hutton's vireo.
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+HUMMERS.
+
+
+CALIFORNIA is the land of flowers and hummingbirds. Hummingbirds are
+there the winged companions of the flowers. In the valleys the airy
+birds hover about the filmy golden mustard and the sweet-scented
+primroses; on the blooming hillsides in spring the air is filled with
+whirring wings and piping voices, as the fairy troops pass and repass at
+their mad gambols. At one moment the birds are circling methodically
+around the whorls of the blue sage; at the next, hurtling through the
+air after a distant companion. The great wild gooseberry bushes with red
+fuchsia-like flowers are like bee-hives, swarming with noisy hummers.
+The whizzing and whirring lead one to the bushes from a distance, and on
+approaching one is met by the brown spindle-like birds, darting out from
+the blooming shrubs, gleams of green, gold, and scarlet glancing from
+their gorgets.
+
+[Illustration: The Little Hummer on her Bow-Knot Nest.
+
+(From a photograph.)]
+
+The large brown hummers probably stop in the valley only on their way
+north, but the little black-chinned ones make their home there, and the
+big spreading sycamores and the great live-oaks are their nesting
+grounds. In the big oak beside the ranch-house I have seen two or three
+nests at once; and a ring of live-oaks in front of the house held a
+complement of nests. From the hammock under the oak beside the house one
+could watch the birds at their work. If the front door was left open,
+the hummers would sometimes fly inside; and as we stepped out they
+often darted away from the flowers growing under the windows.
+
+California is the place of all places to study hummingbirds. The only
+drawback is that there are always too many other birds to watch at the
+same time; but one sees enough to want to see more. I never saw a
+hummingbird courtship unless--perhaps one performance I saw was part of
+the wooing. I was sitting on Mountain Billy under the little lover's
+sycamore when a buzzing and a whirring sounded overhead. On a twig sat a
+wee green lady and before her was her lover (?), who, with the sound and
+regularity of a spindle in a machine, swung shuttling from side to side
+in an arc less than a yard long. He never turned around, or took his
+eyes off his lady's, but threw himself back at the end of his line by a
+quick spread of his tail. She sat with her eyes fixed upon him, and as
+he moved from side to side her long bill followed him in a very droll
+way. When through with his dance he looked at her intently, as if to see
+what effect his performance had had upon her. She made some remark,
+apparently not to his liking, for when he had answered he flew away. She
+called after him, but as he did not return she stretched herself and
+flew up on a twig above with an amusing air of relief.
+
+This is all I have ever seen of the courtship; but when it comes to
+nest-building, I have often been an eye-witness to that. One little
+acquaintance made a nest of yellow down and put it among the green oak
+leaves, making me think that the laws of protective coloration had no
+weight with her, but before the eggs were laid she had neatly covered
+the yellow with flakes of green lichen. I found her one day sitting in
+the sun with the top of her head as white as though she had been diving
+into the flour barrel. Here was one of the wonderful cases of 'mutual
+help' in nature. The flowers supply insects and honey to the
+hummingbirds, and they, in turn, as they fly from blossom to blossom
+probing the tubes with the long slender bills that have gradually come
+to fit the shape of the tubes, brush off the pollen of one blossom to
+carry it on to the next, so enabling the plants to perfect their flowers
+as they could not without help. It is said that, in proportion to their
+numbers, hummingbirds assist as much as insects in the work of
+cross-fertilization.
+
+Though this little hummer that I was watching let me come within a few
+feet of her, when a lizard ran under her bush she craned her neck and
+looked over her shoulder at him with surprising interest. She doubtless
+recognized him as one of her egg-eating enemies, on whose account she
+put her nest at the tip of a twig too slender to serve as a ladder.
+
+Another hummingbird who built across the way was still more
+trustful--with people. I used to sit leaning against the trunk of her
+oak and watch the nest, which was near the tip of one of the long
+swinging branches that drooped over the trail. When the tiny worker was
+at home, a yard-stick would almost measure the distance between us. As
+she sat on the nest she sometimes turned her head to look down at the
+dog lying beside me, and often hovered over us on going away.
+
+The nest was saddled on a twig and glued to a glossy dark green oak
+leaf. Like the other nest, it was made of a spongy yellow substance,
+probably down from the underside of sycamore leaves; and like it, also,
+the outside was coated with lichen and wound with cobweb. The bird was a
+rapid worker, buzzing in with her material and then buzzing off after
+more. Once I saw the cobweb hanging from her needle-like bill, and
+thought she probably had been tearing down the beautiful suspension
+bridges the spiders hang from tree to tree.
+
+It was very interesting to see her work. She would light on the rim of
+the nest, or else drop directly into the bottom of the tiny cup, and
+place her material with the end of her long bill. It looked like trying
+to sew at arm's length. She had to draw back her head in order not to
+reach beyond the nest. How much more convenient it would have been if
+her bill had been jointed! It seemed better suited to probing flower
+tubes than making nests. But then, she made nests only in spring, while
+she fed from flowers all the year round, and so could afford to stretch
+her neck a trifle one month for the sake of having a good long fly spear
+during the other eleven. The peculiar feature of her work was her
+quivering motion in moulding. When her material was placed she moulded
+her nest like a potter, twirling around against the sides, sometimes
+pressing so hard she ruffled up the feathers of her breast. She shaped
+her cup as if it were a piece of clay. To round the outside, she would
+sit on the rim and lean over, smoothing the sides with her bill, often
+with the same peculiar tremulous motion. When working on the outside, at
+times she almost lost her balance, and fluttered to keep from falling.
+To turn around in the nest, she lifted herself by whirring her wings.
+
+When she found a bit of her green lichen about to fall, she took the
+loose end in her bill and drew it over the edge of the nest, fastening
+it securely inside. She looked very wise and motherly as she sat there
+at work, preparing a home for her brood. After building rapidly she
+would take a short rest on a twig in the sun, while she plumed her
+feathers. She made nest-making seem very pleasant work.
+
+One day, wanting to experiment, I put a handful of oak blossoms on the
+nest. They covered the cup and hung down over the sides. When the small
+builder came, she hovered over it a few seconds before making up her
+mind how it got there and what she had better do about it. Then she
+calmly lit on top of it! Part of it went off as she did so, but the rest
+she appropriated, fastening in the loose ends with the cobweb she had
+brought.
+
+She often gave a little squeaky call when on the nest, as if talking to
+herself about her work. When going off for material she would dart away
+and then, as if it suddenly occurred to her that she did not know where
+she was going, would stop and stand perfectly still in the air, her
+vibrating wings sustaining her till she made up her mind, when she would
+shoot off at an angle. It seemed as if she would be worn out before
+night, but her eyes were bright and she looked vigorous enough to build
+half a dozen houses.
+
+"There's odds in folks," our great-grandmothers used to say; and there
+certainly is in bird folks; even in the ways of the same one at
+different times. Now this hummingbird was content to build right in
+front of my eyes, and the hummer down at the little lover's tree, with
+her first nest, was so indifferent to Billy and me that I took no pains
+to keep at a distance or disguise the fact that I was watching her. But
+when her nest was destroyed she suddenly grew old in the ways of the
+world, and apparently repented having trusted us. In any case, I got a
+lesson on being too prying. The first nest had not been down long before
+I found that a second one was being built only a few feet away--by the
+same bird? I imagined so. The nest was only just begun, and being
+especially interested to see how such buildings were started, I rode
+close up to watch the work. A roll of yellow sycamore down was wound
+around a twig, and the bottom of the nest--the floor--attached to the
+underside of this beam; with such a solid foundation, the walls could
+easily be supported.
+
+The small builder came when Billy and I were there. She did not welcome
+us as old friends, but sat down on her floor and looked at us--and I
+never saw her there again. Worse than that, she took away her nest,
+presumably to put it down where she thought inquisitive reporters would
+not intrude. I was disappointed and grieved, having already planned---on
+the strength of the first experience--to have the mother hummer's
+picture taken when she was feeding her young on the nest.
+
+At first I thought this suspicion reflected upon the good sense of
+hummingbirds, but after thinking it over concluded that it spoke better
+for hummingbirds than for Billy and me. If this were, as I supposed, the
+same bird who had to brood her young with Billy grazing at the end of
+her bill, and if she had been present at the unlucky moment when he got
+the oak branches tangled in the pommel of the saddle, although her
+branch was not among them, I can but admire her for moving when she
+found that the Philistines were again upon her, for her new house was
+hung at the tip of a branch that Billy might easily have swept in
+passing.
+
+These nests had all been very low, only four or five feet above the
+ground; but one day I found young in one of the common treetop nests. I
+could see it through the branches. Two little heads stuck up above the
+edge like two small Jacks-in-boxes. Billy made such a noise under the
+oak when the bird was feeding the youngsters that I took him away where
+he could not disturb the family, and tied him to an oak covered with
+poison ivy, for he was especially fond of eating it, and the poison did
+not affect him.
+
+Before the old hummer flew off, she picked up a tiny white feather that
+she found in the nest, and wound it around a twig. On her return, in the
+midst of her feeding, she darted down and set the feather flying; but,
+as it got away from her, she caught it again. The performance was
+repeated the next time she came with food; but she did it all so
+solemnly I could not tell whether she were playing or trying to get rid
+of something that annoyed her.
+
+She fed at the long intervals that are so trying to an observer, for if
+you are going to sit for hours with your eyes glued to a nest, it
+really is pleasant to have something happen once in a while! Though the
+mother bird did not go to the nest often, she sometimes flew by, and
+once the sound of her wings roused the young, and they called out to her
+as she passed. When they were awake, it was amusing to see the little
+midgets stick out their long, thread-like tongues, preen their
+pin-feathers, and stretch their wings over the nest.
+
+One fine morning when I went to the oak I heard a faint squeak, and saw
+something fluttering up in the tree. When the mother came, she buzzed
+about as though not liking the look of things, for her children were out
+of the nest, and behold!--a horse and rider were under her tree. She
+tried to coax the unruly nestlings to follow her into the upper stories,
+but they would not go.
+
+[Illustration: The Swing Nest of the Hummer.
+
+(From a Photograph.)]
+
+Although not ready to be led, one of the infants soon felt that it would
+be nice to go alone. When a bird first leaves the nest it goes about
+very gingerly, but this little fellow now began to feel his strength and
+the excitement of his freedom. He wiped his tongue on a branch, and
+then, to my astonishment, his wings began to whirl as if he were getting
+up steam, and presently they lifted him from his twig, and he went
+whirring off as softly as a hummingbird moth, among the oak sprays. His
+nerves were evidently on edge, for he looked around at the sound of
+falling leaves, started when Billy sneezed, and turned from side to
+side very apprehensively, in spite of his out-in-the-world, big-boy
+airs. He may have felt hampered by his unused wings, for, as he sat
+there waiting for his mother to come, he stroked them out with his bill
+to get them in better working order. That done, he leaned over, rounded
+his shoulders, and pecked at a leaf as if he were as much grown up as
+anybody.
+
+Of all the beautiful hummingbirds' nests I saw in California, three are
+particularly noteworthy because of their positions. One cup was set down
+on what looked like an inverted saucer, in the form of a dark green oak
+leaf wound with cobweb. That was in the oak beside the ranch-house.
+Another one was on a branch of eucalyptus, set between two leaves like
+the knot in a bow of stiff ribbon. To my great satisfaction, the
+photographer was able to induce the bird to have a sitting while she
+brooded her eggs. The third nest I imagined belonged to the bird who
+took up her floor because Billy and I looked at her. If she were, her
+fate was certainly hard, for her eggs were taken by some one, boy or
+beast. Her nest was most skillfully supported. It was fastened like the
+seat of a swing between two twigs no larger than knitting-needles, at
+the end of a long drooping branch. It was a unique pleasure to see the
+tiny bird sit in her swing and be blown by the wind. Sometimes she went
+circling about as though riding in a merry-go-round; and at others the
+wind blew so hard her round boat rose and fell like a little ship at
+sea.
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+IN THE SHADE OF THE OAKS.
+
+
+THERE were half a dozen places in the valley, irrigated by the spring
+rains, where I was always sure of finding birds. Among them, on the west
+side, was the big sycamore, standing at the lower end of the valley;
+while above, in the northwest corner, was the mouth of Twin Oaks canyon
+where the migrants flocked in the brush around the large twin oak that
+overlooked the little old schoolhouse. On the east side was the Ughland
+canyon, at the mouth of which the little lover and his neighbors nested;
+while below it straggled the line of sycamores that followed the Ughland
+stream down through my ranch. But up at the head of the valley beyond
+the ranch-house was the most delightful place of all. There I was always
+sure of finding interesting nests to study.
+
+Surrounded by a waste of chaparral, it was a little oasis of great
+blooming live-oaks, and in their shade I used often to spend the hot
+afternoon hours. In the spring the water that flowed down the hills at
+the head of the valley formed a fresh mountain stream that ran down the
+Oden canyon and so on through the centre of this grove, feeding the
+oaks and spreading out to enrich the valley below. In summer, like the
+rest of the canyon streams, only its dry sandy bed remained. Then, when
+the meadows were oppressively hot, my leafy garden was a shady bower to
+linger in. Its long drooping branches hung to the ground, dainty yellow
+warblers flitted about the golden tassels of the blossoming trees, and
+the air was full of the happy songs of mated birds.
+
+[Illustration: A SHADY BOWER]
+
+The trail from the ranch-house to the oaks was a line through the low
+grass in which grew yellow fly flowers and orange poppies; and over them
+every spring, day after day, processions of migrating butterflies
+drifted slowly up the canyon. At the entrance of the garden was a
+sentinel oak whose dark green foliage contrasted well with the yellow
+flowers in the grass outside. It was the chosen hunting-ground of many
+birds. Its dead upper branches offered the bee-birds and woodpeckers an
+unobstructed view of passing insects, and gave the jays and flickers a
+chance to overlook the brush, and take their bearings. The lower limbs
+offered perches where doves might come to rest, finches to chatter, and
+chewinks to sing; while its hanging boughs and elm-like feathered sides
+attracted wandering warblers and songful wrens.
+
+The happy days spent among these beautiful California oaks are now
+far in the past, but as I sit in my study in the East and dream back
+over those hours my mind is filled with memory pictures. Sauntering
+through this oaken gallery, each tree recalls some pleasant hour--the
+sight of a new bird, the sound of a new song, the prolonged delight of
+some cozy home that I watched till accepted as a friend, when the little
+family's fears and joys were my own.
+
+That big double oak, spreading across the middle of the garden, was the
+haunted tree whose blue ghost drove away the pewees and gnatcatchers
+after they had begun to build; though the vireos and bush-tits braved it
+out, and the tiny hummer and gentle dove were not afraid to perch there.
+This was hummingbird lane--that small oak held the nest in which the two
+wee nestlings sat up like Jacks-in-the-box; these blue sage bushes
+growing in the sand were the ones the honey bees and hummers used to
+haunt, the hummers probing each lavender lip as they circled round the
+whorls; in front of this bush I saw a fairy dancer perform his airy
+minuet,--swing back and forth, and then sweep up in the air to dive
+whirring down with gorget puffed out and tail spread wide; and here,
+when watching a procession of ants, I discovered a tiny hummingbird
+building in a drooping branch that overhung the trail. That dead limb
+was the perch of a wood pewee, a silent grave bird with a sad call, who
+flew on when he was still only a lonely stranger. That oak top was made
+memorable by the sight of a flaming oriole, though he came on a cold
+foggy morning and answered my calls with a broken song and a
+half-hearted scold as he sat with his feathers ruffled up about him.
+Under the low spreading branches of that tree the chewinks used to
+scratch--I can hear the brown leaves rustle now--the branches were so
+low that, if the shy birds flew up to rest from their labors, they could
+quickly drop down and disappear in the brush.
+
+On ahead, where the garden narrows to the trail between the walls of
+brush, when I was hidden behind a screen of branches, the timid
+white-crowned sparrows used to venture out, hopping along quietly or
+stopping to sing and pick up seeds on the path. Back a few steps was the
+tree where the bush-tits came to build their second nest after the roof
+of the first one fell in; the nest which hung on such a low limb that I
+watched it from the sand beneath, looking up through the branches at the
+blue sky, the canyon walls covered with sun-whitened bowlders, and the
+turkey buzzards circling over the mountains.
+
+[Illustration: Green-tailed Chewink.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+Just there, in that small open place between the trees,--how well I
+remember the afternoon,--I saw a new bird come out of the bushes; the
+green-tailed chewink he proved to be, on his way back to the Rocky
+Mountains. He was a beautiful stranger with a soft glossy coat touched
+off with yellowish green, while his high-bred gentle manners have made
+me remember him with affectionate interest all these years. Across the
+garden I heard my first song from that unique rhapsodist, the
+yellow-breasted chat. The same place marks another interesting
+experience. While I was sitting in the crotch of an oak a thrasher came
+out of the brush into an open space in front of me. Her feathers were
+disordered and apparently she had come from her nest. She walked with
+wings tight at her sides and her tail up at an angle well out of the way
+of the rustling leaves; altogether a neat alert figure that contrasted
+sharply with the lazy brown chippie which appeared just then in
+characteristic negligée, its wings hanging and tail dragging on the
+ground. The thrashers of Twin Oaks have bills that are curved like a
+sickle, and this bird used her tool most skillfully. Instead of
+scratching up the leaves and earth with her feet as chewinks and
+sparrows do, the thrasher used her bill almost exclusively. First she
+cleared a space by scraping the leaves away, moving her bill through
+them rapidly from side to side. Then she made two holes in the ground,
+probing deep with her long bill. After taking what she could get from
+the second hole, she went back to the first again, as if to see if
+anything had come to the surface there. Then she lay down on the sand to
+sun herself and acted as though going to take a sun bath, when suddenly
+she discovered me and fled.
+
+When watching the bird at work I got a pretty picture in the round disk
+of my opera-glass. The glass was focused on the digging thrasher, but a
+goldfinch came into the picture and pulled at some stems for its nest
+and a cottontail ran rapidly across from rim to rim. I lifted the glass
+to follow him and saw him go trotting down the path between the bushes.
+
+The thrasher's curved bill gives a most ludicrous look to the bird when
+singing. He looks as if he were trying to turn himself inside out. I
+once saw an adult thrasher tease its mate for food, and wondered how it
+would be possible for one curved bill to feed another curved bill; but a
+few days later I came on a family of young, and discovered for myself
+that _they_ have straight bills; a most curious and interesting instance
+of adaptation.
+
+At the head of the garden stands a tree that always reminds me of the
+horses I rode in California. I watched my first bush-tit's nest under
+it, with Canello grazing near; and five years later watched another
+bush-tit's nest there, sitting in the crotch of the oak with Mountain
+Billy looking over my shoulder. Although Billy was, in his prime, a
+bucking mustang, he became more of a petted companion than Canello had
+been; and when we were out alone together, we were a great deal of
+company for each other. As soon as I dismounted he would put his head
+down to have me slip the reins off over his ears, so that he could graze
+by himself. Sometimes, when he stood behind me he rested his bridle on
+my sun-hat, and once went so far as to take a bite out of the brim--in
+consideration of its being straw. If I were sitting on the ground and he
+was grazing near, he would at times walk up and gravely raise his face
+to look into mine. When he got tired, he would rub up against my arm and
+yawn, looking down at me with a friendly smile in his eyes.
+
+Birding was rather dull for Billy--when there was neither grass nor
+poison ivy at hand, but he had one never-failing source of
+enjoyment--rolling. He tried it in the sand under the oak, one day, with
+the saddle on. Before I knew what he was about he was down on his knees,
+sitting still, with a comical, helpless look in his eyes, as if quite at
+a loss to know what to do next, having become conscious of the saddle.
+When I had gotten him on his feet and finished lecturing him I uncinched
+the saddle, laid it one side on the ground, took hold of the end of the
+long bridle, and told him to roll. A droll abstracted look came into
+his eyes, he dropped on his knees and, with a sudden convulsion, threw
+his heels into the air and rolled back and forth, rubbing his backbone
+vigorously on the sand. After that, the first thing every morning when
+we got to the oaks, I unsaddled him and let him roll, and then he would
+stand with bare back keeping cool in the shade of the trees.
+
+One morning as we stood under the bush-tit's tree, I discovered a pair
+of turtle doves looking out at me from the leaves of the small oak
+opposite, craning their necks and moving their heads uneasily. One of
+them seemed to be shaping a nest of twigs. I drew Billy around between
+us, so that my staring would seem less pointed, and when one of the pair
+flew to the ground to spy at me, hurriedly looked the other way to
+remove his anxiety. His mate soon joined him, and the two doves walked
+away together, fixed their feathers in the sun, stretched their wings,
+and lazily picked at the ground. When one whirred back to the nest, the
+other soon followed. The gentle lovers put their bills together, while,
+unnoticed, I stood behind Billy, looking on and thinking that it was
+little wonder such birds should rise from the ground with a musical
+whirr.
+
+Billy's oak was the last of the high trees in the garden. Above it was a
+grassy space where bright wild flowers bloomed, and pretty cottontail
+rabbits often went ambling over the soft turf. On one side of the
+opening was a low stocky oak, full of balls of mistletoe, and on the
+other a great blossoming bush buzzing with hummingbirds. The mistletoe
+had begun to sap the little oak, and on one of its dead twigs a
+hummingbird had taken to perching. I wondered if he were the idle mate
+of one of my small garden builders, but he sat and sunned himself as if
+his conscience were quite clear.
+
+My first experience with gnatcatchers had been here. I suspected a nest,
+and the ranchman's daughter went with me to hunt through the brush. She
+cautioned me to look out for rattlesnakes, but the brush was so dense
+and the ground so covered with crooked snake-like sticks that it was not
+an easy matter to tell what you were stepping on. Then, the poison oak
+was so thick that I felt like holding up my hands to avoid it. We pushed
+our way through the dense chaparral, and my fearless companion got down
+on her hands and knees to look through the tangle for the nest. It was
+hard disagreeable work, even if one did not object to snakes, and we
+were soon so tired that we were ready to sit down and let the birds show
+us to their house. We might have saved ourselves all the trouble if we
+had done this to begin with, for it was only a few moments before the
+little pair went to the mistletoe oak, out in plain sight and within
+easy reach--how they would have laughed in their sleeves had they known
+what we were hunting for back in the brush! The nest was about the size
+of a chilicothe pod, and so covered with lichen that it looked just like
+a knot on the tree.
+
+Around the blossoming bush the air fairly vibrated with hummers, darting
+up into the sky, shooting down and chasing each other pell
+mell--sometimes almost into my face. As I sat by the bush one day, a
+handsome male went around with upraised throat, poking his bill up the
+red fuchsia-like tubes. Another one was flying around inside the bush,
+and I edged nearer to see. The sun shone in, whitening the twigs, and as
+the bird whirred about with a soft burring sound, I caught gleams of
+red, gold, and green from his gorget, and could see the tiny bird rest
+his wee feet on a twig to reach up to a blossom. Then he hummed what
+sounded more like a love song than anything I had ever heard from a
+hummingbird. He seemed so much more like a real bird than any of his
+brothers that I felt attracted to him.
+
+One morning a little German girl, in a red pinafore, and with hair
+flying, came riding down the sand stream toward my bush. Her colt reared
+and pranced, but she sat as firmly as if she had been a small centaur.
+It was a holiday, and she was staking out her horses to graze, making
+gala-day work of it. She had one horse down by the little oak already,
+and springing off the one she had brought, changed about, jumped as
+lightly as a bird upon the other's back and raced home. Soon she came
+galloping back again, and so she went and came until tired out, for pure
+fun on her free holiday.
+
+In looking over the bright memory pictures of my beautiful oak garden,
+there is one to which I always return. The spreading trunks of a great
+five-stemmed tree on one side of the grove made a dark oaken couch,
+screened by the leafy willow-like branches that hung to the ground.
+Here--after looking to see that there were no rattlesnakes coiled in the
+dead leaves--I spent many a dreamy hour, reclining idly as I listened to
+the free songs of the birds that could not see me behind my curtain. It
+was interesting to note the way certain sounds predominated; certain
+songs would absorb one's attention, and then pass and be replaced by
+others. At one time a jay's scream would jar on the ear and drown all
+other voices; when that had passed, the chewinks would fly up from the
+leaves and sing and answer each other till the air was quivering with
+their trills. Then came the thrashers, with their loud rollicking songs;
+and when they had pitched down into the brush, out rang the clear
+bell-like tones of the wren-tit, filling the air with sound. Afterwards
+the impatient whipped-out notes of the chaparral vireo were followed by
+the soft cooing of doves; and then, as the wind stirred the trees and
+sent the loosened oak blossoms drifting to the ground, from high out of
+an oak top came a most exquisite song. At the first note of this
+grosbeak all other songs were forgotten--they were noise and
+chatter--this was pure music. It was like passing from the cries of the
+street into the hall of a symphony concert. The black-headed grosbeak
+has not the spirituality of the hermit thrush, and his ordinary song is
+not so remarkable, but his love song excels that of any bird I have ever
+heard in finish, rich melody, and music. As I listened, my surroundings
+harmonized so perfectly with the wonderful song echoing through the
+great trees that the old oak garden seemed an enchanted bower. The
+drooping branches were a leafy lattice through which the afternoon sun
+filtered, steeping the oaks in thick still sunshine. Last year's leaves
+drifted slowly to the ground, while the bees droned about the yellow
+tassels of the blooming trees. As a violinist, lingering to perfect a
+note, draws his bow again and again over the strings, so this rapt
+musician dwelt tenderly on his highest notes, trolling them over till
+each was more exquisite and tender than the last, and the ear was
+charmed with his love song--a song of ideal love fit to be dreamed of in
+this stately green oak garden filled with golden sunlight.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+A MYSTERIOUS TRAGEDY.
+
+
+ON a peg just inside the door of the ranchman's old wine shed hung one
+of the horses' unused nosebags. A lad on the place told me that a wren
+had a nest in it, and added that he had seen a fight between the wren
+and a pair of linnets who seemed to be trying to steal her material.
+
+The first time I went to the wine shed both wrens and linnets were
+there, but nothing happened and I forgot about the original quarrel. By
+peering through a crack in the boarding I could look down on the wren in
+the nosebag inside. I could see her dark eyes, the white line over them,
+and her black barred tail. She was Vigor's wren. She got so tame that
+she would not stir when the creaking door was opened close by her, or
+when people were talking in the shed; and I used to go often to see how
+her affairs were progressing.
+
+All her eggs hatched in time, and the small birds, from being at first
+all eyeball, soon got to be all bill. When I opened the bag to look at
+them, the light woke them up and they opened their mouths, showing
+chasms of yellow throat.
+
+The mother bird fed them several times when I was watching only a few
+feet away. She would come ambling along in the pretty wren fashion, with
+her tail over her back; creeping down the side of a lath, running behind
+a rafter, scolding as though to make conversation, and then winding down
+to the nest through a crack. One day she hesitated, and waited to spy at
+me, since I had thought it polite to stare at her! When satisfied, she
+hopped along from beam to beam, her bright eyes still upon me. Then her
+mate joined her. He had been suspicious of me at our first meeting, but
+apparently had changed his mind, for, seeing his spouse hesitate, he
+glanced at me unconcernedly, as much as to say, "Is she all you're
+waiting for?" and flew out, leaving her to my tender mercies. She hopped
+meekly into the bag after that rebuke, but stretched up to peer at me
+once more before settling down inside.
+
+One day when I looked in to see how wren matters were progressing, to my
+amazement and horror, instead of my wren's nest I found another, high in
+the mouth of the bag with one fresh egg in it! The egg was a linnet's,
+and the nest had been built right on top of the wren's. Such a stench
+came from the bag that I took out the upper nest and found the four
+little wrens dead in their crib.
+
+[Illustration: The Nosebag Nest.
+
+(Vigors's Wren.)]
+
+I had become very fond of the winsome mother bird, and so much
+interested in her brood that this horrid discovery came like a tragedy
+in the family of a friend.
+
+And what did it all mean? Unless the old wrens had been dead, could the
+linnets have gotten possession? The wrens were usually able to hold
+their own in a discussion. If the nestlings had been alive, would the
+linnets--would any bird--have built upon them, deliberately burying them
+alive? It seemed too diabolical. On the other hand, what could have
+killed the little wrens and left them in the nest? If they had been dead
+when the linnets came to build, how could the birds have chosen such a
+sepulchre for a building site?
+
+Grieving over my little friends, I cleaned out the nosebag and hung it
+up on its peg. Three weeks later I discovered, to my great perplexity,
+that a pair of wrens had built in the bottom of the bag and had one egg
+in the nest. Now, was this the same pair of birds that had built there
+before, and if so, what did it all mean?
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+HOW I HELPED BUILD A NEST.
+
+
+THEY picked out their crack in the oak and began to build without any
+advice from me, winning little gray-crested titmice that they were.
+Their oak was right behind the ranch-house barn; I found it by hearing
+the bird sing there. The little fellow, warmed by his song, flitted up
+the tree a branch higher after each repetition of his loud cheery
+_tu-whit', tu-whit', tu-whit', tu-whit'_. Meanwhile his pretty mate,
+with bits of stick in her bill, walked down a crack in the oak trunk.
+
+Thinking she had gone, I went to examine the place. I poked about with a
+twig but couldn't find the nest till, down in the bottom of the crack, I
+spied a little gray head and a pair of bright eyes looking up at me. The
+bird started forward as if to dart out, but changed her mind and stayed
+in while I took a hasty look and fled, more frightened than she by the
+intrusion.
+
+The titmice had been flying back and forth from the hen-yard with
+chicken's feathers, and it seemed such slow work for them I thought I
+would help them. So the next day, when the pair were away, I stuffed a
+few white feathers into the mouth of the nest and withdrew under the
+shadow of the barn to watch through my glass without being observed.
+Then my conscience began to trouble me. What if this interference should
+drive the gentle bird to desert her nest?
+
+[Illustration: The Plain Titmouse in her Doorway.]
+
+When I heard the familiar chickadee call--the titmouse often chirrups
+like his cousin--it made me quake guiltily. What would the birds do? The
+gray pair came flying in with crests raised, and my small friend hopped
+down to her doorway. She gave a start of surprise at sight of the
+feathers, but after a moment's hesitation went bravely in! While she was
+inside, her mate waited in the tree, singing for her; and when she came
+out, he flew away with her. Then I crept up to the oak, and to my
+delight found that all the feathers had disappeared. She evidently
+believed in taking what the gods provide. In fact, she seemed only to
+wish that they would provide more, for, after taking a second supply
+from me, she stood in the vestibule, cocked her crested head, and looked
+about as if expecting to see new treasures.
+
+She had common-sense enough to take what she found at hand, but if she
+had not been such a plucky little builder she would have been scared
+away by the strange sights that afterwards met her at her nest. Once
+when she came, feathers were sticking in the bark all around the crack.
+She hesitated--the rush of her flight probably fanned the air so the
+white plumes waved in her face--she hesitated and looked around timidly
+before getting courage to go in; and on leaving the nest flew away in
+nervous haste; but she was soon back again, and ready to take the
+feathers down inside the oak. She caught hold of the tip of one that was
+wedged into a crack, and tugged and tugged till I was afraid she would
+get discouraged and go off without it. She got it, however, and drew it
+in backwards. Then she attacked another feather, but finding that it
+came harder than the first, let go her hold and took an easier one. She
+was not to be daunted, though, and after stowing away the loose one came
+back for the tight one again, and persevered till she bent it in several
+places, besides breaking off the tip.
+
+When she had flown off, I jumped up, ran to the oak, and stuffed the
+doorway full of feathers. Before I had finished, the family sentinel
+caught me--I had been in too much of a hurry and he had heard me walking
+over the cornstalks. He eyed me suspiciously and gave vent to his
+disapproval, but I addressed him in such friendly terms that he soon
+flew off and talked to his mate reassuringly, as if he had decided that
+it was all right after all. After their conversation she came back and
+made the best of her way right down through the feather-bed! I went away
+delighted with her perseverance, and charmed by her confidence and
+pretty performances.
+
+The next day I heard the titmouse singing in an elder by the kitchen,
+and went out to see how the birds acted when gathering their own
+material. The songster was idly hunting through the branches, singing,
+while his mate--busy little housewife--was hard at work getting her
+building stuff. She had something in her beak when I caught sight of
+her, but in an instant was down on the ground after another bit. Then
+she flew up in the tree looking among the leaves; in passing she swung
+a moment on a strap hanging from a branch; then flew down among the
+weeds, back up in the tree again; and so back and forth, over and over,
+her bill getting fuller and fuller.
+
+I was glad to save her work, and interested to see how far she would
+accept my help. Once when I blocked the entrance with feathers and
+horsehair she stopped, and, though her bill was full, picked up the
+packet and flew out on a branch with it. Was she going to throw away my
+present? For a moment my faith in her was shaken. Perhaps her mate had
+been warning her to beware of me. She did drop the mat of
+horsehair--what did such a dainty Quaker lady as she want of
+horsehair?--but she kept tight hold of one of the feathers, although it
+was almost as big as she was; and flew back quickly to the nest with it.
+
+This performance proved one point. She would not take everything that
+was brought to her. She preferred to hunt for her own materials rather
+than use what she did not like. Now the question was, what did she like?
+
+My next experiment was with some lamp wick to which I had tied bits of
+cotton. The titmouse took the cotton and would have taken the wicking, I
+think, if it had not been fastened in too tight for her. After that I
+tried tying bits of cotton to strings, and letting them dangle before
+the mouth of the nest. Though I moved up to within twenty feet of the
+nest, she paid no attention to me but hurried in. She liked the cotton
+so well she stopped in her hallway, reached up to pull at the white
+bundles, and tweaked and tugged till, finally, she backed triumphantly
+down the hole with one.
+
+Her mate, less familiar with my experiments, started to go to the nest
+after her, but the sight of the cotton scared him so he fled
+ignominiously back into the treetop. He stayed there singing till she
+came out, when he flew up to her with a dainty he had discovered--at
+least the two put their bills together; perhaps it was just a caress,
+for they were a tender, gentle little pair.
+
+Having proved that my bird liked feathers and cotton, I wanted to see
+what she thought of straws. Apparently she did not think much of them.
+She looked very much dashed when she came home and found the yellow
+sticks protruding from the nest hole. She hesitated, turned her head
+over, flew to a twig on one side of the oak and then back to one on the
+other side. Finally she mustered courage, and with her crest flattened
+as if she did not like it, darted down into the hole. When she flew out,
+however, she went right to her mate, and forgetting all her troubles at
+sight of him, fluttered her wings and lisped like a young bird as she
+put up her bill to have him feed her.
+
+Perhaps it was unkind to bother the poor bird any more, but I meant her
+no harm and the fever for experiment possessed my blood. I tied some of
+the straws to a piece of wicking and baited it with feathers, thinking
+that perhaps she would take the straws for the sake of the feathers and
+wicking. I also stuffed the hole with horsehair. She did pull at the
+feather end of the line; I saw the straw jerk, and, when she had left,
+found a round hole the brave little bird had made right through the
+middle of the mat of horsehair I had stopped the nest with.
+
+Straws and horsehair the titmouse evidently classed together. They were
+not on her list of building materials. On reflection she decided that
+the horsehair would make a good hall carpet, so left it in the
+vestibule, though she would have none of it down in her nest; but she
+calmly threw my straws down on the ground at the foot of the oak.
+
+I don't know what experiments I might have been tempted to try next had
+I not suddenly found myself dismissed--the house was complete. My pretty
+Quaker lady sat in the shade of the oak leaves with crest raised and the
+flickering sunlight flecking her gray breast. She pecked softly at one
+of the white feathers that blew up against her as she listened to the
+song of her mate; and then flew away to him without once going to the
+nest. Evidently her work was done, and she was waiting till it should be
+time to begin brooding.
+
+Ten days later I saw her mate come with his bill full of worms and lean
+down by the hole to call her. She answered with a sweet pleading
+twitter, and reached up to be fed. When he had gone, perhaps she thought
+she would like a second bite. At any rate, she hopped out in the doorway
+and flew off to another tree, calling out _tsché-de-de_ so sweetly he
+would surely have come back to her had he been within hearing.
+
+A few days later I saw him feed her at the nest five or six times in
+half an hour. He would come to the next oak, light and call to her, when
+she would answer from inside the tree trunk and he would go to her. I
+was near enough to see her pretty gray head and black eyes coming up out
+of the crack in the oak. Sometimes when he had fed her he would call out
+and she would answer as if saying good-by from down in the nest. One
+morning I found the devoted little mate bringing her breakfast to her at
+half past six.
+
+Nearly a month later they were feeding their young. The winsome mother
+bird, who had looked so tired and nest-worn the last time I saw her, was
+now as plump and happy as her spouse. When I thought the pair were away,
+I went to try to get sight of the nestlings down the hole. The old birds
+appeared as soon as I set foot by the oak and took upon themselves to
+scold me. They chattered softly in a way they had never done before.
+They quickly got used to me again, however, and fed the little ones
+without hesitation right before me, knowing full well that a person who
+had helped them build their nest would never harm their little brood;
+and it was a disappointment when I had to go away and leave the winning
+family.
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+IN OUR NEIGHBOR'S DOOR-YARD.
+
+
+THE little German girl with the scarlet pinafore was a near neighbor,
+living at the head of the valley in a cottage surrounded by great
+live-oaks. These trees were alive with birds. Bush-tits flew back and
+forth, busily hanging their gray pockets among the leafy folds of the
+drooping branches; blue jays flew through, squawking on their way to the
+brush; goldfinches, building in the orchard, lisped sweetly as they
+rested in the oaks; and a handsome oriole who was building in the grove
+flew overhead so slowly he seemed to be retarded by the fullness of his
+own sweet song. But I had become so fond of the gentle gray titmouse
+whose nest I had helped to build, that of all the bird songs in the
+trees, its cheery _tu-whit', tu-whit', tu-whit'_ was most enticing to
+me. How delightful it would be to watch another pair of the winning
+workers! I did see one of the birds enter a hollow branch, one day, and
+not long after saw it go down a hole in an oak trunk; but never saw it
+afterwards in either place. Back and forth I followed that elusive
+voice, hoping to discover the nest, but I suspect the bird was only
+prospecting, and had not even begun to work.
+
+The little German Gretchen became interested in the search for the
+titmouse's nest, and told me that a gray bird had built in an oak in
+front of her house. I rode right over to see it, but found the gray bird
+a female Mexican bluebird, whose brilliant ultramarine mate sat on the
+fence of the vegetable garden in plain sight. The children kept better
+watch of the nest after that, and a few days later, when in my attic
+study, I heard the tramp of a horse, and, looking out, found my little
+friend under the window, come to tell me that the eggs had hatched. When
+her older sister came for the washing I asked her if she had seen the
+old birds go to the nest, and she said, "Yes; one was blue and the other
+gray."
+
+When I rode up again, the young had grown so that from the saddle I
+could look down the hole and see their big mouths and bristling
+pin-feathers. The mother bird was about the tree, and her soft dull
+coloring toned in well with the gray bark. The bluebirds had a double
+front door, and went in one side to come out the other. I saw both of
+them feed the young, the male flying into the hole straight from the
+fence post.
+
+It seemed such hard work finding worms out in the hot sun that I
+wondered if birds' eyes ever ached from the intentness of their search,
+and if there were near-sighted birds. Perhaps the intervals of feeding
+depend on the worm supply rather than the dietary principles of the
+parents.
+
+Gretchen's mother was bending over her wash-tubs out under the oaks, and
+I called her attention to the pretty birds brooding in her door-yard,
+telling her that they were good friends of hers, eating up the worms
+that destroyed her flowers and vegetables. "So?" she asked, but seemed
+ready to let the subject drop there, and hurried back to her work. A
+poor widow with a large family of children and a ranch to look after can
+find little time, even in beautiful California, to enjoy what Nature
+places in her door-yard.
+
+Three weeks later Gretchen came riding down to tell me that there were
+eggs in the tree again. The bluebird bid fair to be as hardworked as the
+widow, at that rate, I thought, when I went up to look at them. The
+children showed me the nest of a goldfinch, near the ground, in one of
+the little orange-trees in front of the house. They also pointed out
+linnets' nests in the vines by the door, and the oldest child said
+eagerly, "When we came home from school there was a hummingbird in the
+window, and we caught it," adding, "I think it must have been a father
+hummingbird." "Why?" I asked, "was it pretty?" "Yes, it just shined,"
+she exclaimed enthusiastically.
+
+When the family were at home, their puppy would bark at us furiously,
+and follow us about suspiciously, but when he had been left on the
+ranch alone he was glad of our society. Then when I watched the
+bluebirds, he came and curled down by my side, becoming so friendly that
+he actually grew jealous of Billy, and turned to have me caress him each
+time that the little horse walked up to have the flies brushed off his
+nose, or having pulled up a bunch of grass by the roots, brought it for
+me to hold so that he could eat it without getting the dirt in his
+mouth.
+
+Going home one day, Billy came upon a gopher snake. Now Canello had been
+brought up in a rattlesnake country, and was always on his guard, but
+Billy was 'raised' in the mountains, where snakes are scarce, and did
+not seem to know what they were. He had given me a good deal of anxiety
+by this indifference--he had stepped over a big one once without seeing
+any need for haste--and I had been expecting that he would get bitten.
+Here, then, was my chance to give him a scare. The gopher snake was
+harmless; perhaps, if I could get him so close to it that he would see
+it wriggle away from under his feet, he might be less indifferent to
+rattlers.
+
+The gopher snake was three or four feet long, and lay as straight as a
+stick across our path. As I urged Billy up beside it, he actually
+stepped on the tip of its tail. The poor snake writhed a little, but
+gave no other sign of pain; its rôle was to remain a stick. And Billy
+certainly acted as if it were. I threw the reins on his neck, thinking
+that if he put his head down to graze he might make a discovery. Then a
+horrid thought came to me. The people said the rattlers sometimes lost
+their rattles. In a general way, rattlers and gopher snakes look alike;
+what if this were a rattlesnake, and at my bidding my little horse
+should be struck! But no. There was no mistaking the long tapering body
+of the gopher, and it lacked the wide flat head of the rattler. But I
+might have spared myself my fears. Billy would not even put his head
+down, and when I tried to force him upon the snake he quietly turned
+aside. To make the snake move, I threw a stick at it, but it was as
+obstinate as Billy himself. Then I slipped to the ground, and picking up
+a long pole gave it a gingerly little poke. Still motionless! I tried
+another plan, taking Billy away a few yards. Then at last the snake
+slowly pulled itself along. But the moment we came back it turned into a
+stick again, and Billy relapsed into indifference. It was no use. I
+could do nothing with either of them. I would see the snake go off,
+anyway, I thought, so withdrew and waited till it felt reassured, when
+it started. Its silken skin shone as it wormed silently through the
+grass and disappeared down a hole without a sound, and I reflected that
+it might also come _up_ without a sound, very likely beside me as I sat
+on the dead leaves!
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+WHICH WAS THE MOTHER BIRD?
+
+
+THE second time I went to California the little whitewashed adobe
+opposite my ranch was still standing, but an acacia-tree had grown over
+the well where the black ph[oe]be had nested, and the shaft was so
+overrun with bushes and vines that it was hard to find a trace of it.
+Drawn by pleasant memories, I rode in one morning, sure of finding
+something interesting about the old place.
+
+I had not waited long before the chip of a young bird came from the
+vines over the well. It proved a callow nestling, with no tail, and
+little to mark its parentage. Presently a brown long-tailed wren-tit
+came with food in its bill and peered down through the leaves at it; and
+then a California towhee came and sat around till satisfied as to whose
+child was crying. A moment later a lazuli bunting flew over with food in
+her bill, and I at once bethought me of the lazuli-like markings, the
+brownish wing-bars and the sharp cry of "quit," which none but a lazuli
+could give. That surely was my bird.
+
+But if so, what did this interest on the part of the wren-tit mean? She
+hopped about the nestling with tail up and crest raised, chattering to
+it in low mysterious tones; and when I suspected her of giving her worm
+to it, suddenly turned her head and looked away with a suspiciously
+non-committal air. The lazuli, however, sat indifferently on a branch
+and plumed her feathers, though when she did fly down toward the young
+one, the wren-tit gave way. But even then the lazuli did not feed the
+small bird. When she had gone, the wren-tit came back. She spoke low to
+the nestling, and drew it down into the thick part of the tangle where I
+could not see them, though there was a hint of tiny quivering wings, and
+I was morally certain that the old bird was feeding it, especially when
+she flew up in sight with the smart air of having outwitted me.
+
+I was getting more and more bewildered. What did it all mean? Were there
+two families of young down in the tangle? If not, why were two old birds
+feeding one little one, and to which mother did the child belong? The
+wisdom of Solomon was needed to solve the riddle.
+
+The wren-tit simply devoted herself to the little bird, going and coming
+for it constantly; while the lazuli, ordinarily the most nervous noisy
+bird when her young are disturbed, sat around silently, or flew away
+without remark. I became so impressed by the wren-tit side of the case
+that I quite forgot the lazuli note and markings.
+
+Just as I thought I had come to a decision in the case, a male lazuli
+flew in, lighting atilt of an acacia stalk opposite the wren-tit. But
+when he saw me he craned his neck and flew off in a hurry--no father,
+surely, scared away at the first glimpse of me! However, I was not clear
+in my mind, and sat down to puzzle the matter out.
+
+At this juncture Madame Lazuli came with food; the young bird turned
+toward her for it, and behold! she took to her wings with all she had
+brought. I had hardly time to congratulate myself on this new piece of
+testimony, when back came the lazuli with her bill full!
+
+In my perplexity I moved so near the little one that, without meaning
+to, I forced the old birds to show their true colors. The situation was
+too dangerous to admit of further subterfuge. Both Madame Lazuli and her
+handsome blue mate--whom I discovered at a safe distance up on a high
+branch out of reach--flew down and dashed about, twitching their tails
+from side to side as they cried "quit," in nervous tones; altogether
+acting so much like anxious parents that I had to relinquish my theory
+that the little bird belonged to the wren-tit. Like the mother whom
+Solomon judged, she forgot all else when real danger threatened the
+child. Having come to my decision from circumstantial evidence, I
+remembered with a start that I had known it all the time, from the
+wing-bars and the call note! Nevertheless, my riddle was only half
+solved, for how about the wren-tit?
+
+A young bird called from the sycamore at the corner of the adobe, and
+when both old birds flew over to it, I thought I'd better follow. I got
+there just in time to see a little bird light in the elbow of a limb,
+totter as if going to fall, and save itself by snuggling up in the
+elbow, where it sat in the sun looking very cozy and comfortable--winning
+little tot. The mother lazuli started to come to it, but seeing me flew
+away to another branch, where, well screened, she stretched up on her
+toes to look at me over the top of a big sycamore leaf. Though the
+fledgling called, the mother left without going to it.
+
+The wren-tit had stayed behind at the well; but while the lazuli was
+gone, who should come flying in but the foster mother! I was astonished.
+Moreover, the instant the youngster set eyes on her, it started up and
+flew to her--actually flew into her in its hurry. She admonished it
+gently, in a soft chattering voice, for she could not scold it.
+
+When the lazuli came back with food, it was only to see her little bird
+flying off to the other side of the tree after the wren-tit! I thought
+she seemed bewildered, but she followed in their wake--we all followed.
+Here came a closer test. Both lazuli and wren-tit stood before the small
+bird. Which would it go to? The lazuli kept silent, but the wren-tit
+called softly and the little one raised its wings and flew toward her,
+leaving its mother behind.
+
+I watched and waited, but the wren-tit did not give over her kind
+offices, and the last I saw of the birds, on riding away, the three were
+flying in procession across the brush, the lazuli following its mother
+and the wren-tit bringing up the rear.
+
+I went home very much puzzled. Was the wren-tit a lonely mother bird who
+had lost her own little ones, or was she merely an old maid with a warm
+spot in her heart for other peoples' little folks?
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.
+
+A RARE BIRD.
+
+
+WE may say that we care naught for the world and its ways, but most of
+us are more or less tricked by the high-sounding titles of the mighty.
+Even plain-thinking observers come under the same curse of Adam, and,
+like the snobs who turn scornfully from Mr. Jones to hang upon the words
+of Lord Higginbottom, will pass by a plain _brown chippie_ to study with
+enthusiasm the ways of a _phainopepla_! Sometimes, however, in
+ornithology as in the world, a name does cover more than its letters,
+and we are duped into making some interesting discoveries as well as
+learning some of the important lessons in life. In the case of the
+phainopepla, no hopes that could be raised by his cognomen would equal
+the rare pleasure afforded by a study of his unusual ways.
+
+[Illustration: THE PHAINOPEPLAS ON THE PEPPER-TREE]
+
+On my first visit to Twin Oaks I caught but brief glimpses of this
+distinguished bird. Sometimes for a moment he lit on a bare limb and I
+had a chance to admire his high black crest and glossy blue-black coat,
+which with one more touch of color would become iridescent. He was so
+slenderly formed, and his shining coat was so smooth and trim, he
+made me think of a bird of glass perched on a tree. But while I gazed at
+him he would launch into the air and wing his way high over the valley
+to the hillsides beyond, leaving me to marvel at the white disks on his
+wings, hidden when perching, but in air making him suggest a black ship
+with white sails.
+
+His appearance was so elegant and his ways so unusual that I went back
+East regretting I had not given more time to a bird who was so
+individual, and resolved that if I ever returned to California my first
+pleasure should be to study him. When the time finally came, an
+ornithologist friend who knew my plans wrote, exclaiming, "Do study the
+phainopeplas!" and added that she felt like making a journey to
+California to see that one bird.
+
+From the middle of March till the middle of May I watched and waited for
+the phainopeplas. There had been only a few of the birds before, and I
+began to fear they had left the valley. When despairing of them,
+suddenly one day I saw a black speck cross over to the hills. I wanted
+to drop my work and follow, but went on with my rounds, and one bright
+morning on my way home after a discouraging hunt for nests, a pair of
+phainopeplas flew up right before my eyes almost within sight of the
+house. I dropped down behind a bush, and in a moment more the birds flew
+to a little oak by the road--a tree I had been sitting under that very
+morning! The female seated herself on top of the oak, watching me with
+raised crest, while her mate disappeared in a dark mat of leaves,
+probably mistletoe, where he stayed so long that the possibility of a
+nest waxed to a probability, and I made a rapid but ecstatic ascent to
+the observer's seventh heaven. A phainopepla's nest right on my own
+doorsill! I could hardly restrain my impatience, and was tempted to shoo
+the birds away so I could go to the nest; when suddenly they opened
+their wings and, crossing the valley, disappeared up a side canyon!
+Pulling myself together and reflecting that I might have known better
+than to imagine there would be a nest so near home, I took up my
+camp-stool and trudged back to the house.
+
+After that came a number of tantalizing hints. When watching the third
+gnatcatcher's nest I had seen a pair of phainopeplas flying suggestively
+back and forth from the brush to the various oaks, and thought the
+handsome lover fed his mate as his relative the gentle high-bred waxwing
+does. Surely the wooing of these beautiful birds should be carried on
+with no less fine feeling, courtesy, and tenderness; and so it seems to
+be. The black knight flew low over my head slowly, as if inspecting me,
+and then came again with his lady, as if having said, "Dear one, I would
+consult you upon this impending danger."
+
+After that, something really delightful came about. Day by day, on
+riding back to our ranch-house, I found phainopeplas there eating the
+berries of the pepper-trees in our front yard. Before long the birds
+began coming early in the morning; their voices were the first sounds we
+heard on awakening and almost the last at night, and soon we realized
+the delightful fact that our trees had become the feeding ground for all
+the phainopeplas of the valley. Altogether there were five or six pairs.
+It was a pretty sight to see the black satiny birds perched on one of
+the delicate sprays of the willowy pepper-trees, hanging over the
+grape-like clusters, to pluck the small pink berries. The birds soon
+grew very friendly, and, though they gave a cry of warning when the cats
+appeared, became so tame they would answer my calls and let me watch
+them from the piazza steps, not a rod away.
+
+When they first began to linger about the house we thought they were
+building near, and when one flew into an oak across the road, almost
+gave me palpitation of the heart by the suggestion. But no nest was
+there, and when the bird flew away it rose obliquely into the air
+perhaps a hundred feet, and then flew on evenly straight across to the
+small oaks on the farther side of a patch of brush that remained in the
+centre of the valley, known to the ranchmen as the 'Island.' The flight
+looked so premeditated that the first thing the next morning, although
+the phainopeplas were at the peppers, I rode on ahead to wait for them
+at their nest. We had not been there long before hearing the familiar
+warning call. Turning Billy in the direction of the sound, I threw his
+reins on his neck to induce him to graze along the way and give our
+presence a more casual air, while I looked up indifferently as if to
+survey the landscape. To my delight the phainopepla did not seem greatly
+alarmed, and, throwing off the assumed indifference that always makes an
+observer feel like a wretched hypocrite, I called and whistled to him as
+I had done at the house, to let him know that it was a familiar friend
+and he had nothing to fear. The beautiful bird started toward me, but on
+second thought retreated. I turned my back, but, to my chagrin, after
+giving a few low warning calls, my bird vanished. Alas, for the
+generations of murderers that have made birds distrust their best
+friends--that make honest observers tremble for what may befall the
+birds if they put trust in but one of the human species!
+
+[Illustration: THE PHAINOPEPLA'S NEST IN THE OAK BRUSH ISLAND]
+
+It was plain that if I would get a study of these rare birds I must make
+a business of it. Slipping from the saddle, I sat down behind a bush and
+waited. When the bird came back and found the place apparently deserted,
+to my relief he seated himself on a twig and sang away as if nothing had
+disturbed his serenity of spirit. But presently the warning call sounded
+again. This time it was for a schoolgirl who had staked out her horse
+on the edge of the island and was crossing over to the schoolhouse. A
+few moments later the bell rang out so loudly that Billy stepped around
+his oak with animation, but the phainopeplas were used to it and showed
+no uneasiness.
+
+Before long a flash of white announced a second bird, and then, after a
+long interval in which nothing happened, the male pitched into a bush
+with beak bristling with building material! My delight knew no bounds.
+Instead of nesting in the top of an oak in a remote canyon, as I had
+been assured the shy birds would do, here they were building in a low
+oak not more than an eighth of a mile from the house, and in plain
+sight. Moreover, they were birds who knew me at home, and so would
+really be much less afraid than strangers, whatever airs they assumed.
+In the photograph, the bare twigs of the perch tree show above the line
+of the horizon; the nest tree is the low oak beside it on the right. One
+thing puzzled me from the outset. While the male worked on the nest, the
+female sat on the outside circle of brush as if having nothing to do, in
+spite of the fact that her gray dress toned in so well with the brush
+that she was quite inconspicuous, while his shining black coat made him
+a clear mark from a distance. What did it mean? I invented all sorts of
+fancies to account for it. Had she been to the pepper-trees so much
+less than he that she was over-troubled by my presence, and therefore
+the gallant black knight who sang to her so sweetly and was so tender of
+her, seeing her fears, took the work upon himself? Perchance he had
+said, "If you are timid, my love, I will build for you while she is by,
+for I would not have you come near if it would disquiet you."
+
+In any event, he built away quite unconcernedly not three rods from
+where I sat on the ground staring at him. He would fly to the earth for
+material, but return to the nest from above, pitching down to it as if
+having nothing to hide. Once, when resting, he perched on the tree, and
+I talked to him quite freely. That noon the phainopeplas were at the
+house before me, and I went out to talk to them while they lunched to
+let them know it was only I who had visited their nest, so they would
+have new confidence on the morrow.
+
+But on the morrow they flew to another part of the island, and when we
+followed, although I hitched Billy farther away from the nest tree and
+sat quietly behind a brush screen, they did not come back. A brown
+chippie plumed his feathers unrebuked in their oak, making the place
+seem more deserted than before. A lizard ran out from the grape cuttings
+at my feet, and a little black and white mephitis cantered along over
+the ground with his back arched and his head down. He nosed around under
+the bushes, showing the white V on his back, exactly like that of our
+eastern species. As I rode home, five turkey buzzards were flying low
+over the edge of the island, and one vulture rose from a meal of one of
+the little black and white animal's relatives, but I saw nothing more of
+my birds that day.
+
+The next day the phainopeplas came again to the pepper-trees and ate
+their fill while I sat on the steps watching. The male was quite
+unconcerned, but when his mate flew near me, he called out sharply; he
+could risk his own life, but not that of his love. Again the pair flew
+back to the high oaks on the far side of the island. All my hopes of the
+first low inaccessible nest vanished. I had driven the birds away. My
+intrusiveness had made me lose the best chance of the whole nesting
+season. But I would try to follow them. It did not seem necessary to
+take Billy. There were only a few trees on that side of the island, and
+it would be a simple matter to locate the birds. I would walk over, find
+in which tree they were building, and spend the morning with them. I
+went. Each oak was encircled by a thick wall of brush, over which it was
+almost impossible to see more than a fraction of the tree, and the high
+oak tops were impenetrable to eye and glass. After chasing phantoms all
+the afternoon I went home with renewed respect for Billy as an adjunct
+to field work. In order to locate anything in chaparral, one must be
+high enough to overlook the mass.
+
+That afternoon I saw a pair of phainopeplas fly up a canyon on the east,
+and another pair fly up another on the west. If I were to know anything
+of these birds, I must not be balked by faulty observing; I must at
+least do intelligent work. Riding in from the back and tying Billy out
+of sight away from the old nest, I swung myself up into a crotch of a
+low oak from which I could overlook the whole island. The phainopeplas
+soon flew in, but to the opposite side, and I was condemning myself for
+having driven them away when, to my amazement, the male flew over and
+shot down into the little oak where he had been building before! My
+self-reproach took a different form--I had not been patient enough.
+Surely if I could wait an hour for an ordinary hummingbird, I could wait
+a morning for an absent phainopepla.
+
+From the nest the beautiful bird flew to the bare oak top behind it
+which he used for a perch, and--alas! gave his warning call. I was
+discovered. He dashed his tail, turned his head to look at me first from
+one side and then from the other, and then flew to the top of the
+highest tree in sight to verify his observations. Whether he recognized
+the object as his pepper-tree acquaintance, I do not know; but to my
+great relief he went back to his work. By this time the little tree
+which had seemed such a comfortable chair had undergone a change--I felt
+as if stretched upon the gridiron of St. Anthony. Climbing down stiffly,
+I kneeled behind the brush and practiced focusing my glass on the nest
+so that it would not catch the light and frighten the bird, when out he
+flew from the nest and sat down facing me in broad daylight! He did not
+say a word, but looked around abstractedly, as if hunting for material.
+
+If he were so indifferent, perhaps it would be safe to creep nearer.
+Following the paths trodden by the bare feet of the school children, and
+spying and skulking, I crept into a good hiding-place about a rod from
+the nest. The ground was covered with dead leaves, and I saw a
+suggestive round hole--a very large rattlesnake had been killed a few
+rods away the week before. I covered the hole with my cloak and then sat
+down on the lid--nothing could come up while I was there, at all events.
+
+The phainopepla worked busily for some time, flying rapidly back and
+forth with material. Then came the warning cry. I drew in my note-book
+from the sun so that it should not catch his eye, and waited. The hot
+air grew hotter, beating down on my head. A big lizard wriggled over the
+leaves, and I thought of my rattlesnake. Then Billy sneezed in a forced
+way, as though to remind me not to go off without him. Growing
+restless, I moved the bushes a little--they were so stiff they made a
+very good chair-back if one got into the right position--when suddenly,
+looking up I saw my phainopepla friend vault into the air from a bush
+behind me, where, apparently, he had been sitting taking notes of his
+own! What observers birds are, to be sure! The best of us have much to
+learn from them.
+
+But though the phainopepla was most watchful, he was open to conviction,
+and he and his mate at last concluded that I meant them no harm.
+Afterwards, when I moved, they both came and looked at me, but went
+about their business quite unmindful of me.
+
+As I had seen from the outset, the male did almost all the building.
+When his spouse came in sight he burst out into a tender joyous love
+song. She went to the nest now and again, but generally when she came it
+was to sun herself on the bare perch tree, where she dressed her plumes
+or merely sat with crest raised and her soft gray feathers fluffed about
+her feet, while waiting for her mate to get leisure to take a run with
+her.
+
+When he had finished his stint and she was not about, he would take his
+turn on the perch tree, his handsome glossy black coat shining in the
+sun. If an unwitting neighbor lit on his tree he would flatten his
+crest and dash down indignantly, but for the most part he perched
+quietly except to make short sallies into the air for insects, sometimes
+singing as he went; or he just warbled to himself contentedly, what
+sounded like the chattering run of a swallow on the wing. One day we had
+quite a conversation. His simplest call note was like the call of a
+young robin, and while I answered him he gave his note seventeen times
+in one minute, and eleven times in the next half minute.
+
+The birds had a great variety of calls and songs, most of which were
+vivacious and cheering and seemed attuned to the warmth and brightness
+of the California sunshine. The quality of the love song was rich and
+flute-like.
+
+The male phainopepla seemed to enjoy life in general and his work in
+particular. He frequently sang to himself when going for material; and
+once, apparently, when on the nest. When he was building I could see his
+black head move about between the leaves. Like the gnatcatchers, he used
+only fine bits of material, but he did not drill them in as they did. He
+merely laid them in, or at most wove them in gently. Now and then, as
+the black head moved in front, the black tail would tilt up behind at
+the back of the nest as if the bird were moulding; but there was
+comparatively little of that. When completed, the nest was a soft felty
+structure.
+
+When working, the male would fly back and forth from the ground to the
+nest, carrying his bits of plant stem, oak blossom, and other fine
+stuff. He worked so rapidly that it kept me busy recording his visits.
+He once went to the nest four times in four minutes; at another time,
+seventeen times in a little over an hour. Sometimes he stayed only half
+a minute; when he stayed three minutes, it was so unusual that I
+recorded it. He worked spasmodically, however. One day he came seventeen
+times in one hour, but during the next half hour came only five times.
+The birds seemed to divide their mornings into quite regular periods.
+When I awoke at half past five I would hear them at the pepper-trees
+breakfasting; and some of them were generally there as late as eight
+o'clock. From eight to ten they worked with a will, though the visits
+usually fell off after half past nine. It was when working in this more
+deliberate way that the male would go to his perch on an adjoining tree
+and preen himself, catch flies, or sing between his visits. Once he sat
+on the limb in front of the nest for nearly ten minutes. By ten o'clock
+I found that I might as well go to watch other birds, as little would be
+going on with the phainopeplas; and they often flew off for a lunch of
+peppers.
+
+Just as the island nest was about done--it was destroyed! I found it on
+the ground under the tree. For a time I felt as if no nests could come
+to anything; the number that had been destroyed during the season was
+disheartening. It seemed as though I no sooner got interested in a
+little family than its home was broken up. Sometimes I wondered how a
+bird ever had courage to start a nest.
+
+But though it was hard to reconcile myself to the destruction of the
+phainopeplas' nest, I found others later. Altogether, I saw three pairs
+of birds building, and in each case the male was doing most of the work.
+Two of the nests I watched closely, watch and note-book in hand, in
+order to determine the exact proportion of work done by each bird. One
+nest was watched two hours and a half, during a period of five days, in
+which time the male went to the nest twenty-seven times, the female,
+only three. The other nest was watched seven hours and thirty-five
+minutes, during a period of ten days, in which time the male was at the
+nest fifty-seven times; the female, only eight. Taking the total for the
+two nests: in ten hours and five minutes the male went to the nest
+eighty-four times; the female, eleven. That is to say, the females made
+only thirteen per cent of the visits. In reality, although they went to
+the nest eleven times, the ratio of work might safely be reduced still
+further; for in watching them I was convinced that, as a rule, they came
+to the nest, not to build, but to inspect the building done by their
+mates. Indeed, at one nest, I saw nothing to make me suspect that the
+female did any of the work. Her coming was usually welcomed by a joyous
+song, but once the evidence seemed to prove that she was driven away;
+perhaps she was too free with her criticisms! In another case the work
+was sadly interrupted by the presence of the visitor, for while she sat
+in the nest her excited mate flew back and forth as if he had quite
+forgotten the business in hand. Perhaps he was nervous, and wanted to
+make sure what she was doing in the new house!
+
+In several instances I found that while the males were at work building,
+the females went off by themselves. Once I saw Madame Phainopepla bring
+her friend home with her. No sooner had the visitor lit than--shocking
+to relate--the lord of the house left his work and drove her off with
+bill and claw--a polite way to treat his lady's friends, surely! On one
+occasion, when I looked up I saw a procession passing overhead--two
+females followed by a male. The male flew hesitatingly, as if troubled
+by his conscience, and then, deciding that if the nest was ever going to
+be built he had better keep at it, turned around and came back to work.
+One day when I rode over to the chaparral island, I found two of the
+males sitting around in the brush. They played tag until tired, and then
+perched on a branch in the sun, side by side, evidently enjoying
+themselves like light-hearted, care-free bachelors. Their mates were
+not in sight. But suddenly I glanced up and saw two females flying in to
+the island high overhead, as if coming from a distance. Instantly the
+indifferent holiday air of their mates vanished. They gave their low
+warning calls, for I was on the ground and they must not show me their
+nests. In answer to the warning the females wavered, and then, when
+their mates joined them, all four flew away together.
+
+At other times when I rode in the males would make large circles,
+seventy-five feet above me, as if to get a clear understanding of the
+impending danger. This was when small nest hunters were about, and the
+birds were some whose nests I did not find, and who had no opportunity
+to become convinced of my good intentions.
+
+After finding that the males did most of the building, I was anxious to
+see how it would be when the brooding began. Three of my nests were
+broken up beforehand, however, and the fourth was despoiled after I had
+watched the birds on the nest one day. Nevertheless, the evidence of
+that day was most interesting as far as it went. It proved that while
+the female lacked the architect's instinct, she was not without the
+maternal instinct. There were two eggs in the nest, and in the one hour
+that I watched, each bird brooded the eggs six times. Before this, the
+female had been to the nest so much less than the male that now she was
+much shyer; but although Billy frightened her by tramping down the brush
+near by, it was she who first overcame her fears and went to cover the
+eggs.
+
+
+
+
+XIX.
+
+MY BLUE GUM GROVE.
+
+
+ONE of the first things I did on getting settled on my ranch, the second
+time I was in California, was to get a wagon and go down to my
+eucalyptus grove for a load of the pale green aromatic boughs with which
+to trim my attic study; for their fragrance is delightful and their
+delicate blue-green tone lends itself readily to decorative purposes.
+When the supply needed replenishing, I rode down on Mountain Billy and
+carried home the sweet-smelling branches on the saddle.
+
+The grove served a more utilitarian purpose, however. The eucalyptus is
+an Australian tree, with narrow straight-hanging leaves, and its rapid
+growth makes it useful for firewood. A tree will grow forty feet in four
+years, and when cut off a few feet above the ground will spring up again
+and soon be ready to yield another crop. My grove had never been cut,
+but would soon be old enough. In the photograph of a eucalyptus avenue
+near Los Angeles, the row of trees on the right have been cut near the
+ground and the branching trunks are the consequence.
+
+[Illustration: EUCALYPTUS AVENUE, SHOWING POLLARDED TREES ON THE RIGHT,
+NEAR LOS ANGELES]
+
+My eucalyptus or blue gum grove was down near the big sycamore, and
+opposite the bare knoll where Romulus and the burrowing owls had their
+nightly battles. On one side of it was a rustling cornfield always
+pleasant to look at. After the bare yellow stubble and all the reds and
+browns of a California summer landscape, its rich dark green color and
+its stanch, strong stalks made it seem a very plain honest sort of
+field, and its greenness was most grateful to eyes unused to the bright
+colors and strong lights of California.
+
+Opposite the little grove, in a small house perched on a hill, an old
+sea-captain lived alone. As I rode by one day, he sat with his feet
+hanging over the edge of the high piazza, looking off; as if on the prow
+of his vessel, gazing out to sea. When I stopped to ask if he had seen
+anything noteworthy happen at the grove, he complained that it shut off
+his view and kept away the breeze from the ocean! I was too much taken
+by surprise to apologize for my trees, but felt reproached; unwittingly
+I had destroyed the old captain's choicest pleasure. He had spoken in an
+impersonal way that I quite understood,--he had been taken
+unawares,--but the next time I rode past, as if to make up for any
+apparent rudeness, he came hurrying down the walk to tell me of a crow's
+nest he had seen in the grove. To mark it he had fastened a piece of
+paper to the wire fence by the road, and another paper to the nest tree,
+binding it on with a eucalyptus twig in true sailor fashion.
+
+It was always a relief to leave the hot beating sun and the glare of the
+yellow fields and enter the cool shade of the quiet grove. I could let
+down the fence and put it up behind me; thus having my small forest all
+to myself; and used to enjoy riding up and down the fragrant blue
+avenues. The eucalyptus-trees, although thirty or forty feet high, were
+lithe and slender; some of them could be spanned by the hands. The rows
+were planted ten feet apart, but the long branches interlaced, so one
+had to be on the alert, in riding down the lines, to bend low on the
+saddle or push aside the branches that obstructed the way. The limbs
+were so slender and flexible that a touch was enough to bend back a
+green gate fifteen to twenty feet long, and Billy often pushed a branch
+aside with his nose. In places, fallen trees barred our path, but Billy
+used to step carefully over them.
+
+The eucalyptus-trees change very curiously as they grow old. When young
+they are covered with branches low to the ground, and their aromatic
+tender leaves are light bluish green; afterwards they lose their lower
+branches, while their leaves become stiff and sickle-shaped, dull green
+and almost odorless. The same changes are seen in the bark: first the
+trunks are smooth and green; then they are hung with shaggy shreds of
+bark; this in turn drops off so that the old trees are smooth again.
+Some of the young shoots have almost white stems, and their leaves have
+a pinkish tinge. Indeed, a young blue gum is as pretty a sight as one
+often sees; it is a tree of exquisite delicacy of coloring.
+
+[Illustration: EUCALYPTUS WOOD STORED FOR MARKET, IN A EUCALYPTUS GROVE
+NEAR LOS ANGELES]
+
+Mountain Billy and I both liked to wander among the blue gums. Billy
+liked it, perhaps, for association's sake, for we had ridden through the
+eucalyptus at his home in northern California. I too had pleasant
+memories of the northern gums, but my first interest was in finding out
+who lived in my little woods. A dog had once been seen driving a coyote
+wolf out of it, but that was merely in passing. I did not expect to meet
+wolves there. It was said, however, to be a good place for tarantulas,
+so at first I stepped over the dead leaf carpet with great caution; but
+never seeing any of the big spiders, grew brave and sat indifferently
+right on the ground before the nests, or leaning up against the trees.
+The ground was almost as hard as a rock, for the eucalyptus absorbed all
+the moisture, and that may have had something to do with its freedom
+from snakes and scorpions, though it would not explain the absence of
+caterpillars and spiders, which just then were so common outside. Though
+in the grove a great deal, I never ran into but one cobweb, and was
+conscious of the pleasant freedom from falling caterpillars. Moreover, I
+never saw a lizard in the blue gums, though dozens of them were to be
+seen about the oaks and in the brush.
+
+It was a surprise to find so many feathered folks living in the
+eucalyptus, and I took a personal interest in each one of the
+inhabitants. The first time we started to go up and down the avenues we
+scared up a pair of turtle doves, beautiful, delicately tinted gentle
+creatures, fit tenants of the lovely grove. They did not know my
+friendly interest in them, and flew to the ground trailing and trying to
+decoy me away in such a marked manner that when we passed a young dove a
+few yards farther on, it was easy to put two and two together.
+
+Yellow-birds called _cheet'-tee, ca-cheet'-ta-tee_, and the grove became
+musical with the sweet calls of the young brood. There was one nest with
+a roof of shaggy bark, and I wondered if the birds thought it would be
+pleasant to live under a roof, or whether the bark had fallen down on
+them after they built. I could get no trace of the owners of the nest,
+and it troubled me, not liking to have any little homes in my wood that
+I did not know all about. As we went down one aisle, a big bird went
+blundering out ahead of us, probably an owl, for afterwards we stumbled
+on a skeleton and feathers of one of the family.
+
+In one of the trees we came to an enormous nest made of the unusual
+materials that are sometimes chosen by that strange bird, the
+road-runner. It was an exciting discovery, for that was before the
+road-runner had come to the ranch-house, and I had been pursuing phantom
+runners over the hills in the vain attempt to learn something about
+them; while here, it seemed, one had been living under my very vine and
+fig-tree! To make sure about the nest, I spoke to my neighbor ranchman,
+and he told me that when he had been milking during the spring he had
+often seen the birds come out of the blue gums, and had also seen them
+perching there on the trees. How exasperating! If I had only come
+earlier! Now they had gone, and my chance of a nest study was lost.
+
+But my doll was not stuffed with sawdust, for all of that. There was
+still much to enjoy, for a mourning dove flew from her nest of twigs
+almost over Billy's head, and it made me quite happy to know that the
+gentle bird was brooding her eggs in my woods. Then it was delightful to
+see a lazuli bunting on her nest down another aisle. It seemed odd, for
+there was her little cousin nesting out in the weeds in the bright sun,
+while she was raising her brood in the shady forest. The two nests were
+as unlike as the sites. The bird outside had used dull green weeds,
+while this one used beautiful shining oak stems. I thought the pretty
+bird would surely be safe here, but one day when I called, expecting to
+see a growing family, I was shocked to find a pathetic little skeleton
+in the nest.
+
+One afternoon in riding down the rows, I came face to face with two
+mites of hummingbirds seated on a branch. Their grayish green suits
+toned in with the color of the blue gums. It was a surprise when one of
+them turned to the other and fed it--the mother hummer was small enough
+to be taken for a nestling! She sat beside her son and fed him in the
+conventional way, by plunging her bill down his open mouth. When she had
+flown off, he stretched his wings, whirred them as if for practice, and
+then moved his bill as if still tasting the dainty he had had for
+supper. He sat very unconcernedly on a low branch right out in the
+middle of the road, but Billy did not run over him.
+
+I found two hummers' nests in the eucalyptus during the summer. One
+builder was the one the photographer was fortunate enough to catch
+brooding; her nest, the one so charmingly placed on a light blue branch
+between two straight spreading leaves, like the knot between two bows of
+stiff ribbon.
+
+The second nest was on a drooping branch, and, to make it stand level,
+was deepened on the down side of the limb, making it the highest
+hummingbird's nest I had ever seen. It was attached to a red leaf--to
+mark the spot, perhaps--one often wonders how a bird can come back twice
+to the same leaf in a forest. How one little home does make a place
+habitable! From a bare silent woods it becomes a dwelling-place.
+Everything seemed to centre around this little nest, then the only one
+in the grove; the tiny pinch of down became the most important thing in
+the woods. It was the castle which the trees surrounded.
+
+When I first found the nest it held two white warm eggs about as large
+as peas, and I became much interested in watching their progress, often
+riding down to see how they were getting on. The hummer did not return
+my interest. She was nervous, darting off when Billy shook himself or
+when the shadow of a soaring turkey buzzard fell over the nest; but in
+spite of that we made ourselves quite at home before her door. I would
+dismount and sit on the ground, leaning against a blue gum, while Billy
+stood by, in a bower of green leaves, with ears pricked forward
+thoughtfully, and a dreamy look of satisfaction in his eyes.
+Hummingbirds are such dainty things. Once when this one alighted on the
+rim of her nest she whirred herself right down inside. Soon she began to
+act so strangely for a brooding bird that, when she flew, I went to feel
+in the nest. The tips of my fingers touched what felt like round balls,
+but, not satisfied, I pulled down the bough and found one round ball and
+one mite of a gray back with microscopic yellow hairs on each side of
+the spine. The whole tiny body seemed to throb with its heart beats. I
+wondered how such a midget could ever be fed, but found, as in the case
+of the hummer under the little lover's tree, that the mother gave its
+food most gently, reserving her violent pumping for a more suitable age;
+though one would as soon think of poking a needle down a baby's throat
+as that bill.
+
+Often, while watching the nest, my thoughts wandered away to the grove
+itself. The brown earth between the rows was barred by alternate lines
+of sunlight and shadow, and the vista of each avenue ended in blue sky.
+Sometimes cool ocean breezes would penetrate the forest. The rows of
+trees, with their gently swaying, interlacing branches, cast moving
+shadows over the sun-touched leafy floor, giving a white light to the
+grove; for the undersides of the young eucalyptus leaves are like snow.
+From the stiff, sickle-shaped upper leaves the sun glanced, dazzling the
+eyes. Mourning doves cooed, and the sweet notes of yellow-birds filled
+the sunny grove with suggestions of happiness. A yellow butterfly
+wandered down the blue aisles. Such a secure retreat! I returned to it
+again and again, coming in out of the hot yellow world and closing
+behind me the doors of my 'rest-house,' for the little wood had come to
+seem like a cool wayside chapel, a place of peace.
+
+And when I finally left California, deserting Mountain Billy to return
+to the East, of all my haunts the one left the most unwillingly was the
+little blue gum grove, the peaceful wayside rest-house, in whose
+whitened shade we had spent so many quiet hours together.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+
+  Bee-bird, 114-116, 117.
+    catching bees, 114, 115.
+    caught in cobweb rope, 116.
+    defending nest with life, 91-92.
+    domesticity, 116.
+    flycatching, 16, 91, 160.
+    making living off blackbirds, 13.
+    nest, 91.
+    nesting site, 91, 115.
+    noisy, 15.
+    notes, 91, 116.
+    quarrelsome, 91, 115, 116.
+
+  Bird Psychology,
+    association of ideas, 46, 72, 75, 76, 77, 78, 115, 135, 138, 154,
+        198.
+    caution, 9, 22, 28, 36, 65, 66, 67, 82, 85, 87, 88, 94, 156, 196,
+        198, 201, 202, 204.
+    courage, 11-12, 23, 40, 42, 54, 83, 95, 97, 126, 129, 141, 144,
+        175, 177, 180, 181, 210, 215.
+    curiosity, 25, 97, 100, 151.
+    dissimulation, 45, 49, 62, 190, 215.
+    emotion,--
+      fear, 22, 25, 26, 27, 34, 35, 40, 41, 42, 46, 61, 67, 71, 73, 81,
+        87, 88, 105, 133, 135, 154, 164, 177, 180, 191, 215, 218;
+      grief, 46, 47, 92;
+      joy, 30, 204;
+      unusual action under excitement, 30, 58, 63, 64, 81, 87, 88, 191,
+        208.
+    expression of emotion and ideas,--
+      by use of crests, attitudes, and movements, 8, 9, 11, 16, 26, 30,
+        31, 32, 33, 34, 39, 41, 42, 44, 46, 49, 53, 56, 59, 63, 64, 67,
+        76, 78, 79, 81, 84, 87, 88, 90, 97, 101, 105, 116, 117, 124, 129,
+        132, 138, 139, 149, 156, 166, 180, 190, 191, 202, 205, 208, 215.
+      By voice,--
+        calls of warning, 5, 42, 53, 85, 197, 198, 201, 202, 203, 209;
+        conversation, 15, 25, 28, 33, 35, 36, 41, 42, 43, 44, 46, 48, 49,
+        52, 59, 62, 69, 71, 74, 75, 78, 84, 85, 87, 89, 90, 109, 110,
+        118, 132, 134, 145, 147, 149, 153, 156, 178, 180, 182, 190, 192;
+        cries of anger, anxiety, distress, fear, pain, 12, 45, 46, 47,
+        58, 86, 91, 94, 133, 138, 191;
+        exclamations, 44, 58, 61, 87, 115, 116, 124;
+        scoldings, 34, 36, 37, 58, 60, 86, 95, 96, 162, 172, 182;
+        songs of happiness, 8, 10, 15, 21, 22, 52, 59, 82, 83, 84, 90,
+        93, 95, 96, 97, 122, 126, 142, 169, 175, 178, 198, 205;
+        songs of love, 22, 26, 30, 31, 56, 90, 101, 142, 168, 170, 181,
+        204, 205, 208.
+    humor, 124.
+    individuality, 6, 8, 11, 13, 14, 16, 22, 25, 26, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34,
+        35, 38, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 49, 50, 52, 54, 56, 62, 63, 64,
+        65, 75-80, 81, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 90, 91, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99,
+        100, 101, 111, 115, 124, 125,126, 132, 136, 139, 142, 143, 149,
+        153, 154, 163, 164, 170, 179, 181, 184, 190, 194, 195, 204, 205,
+        208, 209, 216-217.
+    inherited instincts, 75, 76, 78, 79, 156.
+    intelligence shown in,--
+      building, 17, 28, 49, 50, 53, 107, 108, 109, 114, 136, 150, 154,
+        158, 217-218;
+      disciplining young, 85;
+      getting food by others' work, 13;
+      profiting by mistakes, 107, 109, 133, 134, 153-154 (?);
+      protecting young, 8, 9, 12, 36, 37, 85, 135, 156, 191, 215;
+      removing nest from danger, 60, 114, 154;
+      selecting materials for nest, 14, 53, 56, 82, 89, 96, 107, 127,
+        144, 150, 179, 181;
+      selecting nesting site, 23, 28, 83, 93, 95, 99, 124, 127, 130,
+        131, 150;
+      silence of young in danger, 71, 85.
+    keen senses, 59, 74, 97.
+    local attachment, 6;
+      special perches, 57, 62, 126, 129, 167, 202, 204, 206.
+    play impulse, 12, 115, 124, 155 (?), 208-209.
+    pride of possession, 25, 86, 115, 204-205.
+    self-denial, 33, 50, 52.
+
+  Birds,
+    adaptation, 150, 152, 163, 164;
+      protective coloration, 10, 11, 81, 92, 101, 185, 199.
+    domestic life,--
+      accept help in building, 97, 152-153, 175-178, 179-180;
+      affection, 22, 27, 30, 31, 32, 33, 78, 84, 85, 90, 142, 166,
+        180, 182, 196, 201, 204, 208;
+      as parents, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 23, 24, 31-38, 46, 55, 63, 64,
+        69, 84, 85, 87, 88, 110, 111, 129, 135, 137, 154-155, 156,
+        172, 182, 185-186, 189-193, 215, 217;
+      companionship of mates, 22, 26, 27, 30, 31, 42, 46, 53, 56,
+        59, 62, 81, 83, 87, 89, 90, 106, 109, 126, 141, 142, 145,
+        166, 177, 178, 180, 182, 196, 204;
+      coquettish airs, 33;
+      courtship, 31, 90, 101, 148, 149;
+      defense of nest, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 25, 45, 46, 47, 57, 58, 86,
+        91, 92, 115, 124-125, 138, 141, 178, 182, 204-205, 209;
+      excitement when young hatch, 63;
+      family government, 12, 35, 85, 111, 156;
+      friendly birds shy at nest, 65, 66, 67, 86, 87, 88, 93, 94,
+        99, 105, 153, 198, 202, 203;
+      --habits of male at nest:
+        absent, 24, 149-155, 167;
+        brings mate food for young, 32, 63;
+        brings material to mate, 50, 52;
+        broods, 43, 44, 62;
+        builds while female looks on or goes off with other females, 199,
+        200, 203, 204, 207-208;
+        feeds mate, 27, 52, 126, 132, 134, 180, 182;
+        feeds young, 33, 82, 88;
+        guards mate, 27, 42, 53, 201;
+        helps mate build, 48, 50, 52, 61, 106, 108, 109, 126, 135, 142,
+        145;
+        sings while mate builds and broods, 22, 26, 30, 31, 33, 56, 83,
+        84, 90, 175, 177, 178;
+      interval between building and brooding, 59, 145, 181;
+      looking for nesting sites, 25, 26, 129, 184-185;
+      lordly airs of male, 25, 115, 116, 117, 172, 208;
+      paternal instinct, 31-33, 53, 63, 191, 204, 205;
+      persistence in work, 60, 107, 178;
+      reluctance to brood, 43, 44;
+      tenderness to young, 23, 33, 84, 85.
+    food,--
+      ants, 76;
+      bees, 114, 115;
+      carrion, 97;
+      cocoons, 100;
+      gophers, 136;
+      grubs, 12, 13, 111;
+      insects, 4, 6, 7, 16, 31, 36, 82, 91, 101, 150, 160;
+      lizards and toads, 99;
+      pepper berries, 197, 198, 201;
+      rats and mice, 137;
+      scale, 103;
+      seeds, 93, 162;
+      snakes, 132;
+      spiders, 31;
+      worms, 12, 13, 57, 164, 182, 185, 186, 190.
+    flight, 5, 7, 16, 17, 24, 30, 81, 91, 98, 99, 103, 115, 118, 147,
+        149, 153, 156, 161, 166, 168, 184, 195, 196, 197, 209.
+    friendliness when not disturbed, 10, 13, 23, 30, 40, 42, 45, 53,
+        59, 61, 64, 67, 83, 86, 89, 92, 95, 97, 100, 105, 126, 128,
+        129, 144, 148, 150-151, 153, 158, 171, 178, 180, 182-183, 185,
+        186, 197, 200, 201, 204.
+    legends about, 11, 105.
+    local names,--
+      blue jay, 6;
+      burrowing owl, 11;
+      bush-tit, 56;
+      California towhee, 92.
+    neighborly relations, 13, 25, 45-48, 49, 57-61, 62, 80, 86, 96,
+        100, 108, 115, 116, 124, 125, 126, 130, 138, 147, 171-174,
+        189-193, 204-205, 208-209.
+    nervousness, 9, 11, 22, 26, 34, 35, 42, 47, 53, 56, 61, 63, 64,
+        67, 70, 76, 81, 82, 87, 88, 97, 105, 117, 138, 139, 156,
+        166, 177, 180, 191, 208, 218.
+
+  Blackbird, Brewer's, 86-88, 117, 128.
+    afraid of a bath, 16.
+    attacking hawks and owls, 135, 139.
+    a jolly colony, 123, 124.
+    building, 124.
+    common in valley, 92.
+    curiosity about road-runner, 100.
+    following plow for grubs, 12, 13.
+    nervousness at nest, 87-88.
+    nesting sites, 86, 124.
+    pranks, 124.
+    repulsing shrike, 124, 125.
+    ruling dooryard, 86.
+
+  Blackbird, Red-winged, 14.
+    eating grubs in vineyard, 12-13.
+    following plow, 13.
+    nesting in marsh, 118.
+
+  Blackbird, Rusty, 86.
+
+  Blackbird, Yellow-headed,
+    in vineyard, 13-14.
+    on mustard, 14.
+
+  Blackbirds, 15, 114, 118, 120.
+    flocks riding cattle, hogs, and horses, 14.
+
+  Bluebird, Mexican, 187.
+    nesting site, 185.
+    second nest, 186.
+
+  Blue Jay. See Jay.
+
+  Blue Squawker. See Jay.
+
+  Brown Chippie. See Towhee, California.
+
+  Bunting, Indigo, 81.
+
+  Bunting, Lazuli, 81-83, 123, 189-193.
+    call, 190.
+    keeping out of quarrel, 45-46.
+    nest, 82, 216-217.
+    nesting site, 27, 82, 216.
+    song, 6, 44, 83, 117.
+    taking insects to nest, 82.
+    young fed by wren-tit, 189, 190.
+
+  Bush-tit, California, 28, 56, 59, 103-111, 117, 161, 162, 166.
+    building, 105-107, 108, 110, 184.
+    call notes, 109, 110.
+    common bird, 103.
+    destroys olive scale, 103.
+    legend of firefly lamps, 105.
+    local name, 56.
+    nest, 103, 104, 105.
+    nesting site, 103.
+    nest roof falls in, 106.
+    second nest better built, 107, 109.
+    snake in nest, 108.
+
+  Butcherbird. See Shrike.
+
+  Butterflies, migrating, 160.
+
+
+  California, southern, 147.
+    colors, 212.
+    marsh in, 118.
+    natural irrigation, 21.
+    sky, 67.
+
+  Canello, 2.
+    afraid of boggy land, Mexicans, and rattlesnakes, 2-3, 127-128.
+    indifferent to water snakes, 15.
+    made nervous by hummingbird, 7.
+    miring, 17-19.
+    visiting feathered tenants with, 123-139.
+
+  Chaparral, 5, 6, 55, 61, 94, 100, 103-104, 159, 167, 197, 201.
+
+  Chaparral cock. See Road-runner.
+
+  Chat, long-tailed, 163.
+
+  Chewink. See Towhee.
+
+  Chickadee, 103, 176.
+
+  Coast Mountains, 1, 4, 6, 15, 102, 104, 112, 113.
+    valley in, 1, 2, 4, 5, 20, 112.
+    at morning, 5, 68, 112, 137.
+    in evening, 19, 101, 102, 121, 122.
+    under moonlight, 102.
+
+  Coyote wolves,
+    barking, 91, 102.
+    chasing a dog, 119.
+    in eucalyptus, 214.
+
+  Crow,
+    killed bee-bird, 92.
+    nest, 212.
+
+
+  Dove, Mourning, 21, 118, 141, 161, 169, 219.
+    a gentle pair, 166.
+    brooding, 67.
+    friendliness, 42, 45.
+    nest, 216.
+    nesting site, 40, 166, 216.
+    perches, 57, 160.
+    superior airs of male, 116, 117.
+    timidity, 41, 42.
+    trailing, 215.
+
+
+  Eagle, 13.
+
+  Egret, White, 17.
+
+
+  Finch, Western House, 117, 160.
+    avoids shrike neighborhood, 126.
+    bathing, 16.
+    courtship, 90.
+    common birds, 92.
+    discussions, 28.
+    examining wren's nest, 25.
+    implicated in tragedy, 171-174.
+    nesting sites, 90, 96, 172, 186.
+    songs, 90.
+    stealing wren's material, 171.
+    using swallow's nest, 96.
+
+  Flicker, Red-shafted, 136-137, 160.
+    building, 136.
+    nesting site, 27, 136.
+    notes, 136.
+    works as if wound up, 136.
+
+  Flowers and Plants,
+    blue sage, 61, 147.
+    chilicothe, 168.
+    dodder, 89-90.
+    'fly flower,' 160.
+    forget-me-not, 128.
+    mallow, 128.
+    mustard, 14, 67, 119, 123, 127, 147.
+    on border of pond, 15.
+    poison oak, 167.
+    'poppy,' 160.
+    primrose, 69, 147.
+    wild celery, 120.
+    wild gooseberry, 147.
+
+  Flycatcher, 140.
+    in chaparral, 6.
+
+  Fog, 19, 68, 101, 112.
+
+
+  Goldfinch, 21, 44, 164, 215, 219.
+    feeding, 7.
+    nest, 23.
+    nest destroyed, 27.
+    nesting site, 184, 186.
+    note, 215.
+
+  Gnatcatcher, Western, 38-64, 81, 123, 161, 205.
+    building, 48-60, 61, 62.
+    calls, 43, 44, 45.
+    comical parents, 63, 64.
+    defending nest, 45, 57, 58.
+    egg broken by wren-tit, 46.
+    eggshell carried away, 46.
+    feeding young in new way, 63-64.
+    jaunty nervous manners, 38, 39, 40, 41, 44, 56, 63.
+    nest, 39, 41, 60, 168.
+    nesting site, 39, 48, 60, 61, 167.
+    nest moved, 60.
+    spelling each other, 43, 44, 62.
+    talkative, 41.
+
+  Gophers, 70, 136.
+
+  Grosbeak, Black-headed,
+    migrants, 8, 58.
+    song, 170.
+
+  Grosbeak, Blue, 120.
+
+
+  Hangbird. See Bush-tit.
+
+  Hawk, Buteo, building, 135.
+    more likely to eat gophers than birds, 136.
+
+  Hawk, Fish, 13.
+
+  Hawk, Sparrow, 131-135, 136.
+    chased by bee-bird, 91.
+    nesting site, 131.
+    snakes for breakfast, 132.
+    too small a front door, 131-134.
+
+  Hawks, 16, 86.
+
+  Heron, Green, 17.
+
+
+  Lark, Horned,
+    on roadsides, 10.
+    song, 10.
+
+  Horse, as help in observing, 3-4, 125, 201-204.
+
+  How-do-you-do Owl. See Owl, Burrowing.
+
+  Hummingbird, 147, 186.
+
+  Hummingbird, Black-chinned, 23-25, 147-158, 161, 202, 217-219.
+    around flowers by house, 88.
+    attacking horse and rider, 7.
+    building, 149-155.
+    call, 153.
+    courtship dance, 149.
+    enter house, 89.
+    feeding from primroses, 69.
+    feeding young, 23, 24, 155, 217.
+    help in cross-fertilization, 150.
+    nest, 23.
+    nest destroyed, 26.
+    nesting sites, 23, 89, 130, 147-148, 155, 158, 161, 217-218.
+    perch, 57, 167.
+    probing tobacco-tree flowers, 88.
+    tremulous moulding, 152.
+
+  Hummingbird, Rufous, 147.
+    around wild gooseberries, 147, 168.
+    song, 168.
+
+
+  Irrigation, natural, 21, 38, 159-160.
+
+
+  Jay, California, 59, 61, 84-85, 105, 123, 160, 161.
+    disciplining young, 85.
+    frightening small birds, 28, 58, 60, 84, 141.
+    local name, 6.
+    protecting young, 85.
+    scream, 169, 184.
+    tender to young, 84, 85.
+
+
+  Kingbird,
+    Arkansas. See Bee-bird.
+    Cassin's. See Bee-bird.
+    Eastern, 91.
+
+
+  Linnet. See Finch.
+
+  Lions, colts killed by, 30.
+
+  List of Birds referred to, ix.
+
+  List of Illustrations, vii.
+
+  Lizards, as eggers, 28, 150, 200, 203.
+
+
+  Magpie, 51, 98.
+
+  Mexican bridle, 3.
+
+  Miring, 17-19.
+
+  Mockingbird, thrasher's resemblance to, 6.
+
+  Mountain Billy, 20.
+    a good lope, 42-43, 112.
+    a narrow escape, 120.
+    a petted companion, 165, 187.
+    carrying blue gum boughs, 211.
+    carrying a chair, 60-61.
+    enjoying blue gum grove, 214, 218.
+    frightened by deer, 28-30.
+    ignoring snakes, 187-188.
+    improving his time, 68, 69, 114.
+    inventing a fly brush, 54, 55.
+    rolling, 165-166.
+
+  Mutual help in nature, 150.
+
+
+  Nesting season, date in southern California, 21, 30, 67, 69, 86.
+
+  Nests, broken up, 10, 26, 27, 47, 127, 143, 145, 158, 172, 204,
+        206, 217.
+    building, hard work, 56, 60, 107.
+    building methods, 49-50, 52-54, 82, 107, 108, 109, 127, 135,
+        136, 142, 150-154, 158, 175, 199, 200, 203, 204, 205-206, 207.
+    defective building (?), 106.
+    excessive amount of material, 96, 107, 108.
+    knothole entrance too small, 131.
+    materials of first nest used in second, 60, 107, 109-110, 154.
+    moved to safer place, 60, 154.
+    odd situations, 9, 95, 130, 171.
+    protective coloration, 82, 90, 144, 150.
+    rapid building, 108, 206.
+    second, 48 (?), 60, 107, 154, 186.
+    snakes in, 108.
+    third (?), 60.
+    time taken to build, 60.
+    unusual materials, 14, 89, 90.
+
+
+  Observing, 1, 2, 40, 60-61, 66, 67, 68, 81, 82, 109, 114, 123,
+        130, 135, 139, 141, 166, 195, 196, 197, 198, 201-205, 215.
+    assisting in nest building, 97, 109-110, 175-183.
+    delight of finding a new bird, 13.
+    proportion of birds identified without a gun, 2, 140.
+    temptations in, 92, 93, 194.
+
+  Oden Canyon, 159-160.
+
+  Oregon Robin, 20.
+
+  Oriole, 27, 104, 130, 131.
+
+  Oriole, Arizona Hooded,
+    building, 89.
+
+  Oriole, Bullock's, 162.
+    attacking an owl, 139.
+    nest, 117.
+    song flight, 184.
+
+  Owl, 105, 215-216.
+    asleep in window, 137.
+    diet of rats and mice, 137.
+    hiding in wells and mining shafts, 137, 138.
+
+  Owl, Barn,
+    an old crone, 139.
+    nesting site, 139.
+
+  Owl, Burrowing, 119, 212.
+    battles with a collie, 11, 12.
+    feeding young, 11, 12.
+    nest not shared with rattlesnakes, 11.
+    screws head off, 11.
+
+  Owl, Western Horned,
+    devices to protect young, 8, 9.
+    mobbed by neighbors, 138.
+
+
+  Pewee, Wood, 161-162.
+    building, 57, 59, 61.
+    nesting site, 57, 60.
+    nest moved, 60.
+    perch, 62, 161.
+
+  Phainopepla, 194-210.
+    a distinguished bird, 194.
+    building (done by male), 199, 203, 204, 205, 206.
+    call, 205.
+    eating pepper berries in door-yard, 197.
+    nest, 205.
+    nesting site, 199.
+    song, 205.
+
+  Ph[oe]be, Black, 115, 128-130, 189.
+    brooding under a pump, 129.
+    in the hen-house, 130.
+    nest, 130.
+    nesting site, 117, 128-129, 130.
+
+  Pipit, American, 16.
+
+  Pond, made by spring rains,
+    rendezvous of birds, 5, 14-17.
+
+  Poor-will, Dusky,
+    call, 101-102.
+    flycatching, 101.
+
+
+  Quail, Valley,
+    call, 5.
+    flight of covey, 30.
+    in chaparral, 55.
+    in vineyard, 73.
+    tracks, 43.
+
+
+  Rabbit,
+    cottontail, 94, 118, 164.
+    jack, 5, 29, 94-95, 97.
+
+  Road-runner, 98-101.
+    around ranch-house, 100.
+    drowned in windmill tanks, 100.
+    eating with hens, 100.
+    fleetness, 98.
+    hunting cocoons, 100.
+    love call, 101.
+    nest, 99, 216.
+
+  Robin, 8, 92.
+
+
+  Shrike, White-rumped, 124-127, 128.
+    absence of birds in neighborhood, 126.
+    building, 125, 126-127.
+    gentle at nest, 125, 126.
+    invading blackbird premises, 124-125.
+    nest, 125.
+    nesting site, 125, 127.
+
+  Snakes,
+    gopher, 43, 71, 120, 187-188.
+    racer, 108.
+    rattle, 43, 120, 121, 203.
+    ringed, 55.
+    water, 15.
+
+  Sparrow, 15.
+
+  Sparrow, Golden-crowned, 16.
+
+  Sparrow, Song, 21, 22, 117.
+    nest, 83-84.
+    young, 83.
+
+  Sparrow, White-crowned, 16, 162.
+
+  Squirrels, ground, 11.
+
+  Swallow, 96.
+
+  Swallow, Eave,
+    drinking on wing, 17.
+    getting mud for nests, 16-17.
+    nests on sycamore, 114.
+
+
+  Tanager, Louisiana, 27.
+    a brilliant stranger, 131.
+
+  Thrasher, California, 163-164.
+    digging with sickle-shaped bill, 163-164.
+    in chaparral, 6.
+    song, 6, 169.
+    straight bills of young, 164.
+
+  Titmouse, Plain, 141, 184, 175-183.
+    building, 175-182.
+    gladly accepts feathers, 177.
+    needs no horsehair or straw, 179-181.
+    nesting sites, 175.
+    song, 175.
+
+  Tit, Wren-, 57, 60, 62, 189-193.
+    breaking up gnatcatcher's nest, 45, 46, 48.
+    skulking manners, 49, 59.
+    song, 6, 169.
+    usurping a mother's rights, 189-193.
+
+  Towhee, California, 28, 46, 47, 57, 58, 59, 92-95, 163, 189, 200.
+    call note, 92.
+    common and tame, 92.
+    nesting, 93, 94.
+    shy at nest, 93-94.
+    song, 93.
+
+  Towhee, Green-tailed, 162-163.
+
+  Towhee, Spurred, 18, 160, 162.
+    singing, 169.
+
+  Trade wind, 68-69.
+
+  Trees,
+    acacia, 189.
+    elder, 15.
+    eucalyptus, 211-220;
+      character of, 213-214, 219-220;
+      grove, 211-220;
+      raised for fuel, 211.
+    live-oaks, 5, 6, 21, 86, 159-170;
+      garden of, 159-160, 170;
+      sapped by mistletoe, 167.
+    pepper, 197.
+    sycamore, 15, 21, 24-25, 67, 68;
+      the big, 112-122, 159.
+    tobacco, 88.
+    willow, 123.
+
+  Turkey Buzzard. See Vulture.
+
+  Turtle Dove. See Dove.
+
+  Twin Oaks Canyon, 5-6, 159.
+
+
+  Ughland Canyon, 21, 38, 123, 159.
+
+
+  Vineyard, birds eating grubs in, 12-13.
+
+  Vireo, Hutton's, 140-146.
+    a devoted pair, 142.
+    building, 142, 145.
+    call note, 145.
+    fond of nest, 143, 145.
+    nest, 144.
+    nesting site, 141, 144.
+
+  Vireo, Least,
+    song, 6, 44, 169.
+
+  Vireo, Warbling, 27, 59.
+    building, 56.
+    scolding jay, 60.
+
+  Vulture, Turkey, 16, 97-98, 162.
+    circle over fighting snakes, 97.
+    eating woodpecker, 70.
+    eating skunk, 201.
+    queer attitude, 98.
+    scavenger, 97.
+    soaring, 97, 98.
+
+
+  Warbler, 160.
+    migrants, 6, 7, 123.
+
+  Waxwing, 69.
+
+  Whip-poor-will. See Poor-will.
+
+  Woodpecker, California, 65-80, 81, 123.
+    building, 28.
+    flycatching, 160.
+    hunting ground distant from nest, 69.
+    long intervals in feeding, 69.
+    lying in wait for prey, 141.
+    nesting site, 28, 71.
+    notes, 69.
+    old birds poisoned (?), 70.
+    rescuing the young, 71-73.
+    young orphans, inherited instincts, 75, 76, 78, 79;
+      notes, 78.
+
+  Woodpecker, Red-headed, 66, 69.
+
+  Wood rat,
+    in chaparral, 55.
+
+  Wren, 9-10.
+
+  Wren, Vigors's, 170-174.
+    linnets quarreling over materials, 171.
+    nesting site, 171.
+    young buried alive by linnets (?), 172-174.
+
+  Wren, Western House, 20-37, 65, 67, 69, 81, 84, 112, 117, 123, 160,
+        219.
+    building, 22, 25, 30, 96, 128.
+    common birds, 95.
+    feeding young on insects, 31.
+    nesting takes six weeks, 35.
+    nests in sycamore holes, 22, 128.
+    odd nesting sites, 95.
+    song, 22, 30, 96, 97.
+    tremulous motion of wings, 30, 33.
+
+
+  Yellow-bird. See Goldfinch.
+
+  Young birds,
+    Bluebird, 185.
+    Brewer's Blackbird, 87.
+    Burrowing Owl, 11-12.
+    Bush-tit, 28, 110, 111.
+    California Jay, 85.
+    California Woodpecker, 69-80.
+    feather tracts, 79.
+    fed at long intervals, 155.
+    fed on insects, 31, 36, 76, 82.
+    first flights, 36, 73-74, 88, 156.
+    Gnatcatchers, 63-64.
+    Horned Owl, 9.
+    Hummingbird, 23, 24, 88, 155-157, 217, 219.
+    interest in each other, 78, 79.
+    Lazuli Bunting, 189-193, 217;
+      adopted by wren-tit, 189-193.
+    Mourning Dove, 47.
+    Owl, 137.
+    Sparrow Hawk, 135;
+      subdued on leaving nest, 36;
+      time kept in nest, 69.
+    Titmouse, 182-183.
+    Vigors's Wren, 171, 172, 174.
+    Western House Wren, 33-37.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+  Bee-birds, 13.
+
+  Blackbird, Brewer's, 13.
+
+  Buntings, Lazuli (old and young), 189.
+
+  Bush-tits (birds and nest), 104.
+
+  Bush-tit (nest in oak), 108.
+
+
+  Chewink, California (head), 93.
+
+  Chewink, Eastern (head), 93.
+
+  Chewink, Green-tailed (head), 163.
+
+
+  Eucalyptus Avenue, showing pollarded trees, 212.
+
+  Eucalyptus Wood stored for Market in a Eucalyptus Grove, 214.
+
+
+  Gnatcatcher, Western (birds and nest), 39.
+
+  Grosbeak, Black-headed (head), 8.
+
+  Grosbeak, Rose-breasted (head), 8.
+
+
+  Hummingbird, Black-chinned (nest), 157.
+
+  Hummingbird, Black-chinned (on nest), 148.
+
+
+  Mountain Billy Deserted, 220.
+
+  Mountain Billy under the Gnatcatcher's Oak, frontispiece.
+
+
+  Oaks, Live, 160.
+
+  Oriole, Arizona Hooded (head), 89.
+
+  Oriole, Baltimore, Eastern (head), 89.
+
+
+  Phainopepla's Nest in Oak Brush, 198.
+
+  Phainopeplas on Pepper-tree, 194.
+
+  Ph[oe]be, Black (head), 129.
+
+  Ph[oe]be, Eastern (head), 129.
+
+
+  Quail, Valley, 99.
+
+
+  Road-runner, 99.
+
+
+  Sycamores, Along the Line of, 124.
+
+  Sycamore, The Big, 114.
+
+
+  Titmouse, Plain (at nest), 176.
+
+
+  Valley in Coast Mountains, 4.
+
+
+  Woodpecker, California, (head), 66.
+
+  Woodpecker, California (young), 78.
+
+  Woodpecker, Red-headed, Eastern (head), 66.
+
+  Wren-tit, 189.
+
+  Wren, Vigors's (at nest), 173.
+
+  Wren, Western House, 32.
+
+  Wren, Western House (singing), 20.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+The oe-ligature is denoted in this text by being enclosed in brackets
+[oe].
+
+Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
+
+Page 33, "delighful" changed to "delightful" (It was delightful)
+
+Page 75, "formicivorous" changed to "formicivorus" (Melanerpes
+formicivorus)
+
+Page 190, "non-commital" changed to "non-committal" (non-committal air)
+
+Page 190, "eeding" changed to "feeding" (feeding it, especially)
+
+Page 257, "2" changed to "216" (nesting site, 40, 166, 216.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A-Birding on a Bronco, by Florence A. Merriam
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+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
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+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of A-Birding on a Bronco by Florence A. Merriam.
+    </title>
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+    h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {
+         text-align: center; /* all headings centered */
+         clear: both;
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+    hr { width: 33%;
+	 margin-top: 2em;
+	 margin-bottom: 2em;
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+
+    table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;}
+
+    body{margin-left: 10%;
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+
+    .pagenum  { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */
+            /*  visibility: hidden;  */
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+
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+
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+       text-align: justify;
+       margin-bottom: .75em;
+        }
+    .right    {text-align: right;}
+    .poem      {margin-left: 30%; text-align: left;}
+    .poem2   {margin-left: 15%; text-align: left;}
+    .sig    {margin-right: 10%; text-align: right;}
+
+
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+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A-Birding on a Bronco, by Florence A. Merriam
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A-Birding on a Bronco
+
+Author: Florence A. Merriam
+
+Release Date: August 11, 2010 [EBook #33410]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Emmy and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 392px;">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="392" height="600" alt="Coverimage" id="coverpage" title="" />
+</div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class='tnote'><b>Transcriber's Note:</b> Although a few of the drawings
+say "One half size", these drawings have been increased in size for this
+HTML edition to allow better viewing of detail.</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class='bbox'>
+<div class="center"><b>Books by Florence A. Merriam.</b><br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class="hang1">BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. In
+Riverside Library for Young People. Illustrated.
+16mo, 75 cents.<br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">MY SUMMER IN A MORMON VILLAGE. 16mo,
+$1.00.<br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO. Illustrated.
+16mo, $1.25.<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN &amp; CO.<br />
+<span class="smcap">Boston and New York</span>.<br />
+</div>
+</div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[i]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="frontis" id="frontis"></a>
+<img src="images/i004.jpg" width="600" height="425" alt="MOUNTAIN BILLY UNDER THE GNATCATCHER&#39;S OAK" title="" />
+<span class="caption">MOUNTAIN BILLY UNDER THE GNATCATCHER&#39;S OAK</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h1>A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO</h1>
+
+<div class='center'>BY</div>
+<h2>FLORENCE A. MERRIAM</h2>
+
+
+<div class='poem'>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">I do invite you ... to my house ...</span><br />
+after, we'll a-birding together.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 7em;"><span class="smcap">Shakespeare.</span></span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='center'><br /><br /><i>ILLUSTRATED</i><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 136px;">
+<img src="images/emblem.png" width="136" height="178" alt="The Riverside Press." title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<small>BOSTON AND NEW YORK</small><br />
+HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY<br />
+<b>The Riverside Press, Cambridge</b><br />
+<small>1896</small><br />
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[ii]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<div class='copyright'>
+Copyright, 1896,<br />
+<span class="smcap">By</span> FLORENCE A. MERRIAM.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<i>All rights reserved.</i><br />
+<br />
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<i>The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.</i><br />
+
+Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton &amp; Company.<br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>PREFATORY NOTE.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> notes contained in this book were taken
+from March to May, 1889, and from March to
+July, 1894, at Twin Oaks in southern California.
+Twin Oaks is the post-office for the scattered
+ranch-houses in a small valley at the foot of one
+of the Coast Ranges, thirty-four miles north of
+San Diego, and twelve miles from the Pacific.</p>
+
+<p>As no collecting was done, there is doubt
+about the identity of a few species; and their
+names are left blank or questioned in the list
+of birds referred to in the text. In cases where
+the plumage of the two sexes is practically identical,
+and only slight mention is made of the
+species, the sexes have sometimes been arbitrarily
+distinguished in the text.</p>
+
+<p>Several of the articles have appeared before,
+in somewhat different form, in 'The Auk,' 'The
+Observer,' and 'Our Animal Friends;' all the
+others are published here for the first time.</p>
+
+<p>The illustrations are from drawings of birds
+and nests by Louis Agassiz Fuertes, and from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span>
+photographs taken in the valley; together with
+some of eucalyptus-trees from Los Angeles, for
+the use of which I am indebted to the courtesy
+of Dr. B. E. Fernow, Chief of the Division
+of Forestry of the U. S. Department of Agriculture.</p>
+
+<p>In the preparation of the book I have been
+kindly assisted by Miss Isabel Eaton, and have
+received from my brother, Dr. C. Hart Merriam,
+untiring criticism and advice.</p>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+FLORENCE A. MERRIAM.<br />
+</div>
+<div><span class="smcap">Locust Grove, N. Y.</span>,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">July 15, 1896.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="contents">
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'><small>PAGE</small></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>I.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Our Valley</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>II.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Little Lover</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_20">20</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>III.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Like a Thief in the Night</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IV.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Was it a Sequel?</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_48">48</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>V.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Little Prisoners in the Tower</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VI.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Hints by the Way</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Around our Ranch-house</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_86">86</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VIII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Pocket Makers</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_103">103</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IX.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Big Sycamore</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_112">112</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>X.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Among my Tenants</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XI.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">An Unnamed Bird</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_140">140</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Hummers</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_147">147</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">In the Shade of the Oaks</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_159">159</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIV.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Mysterious Tragedy</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_171">171</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XV.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">How I helped build a Nest</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_175">175</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XVI.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">In our Neighbor's Door-yard</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_184">184</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XVII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Which was the Mother Bird?</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_189">189</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XVIII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Rare Bird</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_194">194</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIX.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">My Blue Gum Grove</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_211">211</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Illustrations">
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'><small>PAGE</small></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Mountain Billy under the Gnatcatcher's Oak.</td><td align='left'><i><a href="#frontis">Frontispiece</a></i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Our Valley</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_4">4</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Head of Black-headed Grosbeak</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_8">8</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Head of Rose-breasted Grosbeak</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_8">8</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>In Hot Pursuit (Brewer's Blackbird and Bee-birds)</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Little Lover (Western House Wren)</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_20">20</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A Trying Moment (Western House Wren)</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Nest of Western Gnatcatcher</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Head of California Woodpecker</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_66">66</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Head of Red-headed Woodpecker (Eastern)</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_66">66</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Jacob and Bairdi visiting the Old Nest Tree</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_78">78</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Head of Arizona Hooded Oriole</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Head of Baltimore Oriole (Eastern)</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Head of California Chewink</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Head of Eastern Chewink</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Valley Quail and Road-runner</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_99">99</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Nest of the Bush-tit</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_104">104</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Pocket Nest in an Oak</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Big Sycamore</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_114">114</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Along the Line of Sycamores</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_124">124</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Head of Black Ph&oelig;be</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_129">129</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Head of Eastern Ph&oelig;be</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_129">129</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Little Hummer on her Bow-knot Nest</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_148">148</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Swing Nest of the Hummer</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_157">157</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A Shady Bower</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_160">160</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Head of Green-tailed Chewink</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_163">163</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Nosebag Nest (Vigors's Wren)</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_173">173</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Plain Titmouse in her Doorway</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_176">176</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Which was the Mother Bird? (Wren-tit and Lazuli Buntings)</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_189">189</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span>The Phainopeplas on the Pepper-tree</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_194">194</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Phainopepla's Nest in the Oak Brush Island</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_198">198</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Eucalyptus Avenue, showing Pollarded Trees on the Right</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_212">212</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Eucalyptus Wood stored for Market in a Eucalyptus Grove</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_214">214</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Mountain Billy Deserted</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_220">220</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>BIRDS REFERRED TO IN THE TEXT.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></h2>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="BIRDS REFERRED TO IN THE TEXT">
+<tr><td align='left'>White Egret. <i>Ardea egretta.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Green Heron. <i>Ardea virescens anthonyi.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Spotted Sandpiper. <i>Actitis macularia.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Valley Quail. <i>Callipepla californica vallicola.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Mourning Dove. <i>Zenaidura macroura.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Turkey Vulture. <i>Cathartes aura.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Hawk. <i>Buteo &mdash;&mdash;.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Sparrow Hawk. <i>Falco sparverius deserticolus.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>American Barn Owl. <i>Strix pratincola.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Western Horned Owl. <i>Bubo virginianus subarcticus.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Burrowing Owl. <i>Speotyta cunicularia hypog&aelig;a.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Road-runner. <i>Geococcyx californianus.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>California Woodpecker. <i>Melanerpes formicivorus bairdi.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Red shafted Flicker. <i>Colaptes cafer.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Dusky Poor-will. <i>Phal&aelig;noptilus nuttalli californicus.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Black-chinned Hummingbird. <i>Trochilus alexandri.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Rufous Hummingbird. <i>Selasphorus rufus.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Arkansas Kingbird. <i>Tyrannus verticalis.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Cassin's Kingbird. <i>Tyrannus vociferans.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Black Ph&oelig;be. <i>Sayornis nigrescens.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Western Wood Pewee. <i>Contopus richardsonii.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Flycatcher. <i>Empidonax &mdash;&mdash;.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Horned Lark. <i>Otocoris alpestris chrysol&aelig;ma.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>California Jay. <i>Aphelocoma californica.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>American Crow. <i>Corvus americanus.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Yellow-headed Blackbird. <i>Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Red-winged Blackbird. <i>Agelaius ph&oelig;nicius &mdash;&mdash;.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Arizona Hooded Oriole. <i>Icterus cucullatus nelsoni.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span>Bullock's Oriole. <i>Icterus bullocki.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Brewer's Blackbird. <i>Scholocophagus cyanocephalus.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Western House Finch. <i>Carpodacus mexicanus frontalis.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Goldfinch. <i>Spinus &mdash;&mdash;.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>White-crowned Sparrow. <i>Zonotrichia leucophrys gambeli (?).</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Golden-crowned Sparrow. <i>Zonotrichia coronata.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Heerman's Song Sparrow. <i>Melospiza fasciata heermanni (?).</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Spurred Towhee or Chewink. <i>Pipilo maculatus megalonyx.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Green-tailed Towhee. <i>Pipilo chlorurus.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>California Towhee. <i>Pipilo fuscus crissalis.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Black-headed Grosbeak. <i>Habia melanocephala.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Western Blue Grosbeak. <i>Guiraca c&aelig;rulea eurhyncha.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Lazuli Bunting. <i>Passerina am&oelig;na.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Louisiana Tanager. <i>Piranga ludoviciana.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Cliff Swallow. <i>Petrochelidon lunifrons.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Phainopepla. <i>Phainopepla nitens.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>White-rumped Shrike. <i>Lanius ludovicianus excubitorides.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Warbling Vireo. <i>Vireo gilvus (?).</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Hutton's Vireo. <i>Vireo huttoni (?).</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Least Vireo. <i>Vireo bellii pusillus (?).</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Long-tailed Chat. <i>Icteria virens longicauda.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>American Pipit. <i>Anthus pensilvanicus.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>California Thrasher. <i>Harporhynchus redivivus.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Vigors's Wren. <i>Thryothorus bewickii spilurus.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Western House Wren. <i>Troglodytes &aelig;don aztecus.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Plain Titmouse. <i>Parus inornatus.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Wren-tit. <i>Cham&aelig;a fasciata.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>California Bush-tit. <i>Psaltriparus minimus californicus.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Western Gnatcatcher. <i>Polioptila c&aelig;rulea obscura.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Varied Thrush or Oregon Robin. <i>Hesperocichla n&aelig;via.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Western Bluebird. <i>Sialia mexicana occidentalis.</i></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO.</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>I.</h2>
+
+<div class='chaptertitle'>OUR VALLEY.</div>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Climb</span> the mountain back of the house and
+you can see the Pacific," the ranchman told me
+with a gleam in his eye; and later, when I had
+done that, from the top of a peak at the foot of
+the valley he pointed out the distant blue mountains
+of Mexico. Then he gave me his daughter's
+saddle horse to use as long as I was his guest, that
+I might explore the valley and study its birds to
+the best advantage. Before coming to California,
+I had known only the birds of New York
+and Massachusetts, and so was filled with eager
+enthusiasm at thought of spending the migration
+and nesting season in a new bird world.</p>
+
+<p>I had no gun, but was armed with opera-glass
+and note-book, and had Ridgway's Manual to turn
+to in all my perplexities. Every morning, right
+after breakfast, my horse was brought to the door
+and I set out to make the rounds of the valley.
+I rode till dinner time, getting acquainted with
+the migrants as they came from the south, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span>
+calling at the more distant nests on the way.
+After dinner I would take my camp-stool and
+stroll, through the oaks at the head of the valley,
+for a quiet study of the nearer nests. Then once
+more my horse would be brought up for me to
+take a run before sunset; and at night I would
+identify my new birds and write up the notes
+of the day. What more could observer crave?
+The world was mine. I never spent a happier
+spring. The freedom and novelty of ranch life
+and the exhilaration of days spent in the saddle
+gave added zest to the delights of a new fauna.
+In my small valley circuit of a mile and a half,
+I made the acquaintance of about seventy-five
+birds, and without resort to the gun was able to
+name fifty-six of them.</p>
+
+<p>My saddle horse, a white bronco who went by
+the musical name of Canello, had been broken by
+a Mexican whose cruelty had tamed the wild blood
+in his veins and left him with a fear of all swarthy
+skins. Now he could be ridden bareback by
+the little girls, with only a rope noose around his
+nose, and was warranted to stand still before a
+flock of birds so long as there was grass to eat.
+He was to be relied on as a horse of ripe, experience
+and mature judgment in matters of local
+danger. No power of bit or spur could induce
+him to set foot upon a piece of 'boggy land,' and
+to give me confidence one of the ranchman's sons
+said, "Wherever I've killed a rattlesnake from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span>
+him he'll shy for years;" and went on to cite localities
+where a sudden, violent lurch had nearly
+sent him over Canello's head! What greater
+recommendation could I wish?</p>
+
+<p>If the old horse had had any wayward impulses
+left, his Mexican bit would have subdued them.
+It would be impossible to use such an iron in the
+mouth of an eastern horse. They say the Mexicans
+sometimes break horses' jaws with it. From
+the middle of the bit, a flat bar of iron, three quarters
+of an inch wide, extended back four inches,
+lying on the horse's tongue or sticking into the
+roof of his mouth, according to the use of the
+curb&mdash;there was no other rein. The bit alone
+weighed sixteen ounces. The bridle, which came
+from Ense&ntilde;ada in Lower California, then the seat
+of a great gold excitement, was made of braided
+raw-hide. It was all hand work; there was not a
+buckle about it. The leather quirt at the end of
+the reins was the only whip necessary. When I
+left the ranch the bridle was presented to me, and
+it now hangs behind my study door, a proud trophy
+of my western life, and one that is looked upon
+with mingled admiration and horror by eastern
+horsemen.</p>
+
+<p>Canello and I soon became the best of friends.
+I found in him a valuable second&mdash;for, as I had
+anticipated, the birds were used to grazing horses,
+and were much less suspicious of an equestrian
+than a foot passenger&mdash;and he found in me a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>
+movable stake, constantly leading him to new
+grazing ground; for when there was a nest to
+watch I simply hung the bridle over the pommel
+and let him eat, so getting free hands for opera-glass
+and note-book. To be sure, there were
+slight causes of difference between us. He liked
+to watch birds in the high alfalfa under the sycamores,
+but when it came to standing still where
+the hot sun beat down through the brush and there
+was nothing to eat, his interest in ornithology
+flagged perceptibly. Then he sometimes carried
+the r&ocirc;le of grazing horse too far, marching off to
+a fresh clump of grass out of sight of my nest
+at the most interesting moment; or when I was
+intently gazing through my glass at a rare bird,
+he would sometimes give a sudden kick at a horsefly,
+bobbing the glass out of range just as I was
+making out the character of the wing-bars.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/i019.jpg" width="600" height="335" alt="OUR VALLEY" title="" />
+<span class="caption">OUR VALLEY</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>From the ranch-house, encircled by live-oaks,
+the valley widened out, and was covered with orchards
+and vineyards, inclosed by the low brush-grown
+ridges of the Coast Mountains. It was a
+veritable paradise for the indolent field student.
+With so much insect-producing verdure, birds
+were everywhere at all times. There were no long
+hours to sit waiting on a camp-stool, and only here
+and there a treetop to 'sky' the wandering birds.
+The only difficulty was to choose your intimates.</p>
+
+<p>Canello and I had our regular beat, down past
+the blooming quince and apricot orchard, along<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>
+the brush-covered side of the valley where the migrants
+flocked, around the circle through a great
+vineyard in the middle of the valley, past a pond
+where the feathered settlers gathered to bathe,
+and so back home to the oaks again.</p>
+
+<p>I liked to start out in the freshness of the morning,
+when the fog was breaking up into buff clouds
+over the mountains and drawing off in veils over
+the peaks. The brush we passed through was
+full of glistening spiders' webs, and in the open
+the grass was overlaid with disks of cobweb, flashing
+rainbow colors in the sun.</p>
+
+<p>As we loped gayly along down the curving road,
+a startled quail would call out, "Who-are-you'-ah?
+who-are-you'-ah?" and another would cry "quit"
+in sharp warning tones; while a pair would scud
+across the road like little hens, ahead of the horse;
+or perhaps a covey would start up and whirr over
+the hillside. The sound of Canello's flying hoofs
+would often rouse a long-eared jack-rabbit, who
+with long leaps would go bounding over the flowers,
+to disappear in the brush.</p>
+
+<p>The narrow road wound through the dense bushy
+undergrowth known as 'chaparral,' and as Canello
+galloped round the sharp curves I had to bend
+low under the sweeping branches, keeping alert
+for birds and animals, as well as Mexicans and
+Indians that we might meet.</p>
+
+<p>This corner of the valley was the mouth of Twin
+Oaks Canyon, and was a forest of brush, alive with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>
+birds, and visited only by the children whose small
+schoolhouse stood beside the giant twin oak from
+which the valley post-office was named. Flocks
+of migrating warblers were always to be found
+here; flycatchers shot out at passing insects;
+chewinks scratched among the dead leaves and
+flew up to sing on the branches; insistent vireos
+cried <i>tu-whip' tu-whip' tu-whip' tu-wee'-ah</i>, coming
+out in sight for a moment only to go hunting
+back into the impenetrable chaparral; lazuli
+buntings sang their musical round; blue jays&mdash;blue
+squawkers, as they are here called&mdash;went
+screaming harshly through the thicket; and the
+clear ringing voice of the wren-tit ran down the
+scale, now in the brush, now echoing from the
+bowlder-strewn hills above. But the king of the
+chaparral was the great brown thrasher. His
+loud rollicking song and careless independent
+ways, so suggestive of his cousin, the mockingbird,
+made him always a marked figure.</p>
+
+<p>There was one dense corner of the thicket
+where a thrasher lived, and I used to urge Canello
+through the tangle almost every morning for the
+pleasure of sharing his good spirits. He was not
+hard to find, big brown bird that he was, standing
+on the top of a bush as he shouted out boisterously,
+<i>kick'-it-now, kick'-it-now, shut'-up shut'-up,
+dor'-a-thy dor'-a-thy;</i> or, calling a halt in his mad
+rhapsody, slowly drawled out, <i>whoa'-now, whoa'-now</i>.
+After listening to such a tirade as this, it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>
+was pleasant to come to an opening in the brush
+and find a band of gentle yellow-birds leaning
+over the blossoms of the white forget-me-nots.</p>
+
+<p>There were a great many hummingbirds in the
+chaparral, and at a certain point on the road I
+was several times attacked by one of the pugnacious
+little warriors. I suppose we were treading
+too near his nest, though I was not keen-eyed
+enough to find it. From high in the air, he would
+come with a whirr, swooping down so close over
+our heads that Canello started uneasily and
+wanted to get out of the way. Down over our
+heads, and then high up in the air, he would swing
+back and forth in an arc. One day he must have
+shot at us half a dozen times, and another day,
+over a spot in the brush near us,&mdash;probably,
+where the nest was,&mdash;he did the same thing a
+dozen times in quick succession.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of the brush corner were a number
+of pretty round oaks, in one of which the
+warblers gathered. My favorite tree was in blossom
+and alive with buzzing insects, which may
+have accounted for the presence of the warblers.
+While I sat in the saddle watching the dainty
+birds decked out in black and gold, Canello
+rested his nose in the cleft of the tree, quite unmindful
+of the busy warblers that flitted about
+the branches, darting up for insects or chasing
+down by his nose after falling millers.</p>
+
+<p>One morning the ranchman's little girl rode<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>
+over to school behind me on Canello, pillion fashion.
+As we pushed through the brush and into
+the opening by the schoolhouse, scattered over
+the grass sat a flock of handsome black-headed
+grosbeaks, the western representative of the eastern
+rose-breast, looking, in the sun, almost as red
+as robins. They had probably come from the
+south the night before. As we watched, they dispersed
+and sang sweetly in the oaks and brush.</p>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Grosbeaks">
+<tr><td align='left'><div class="figcenter" style="width: 184px;">
+<img src="images/i024a.png" width="184" height="123" alt="Black-headed Grosbeak. (One half natural size.)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Black-headed Grosbeak.<br />
+(One half natural size.)</span>
+</div>
+</td><td align='left'><div class="figcenter" style="width: 175px;">
+<img src="images/i024b.png" width="175" height="145" alt="Rose-breasted Grosbeak. (One half natural size.)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Rose-breasted Grosbeak.<br />
+(One half natural size.)</span>
+</div>
+</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>In the giant twin oak under whose shadow the
+the little schoolhouse stood was an owl's nest.
+When I stopped under it, nothing was to be seen
+but the tips of the ears of the brooding bird. But
+when I tried to hoot after the manner of owls,
+the angry old crone rose up on her feet above the
+nest till I could see her round yellow eyes and the
+full length of her long ears. She snapped her
+bill fiercely, bristled up, puffing out her feathers
+and shaking them at us threateningly. Poor old
+bird! I was amused at her performances, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>
+one of her little birds lay dead at the foot of the
+tree, and I trembled for the others, for the school-children
+were near neighbors. Surely the old
+bird needed all her devices to protect her young.
+One day I saw on one side of the nest, below
+the big ears of the mother, the round head of a
+nestling.</p>
+
+<p>It was pleasant to leave the road to ride out under
+the oaks along the way. There was always the
+delightful feeling that one might see a new bird
+or find some little friend just gone to housekeeping.
+One morning I discovered a bit of a wren
+under an oak with building material in her bill.
+She flew down to a box that lay under the tree
+and I dismounted to investigate. A tin can lay
+on its side in the box, and a few twigs and yellowish
+brown oak leaves were scattered about in a
+casual way, but the rusted lid of the can was half
+turned back, and well out of sight in the inside
+was a pretty round nest with one egg in it. I
+was delighted,&mdash;such an appropriate place for a
+wren's nest,&mdash;and sat down for her to come back.
+She was startled to find me there, and stopped on
+the edge of the board when just ready to jump
+down. She would have made a pretty picture as
+she stood hesitating, with her tail over her back,
+for the sun lit up her gray breast till it almost
+glistened and warmed her pretty brown head as
+she looked wistfully down at the box. After
+twisting and turning she went off to think the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>
+matter over, and, encouraged perhaps by my
+whistle, came back and hopped down into the
+little nest.</p>
+
+<p>Two weeks later I was much grieved to find
+that the nest had been broken up. A horse had
+been staked under the tree, but he could not have
+done the mischief; for while the eggs were there,
+the nest itself was all jumbled up in the mouth of
+the can. I could not get it out of my mind for
+days. You become so much interested in the families
+you are watching that you feel as if their
+troubles were yours, and are haunted by the fear
+that they will think you have something to do
+with their accidents. They had taken me on probation
+at first, and at last had come to trust me&mdash;and
+then to imagine that I could deceive them
+and do the harm myself!</p>
+
+<p>When Canello and I left the brushy side of
+the canyon and started across the valley, the
+pretty little horned larks, whose reddish backs
+matched the color of the road, would run on
+ahead of us, or let the horses come within a few
+feet of them, squatting down ready to start, but
+not taking wing till it seemed as if they would
+get stepped on. Sometimes one sat on a stone by
+the roadside, so busy singing its thin chattering
+song that it only flitted on to the next stone as
+we came up; for it never seemed to occur to the
+trustful birds that passers-by might harm them.</p>
+
+<p>One of our most interesting birds nested in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>
+holes in the open uncultivated fields down the
+valley,&mdash;the burrowing owl, known popularly,
+though falsely, as the bird who shares its nest
+with prairie dogs and rattlesnakes. Though they
+do not share their quarters with their neighbors,
+they have large families of their own. We once
+passed a burrow around which nine owls were sitting.
+The children of the ranchman called the
+birds the 'how-do-you-do owls,' from the way
+they bow their heads as people pass. The owls
+believe in facing the enemy, and the Mexicans
+say they will twist their heads off if you go round
+them times enough.</p>
+
+<p>One of our neighbors milked his cows out in a
+field where the burrowing owls had a nest, and
+he told me that his collie had nightly battles with
+the birds. I rode down one evening to see the
+droll performance, and getting there ahead of the
+milkers found the bare knoll of the pasture peopled
+with ground squirrels and owls. The squirrels
+sat with heads sticking out of their holes,
+or else stood up outside on their hind legs, with
+the sun on their light breasts, looking, as Mr.
+Roosevelt says, like 'picket pins.' The little
+old yellowish owls who matched the color of the
+pasture sat on the fence posts, while the darker
+colored young ones sat close by their holes, matching
+the color of the earth they lived in. As I
+watched, one of the old birds flew down to feed
+its young. A comical little fellow ran up to meet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>
+his parent and then scudded back to the nest hole,
+keeping low to the ground as if afraid of being
+seen, or of disobeying his mother's commands.
+When the ranchman came with his cows the
+small owls ducked down into their burrows out of
+sight.</p>
+
+<p>Romulus, the collie, went up to the burrows
+and the old owls came swooping over his back
+screaming shrilly&mdash;the milkers told me that they
+often struck him so violently they nipped more
+than his hair! When the owls flew at him,
+Romulus would jump up into the air at them,
+and when they had settled back on the fence
+posts he would run up and start them off again.
+The performance had been repeated every night
+through the nesting season, and was getting to be
+rather an old story now, at least to Romulus. The
+ranchman had to urge him on for my benefit, and
+the owls acted as if they rather enjoyed the sport,
+though with them there was always the possibility
+that a reckless nestling might pop up its head
+from the ground at the wrong moment and come
+to grief. It would be interesting to know if the
+owls were really disturbed enough to move their
+nest another year.</p>
+
+<p>When Canello and I faced home on our daily
+circuit of the valley, we often found the vineyard
+well peopled. In April, when it was being cultivated,
+there was a busy scene. All the blackbirds
+of the neighborhood&mdash;both Brewer's and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>
+redwings&mdash;assembled to pick up grubs from the
+soft earth. A squad of them followed close at
+the plowman's heels, others flew up before his
+horse, while those that lagged behind in their
+hunt were constantly flying ahead to catch up, and
+those that had eaten all they could sat around on
+the neighboring grape-vines. The ranchman's
+son told me that when he was plowing and the
+blackbirds were following him, two or three 'bee-birds,'
+as they call the Arkansas and Cassin's
+flycatchers, would take up positions on stakes
+overlooking the flock; and when one of the blackbirds
+got a worm, would fly down and chase after
+him till they got it away, regularly making their
+living from the blackbirds, as the eagles do from
+the fish hawks.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 407px;">
+<img src="images/i029.png" width="407" height="212" alt="In Hot Pursuit. (Brewer&#39;s Blackbird and Bee-birds.)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">In Hot Pursuit.<br />
+
+(Brewer&#39;s Blackbird and Bee-birds.)</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>One day in riding by the vineyard, to my surprise
+and delight I saw one of the handsome yellow-headed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
+blackbirds sitting with dignity on a
+grape-vine. Although his fellows often flock with
+redwings, this bird did not deign to follow the
+cultivator with the others, but flew off and away
+while I was watching, showing his striking white
+shoulder patches as he went. The distinguished
+birds were sometimes seen assembled farther
+down the valley; and I once had a rare pleasure
+in seeing a company of them perched high on the
+blooming mustard.</p>
+
+<p>The son of the ranchman told me an interesting
+thing about the ordinary blackbirds. He
+said he had seen a flock of perhaps five hundred
+fly down toward a band of grazing sheep, and all
+but a few of the birds light on the backs of sheep.
+The animals did not seem to mind, and the birds
+flew from one to another and roosted and rode
+to their heart's content. They would drop to the
+ground, but if anything startled them, fly back
+to their sheep again. Sometimes he had seen
+a few of the blackbirds picking out wool for
+their nests by bracing themselves on the backs of
+the sheep, and pulling where the wool was loose.
+He had also seen the birds ride hogs, cattle, and
+horses; but he said the horses usually switched
+them off with their tails.</p>
+
+<p>On our way home we passed a small pond
+made by the spring rains. Since it was the only
+body of water for miles around, it was especially
+refreshing to us, and was the rendezvous of all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>
+our feathered neighbors&mdash;how they must have
+wished it would last all through the hot summer
+months! As I rode through the long grass on
+the edge of the pond, dark water snakes often
+wriggled away from under Canello's feet; but he
+evidently knew they were harmless, for he paid
+no attention to them, though he was mortally
+afraid of rattlers. I did not like the feeling that
+any snake, however innocent, was under my feet,
+so would pull him up out of the grass onto a flat
+rock overlooking the pond.</p>
+
+<p>In the fresh part of the morning, before the
+fog had entirely melted away, the round pool at
+our feet mirrored the blue sky and the small
+white clouds. If a breath of wind ruffled the
+water into lines, in a moment more it was sparkling.
+Along the margin of the water was a border
+of wild flowers, pink, purple, and gold; on one
+side stood a group of sycamores, their twisted
+trunks white in the morning sun and their branches
+full of singing birds; while away to the south a
+line of dark blue undulating hills was crowned by
+the peak from which we had looked off on the
+mountains of Mexico. The air was ringing with
+songs, the sycamores were noisy with the chatter
+of blackbirds and bee-birds, and the bushes were
+full of sparrows.</p>
+
+<p>There was an elder on the edge of the pond,
+and the bathers flew to this and then flitted down
+to the water; and when they flew up afterwards,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>
+lighted there to whip the water out of their feathers
+and sun themselves before flying off. I
+never tired watching the little bathers on the
+beach. One morning a pipit came tipping and
+tilting along the sand, peeping in its wild, sad
+way. Another time a rosy-breasted linnet stepped
+to the edge of the pond and dipped down daintily
+where the water glistened in the sunshine, sending
+a delicate circle rippling off from its own shadow.
+Then the handsome white and golden-crowned sparrows
+came and bathed in adjoining pools. When
+one set of birds had flown off to dry their feathers,
+others took their places. A pair of blackbirds
+walked down the sand beach, but acted absurdly,
+as if they did not know what to do in water&mdash;it
+was a wonder any of the birds did in dry California!
+Two pieces of wood lay in the shallows,
+and the blackbirds flew to them and began to
+promenade. The female tilted her tail as if the
+sight of herself in the pond made her dizzy, but
+the male finally edged down gingerly and took a
+dip or two with his bill, after which both flew off.</p>
+
+<p>On the mud flats on one side of the pond, bee-birds
+were busy flycatching, perching on sticks
+near the ground and making short sallies over the
+flat. Turtle doves flew swiftly past, and high
+over head hawks and buzzards circled and let
+themselves be borne by the wind.</p>
+
+<p>Swallows came to the pond to get mud for their
+nests. A long line of them would light on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
+edge of the water, and then, as if afraid of wetting
+their feet, would hold themselves up by fluttering
+their long pointed wings. They would get
+a little mud, take a turn in the air, and come
+back for more, to make enough to pay them for
+their long journeys from their nests. Sometimes
+they would skim over the pond without touching
+the surface at all, or merely dip in lightly for a
+drink in passing; at others they would take a
+flying plunge with an audible splash. Now and
+then great flocks of them could be seen circling
+around high up against a background of clouds
+and blue sky.</p>
+
+<p>One day I had a genuine excitement in seeing
+a snow-white egret perched on a bush by the
+water. I rode home full of the beautiful sight,
+but alas, my story was the signal for the ranchman's
+son to seize his gun and rush after the bird.
+Fortunately he did not find him, although he did
+shoot a green heron; but it was probably a short
+reprieve for the poor hunted creature.</p>
+
+<p>Canello was so afraid of miring in the soft
+ground that it was hard to get him across
+some places that seemed quite innocent. He
+would test the suspicious ground as carefully as
+a woman, one foot at a time; and if he judged it
+dangerous, would take the bits, turn around and
+march off in the opposite direction. I tried to
+force him over at first, but had an experience one
+day that made me quite ready to take all suggestions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>
+in such matters. This time he was deceived
+himself. We were on our homeward
+beat, off in the brush beyond the vineyard. I
+was watching for chewinks. We came to what
+looked like an old road grown up with soft green
+grass, and it was so fresh and tender I let Canello
+graze along at will; while keeping my eyes
+on the brush for chewinks. Suddenly Canello
+pricked up his ears and raised his head with a
+look of terror. Rattlesnakes or miring&mdash;it was
+surely one or the other! When I felt myself sinking,
+I knew which. I gave the horse a cut with
+the quirt to make him spring off the boggy
+ground, and looked off over his side to see how
+far down he was likely to go, but found myself
+going down backwards so fast I had to cling
+to the pommel. I lashed Canello to urge him
+out, and he struggled desperately, but it was no
+use. We were sinking in deeper and deeper, and
+I had to get off to relieve him of my weight. By
+this time his long legs had sunk in up to his body.
+On touching the ground I had a horrible moment
+thinking it might not hold me; but it bore
+well. Seizing the bridle with one hand and swinging
+the quirt with the other, I shouted encouragement
+to Canello, and, straining and struggling, he
+finally wrenched himself out and stepped on <i>terra
+firma</i>&mdash;I never appreciated the force of that expression
+before! The poor horse was trembling
+and exhausted when I led him up to high ground<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>
+to remount, and neither of us had any desire to
+explore boggy lands after that.</p>
+
+<p>On our morning round, Canello and I attended
+strictly to business,&mdash;he to grazing, I to observing;
+but on our afternoon rides I, at least, felt that we
+might pay a little more heed to the beauties of the
+valley and the joys of horsebacking. Sometimes
+we would be overtaken by the night fog. One
+moment the mustard would be all aglow with sunshine;
+at the next, a sullen bank of gray fog
+would have risen over the mountain, obscuring the
+sun which had warmed us and lighted the mustard;
+and in a few moments it would be so cold
+and damp that I would urge Canello into a lope
+to warm our blood as we hurried home.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span></p>
+<h2>II.</h2>
+
+<div class='chaptertitle'>THE LITTLE LOVER.</div>
+
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 268px;">
+<img src="images/i036.png" width="268" height="267" alt="The Little Lover. (Western House Wren.)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">The Little Lover.<br />
+
+(Western House Wren.)</span>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='smcap'>On</span> my second
+visit to California,
+I spent
+the winter in
+the Santa Clara
+valley, riding
+among the foothills
+of the Santa
+Cruz Mountains,
+where
+flocks of Oregon
+robins were resting
+from the
+labors of the
+summer and passing the time until they could
+fly home again; but when the first spring wild
+flowers bloomed on the hills I shipped my little
+roan mustang by steamer from San Francisco to
+San Diego, and hurried south to meet him and
+spend the nesting season in the little valley of
+the Coast Mountains which, five years before, had
+proved such an ideal place to study birds.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I went down early in March, to be sure to be in
+time for the nesting season; but spring was so late
+that by the last of April hardly a nest had been
+built, and it seemed as if the birds were never
+coming back. The weather was gloomy and the
+prospect for the spring's work looked discouraging,
+when one morning I rode over to the line of oaks
+and sycamores at the mouth of Ughland canyon
+I had not visited before. In this dry, treeless
+region of southern California only a little water
+is needed to cover the bare valley bottoms with
+verdure. The rushing streams that flow down
+the canyons after the winter rains fill their mouths
+with rich groves of brush, oaks and sycamores;
+while lines of trees border the streams as far as
+they extend down the valleys. Before the streams
+go far, the thirsty soil drinks them up, leaving
+only dry beds of sand bordered by trees, until the
+rains of the following winter. In April, the water
+in this particular canyon mouth had already disappeared,
+and the wide sand bed under the trees
+alone remained to tell of the short-lived stream.
+But the resulting verdure was enough to attract
+the birds. Apparently a party of travelers had
+just arrived. The brush and trees were full of
+song&mdash;yellowbirds, linnets, chewinks, doves,
+wrens, and, best of all, a song sparrow,&mdash;bless his
+heart!&mdash;singing as if he were on a bush in New
+York state. It was more cheering than anything
+I had heard in California.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>When able to listen to something besides song
+sparrows, I realized that from the trees in front of
+me was coming the rippling merry song of a wren.
+Wrens are always interesting,&mdash;droll, individual
+little scraps,&mdash;and having found their nests in
+sycamore holes before, I let my horse, Mountain
+Billy, graze nearer to the tree from which the
+sound came. Before long the small brown pair
+flew away together across the oat field that spread
+out from the mouth of the canyon. While they
+were gone, I took the opportunity to inspect the
+tree, and found a large hole with twigs sticking
+out suggestively. Presently, back flew one of the
+wrens with more building material. But this line
+of sycamores was off from the highway, and the
+bird was not used to prying equestrians; so when
+she found Mountain Billy and me planted in front
+of her door, she doubted the wisdom of showing
+us that it was her door. Chattering nervously,
+she would back and fill, flying all but to the door
+and then flitting off again. She could not make
+up her mind to go inside. But soon her mate
+came and&mdash;unmindful of visitors, ardent little
+lover that he was&mdash;sang to her so gayly that it
+put her in heart; and before I knew it she had
+slipped into the tree.</p>
+
+<p>Here was a nest, at last, right over my eye.
+To encourage myself while waiting for something
+to happen, I began a list with the heading NESTS,
+when something caught my eye overhead, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>
+glancing up, behold, a goldfinch walked down a
+branch and seated herself in a round cup! A few
+moments later&mdash;buzz&mdash;whirr&mdash;a hummingbird
+flew to a nest among the brown leaves of one of
+the low-hanging oak sprays not ten feet away!
+I simply stared with delight and astonishment.
+No need of a list for encouragement now. From
+Billy's back I could look down into the little cup,
+which seemed the tiniest in the world. Forgetting
+the little lover and his mate, I sat still and watched
+this small household.</p>
+
+<p>The young were out of the eggs, though not
+much more, and their mother sat on the edge of
+the nest feeding them. She curved her neck over
+till her long bill stood up perpendicularly, when
+she put it gently into the gaping bills of her young;
+the smallest of bills, not more than an eighth of
+an inch long, I should judge. I never saw hummingbirds
+fed so gently. Probably the small
+bills and throats were so delicate the mother was
+afraid they would not bear the usual jabbing and
+pumping.</p>
+
+<p>When the little ones were fed, the old bird got
+down in the nest, fluffing her feathers about her
+in a pretty motherly way and settling herself comfortably
+to rest, apparently ignoring the fact that
+Billy was grazing close beside her. She may
+have had her qualms, but no mother bird would
+leave her tender young uncovered on such a cold
+morning.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>While she was on the nest, there was an approaching
+whirr, followed by a retreating buzz&mdash;had
+the father bird started to come to the nest
+and fled at sight of me? Remembering the evidence
+Bradford Torrey collected to prove that the
+male bird is rarely seen at the nest, I wondered
+if his absence might be explained by his usually
+noisy flight, for it would attract the notice of man
+or beast.</p>
+
+<p>Two days later I carefully touched the tip of
+my finger to the back of one of the tiny hummingbirds,&mdash;it
+was very skinny, I regret to state,&mdash;and
+at my touch the little thing opened its wee
+bill for food. That day the mother fed the birds
+in the regulation way, when we were only four
+feet distant. I was near enough to see all the
+horrors of the performance. She thrust her bill
+down their throats till I felt like crying out, "For
+mercy's sake, forbear!" She plunged it in up to
+the very hilt; it seemed as if she must puncture
+their alimentary canals.</p>
+
+<p>While waiting for the wrens, I buckled Billy's
+bridle around the sycamore and threw myself
+down on the warm sand under the beautiful tree.
+The little horse stood near, outlined against the
+blue sky, with the sunlight dappling his back,
+while I looked up into the light green foliage of
+the white sycamore overhead. There seemed to
+be a great deal of light stored in these delicate
+trees. The undersides of the big, soft, white leaves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>
+looked like white Canton flannel; the sunlight
+mottled the whitish bark of the trunks and
+branches; and a great limb arched above me,
+making a high vaulted chamber whose skylights
+showed the deep blue above.</p>
+
+<p>But there were the little lover and his mate,
+and I must turn my glass on them. She came
+first, with long streamers hanging from her bill,
+and at sight of me got so flustered that one of her
+straws slipped out and went sailing down to the
+ground. When the pair had gone again, two
+linnets came along. The female saw the wren's
+doorway, and being in search of apartments flew
+up to look at the house. When she came out
+she and her mate talked it over and, apparently,
+she told him something that aroused his curiosity&mdash;perhaps
+about the wren's twigs she found
+inside&mdash;for he flew into the dark hole and looked
+around as she had done. Then both birds went
+off to inspect other holes in the tree. The master
+of the wren cottage came back in time to see them
+on their rounds, and taking up his position in
+front of his door sang out loudly, with wings
+hanging and a general air of, "This is <i>my</i> house,
+I'd have you understand!"</p>
+
+<p>When the lord of the manor had flown away,
+his lady came. I thought perhaps he had told
+her of the visitors and she had come to see if
+they had disturbed any of her sticks, for she
+brought no material. She was afraid to go to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>
+nest in my presence, but flew to a branch near by
+and leaned down so far it was a wonder she didn't
+tip over as she stared anxiously at the hole&mdash;a
+bad way to keep a secret, my little lady! I thought.
+When her merry minstrel came, his song again
+gave her courage and she flew inside, turning in
+the doorway, however, to look out at me.</p>
+
+<p>But what with horses grazing under her windows
+and linnets making free with her nest, the
+poor wren was unsettled in her mind. Possibly it
+would be wiser to take out her sticks and build
+elsewhere. She went about looking at vacant
+rooms and examined one opening in the side of
+the trunk where I could see only her profile as
+she hung out of the hole.</p>
+
+<p>For some time the timid bird would not accept
+Mountain Billy and me as part of her immediate
+landscape, and I watched the premises a number
+of days, getting nothing but my labor for my
+pains, as far as wrens were concerned.</p>
+
+<p>One day when she did not come, I thought it
+was a good chance to get a study of the hummingbird's
+nest; but alas!&mdash;the delicate little
+structure hung torn and dangling from the twig,
+with nothing to tell what had become of the
+poor little hummers. I moralized sadly upon
+the mutability of human affairs as I took the tattered
+nest and tied it up in a corner of my handkerchief;
+for it was all that was left of the little
+home built with such exquisite care and brooded
+over so tenderly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The yellowbird's nest came to an untimely end,
+too, although its start was such a bright one. It
+was a disappointment, for the goldfinches are such
+trustful birds and so affectionate and tender in
+their family relations that they always win one's
+warm interest. At first, when this mother bird
+went to the nest, her mate stationed himself on
+the nest tree, leaning over and looking down anxiously
+at Billy and me; but before their home
+was broken up the watchful guardian fed his
+pretty mate at her brooding when we were below.</p>
+
+<p>We had a great many visitors while waiting
+for the wrens: neighbors came to sit in our
+green shade, young housekeepers came looking for
+rooms to rent, and old birds who were leading
+around their noisy families came to dine with us.
+Once a pair of flickers started to light in the tree,
+but they gave a glance over the shoulder at me
+and fled. Later I found their secret&mdash;down inside
+an old charred stump up the canyon. Occasionally
+I got sight of gay liveries in the green
+sycamore tops. A Louisiana tanager in his coat
+of many colors stopped one day, and another time,
+when looking up for dull green vireos, my eye
+was startled by a flaming golden oriole. The
+color was a keen pleasure. Lazuli buntings, relatives
+of our eastern indigo-bird, sang so much
+within hearing that I felt sure they were nesting
+in the weeds outside the line of sycamores&mdash;I
+did find a pair building in the malvas beyond; a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>
+pair of bush-tits, cousins of the chickadees, came
+with one of their big families; California towhees
+often appeared sitting quietly on the branches;
+linnets were always stopping to discuss something
+in their emphatic way; clamorous blue jays rushed
+in and set the small birds in a panic, but seeing
+me quickly took themselves off; and a pair of
+wary woodpeckers hunted over the sycamore
+trunks and worked so cautiously that they had
+finished excavating a nest only just out of my
+sight on the other side of the wren tree trunk
+before I seriously suspected them of domestic
+intentions.</p>
+
+<p>One day, when watching at the tree, a great
+brown and black lizard that the children of the
+valley call the 'Jerusalem overtaker' came
+worming down the side of an oak that I often
+leaned against. The rough bark seemed such a
+help to it that I imagined the wrens had done
+wisely in choosing a smooth sycamore to build
+in. I looked narrowly at their nest hole with
+the thought in mind and saw that the birds had
+another point of vantage in the way the trunk
+bulged at the hole&mdash;it did not seem as if a large
+lizard could work itself up the smooth slippery
+rounding surface, however much given to eggs for
+breakfast. But in the West Indies lizards walk
+freely up and down the marble slabs, so it is dangerous
+to say what they cannot do.</p>
+
+<p>Billy had a surprise one day greater than mine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
+over the lizard. He was grazing quietly near
+where I sat under the wren tree, when he suddenly
+threw up his head. His ears pointed forward,
+his eyes grew excited, and as he gazed his
+head rose higher and higher. I jumped from the
+ground and put my hand on the pommel ready to
+spring into the saddle. As I did so, across the
+field I caught a glimpse of a great fawn-colored
+animal with a white tip to its tail, bounding
+through the brush&mdash;a deer! Then I heard
+voices through the trees and saw the red shawl
+of a woman in a wagon rumbling up the road
+the deer must have crossed.</p>
+
+<p>When Mountain Billy and I pulled ourselves
+together and started after the deer, the poor horse
+was so unstrung he made snakes of all the sticks
+he saw and shied at all imaginable bugaboos along
+the way. We were too late to see the deer again,
+but found the marks of its hoofs where it had
+jumped a ditch and sunk so deep in the fine sand
+on the other side that it had to take a great leap
+to recover itself.</p>
+
+<p>The sight of the deer made Billy as nervous as
+a witch for days. Every time we went to visit
+the wrens he would stand with eyes glued to the
+spot where it had appeared, and when a jack-rabbit
+came out of the brush with his long ears up,
+Billy started as if he thought it would devour
+him. I was perplexed by his nervousness at first,
+but after much pondering reasoned it out, to my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
+own satisfaction at least. His name was Mountain
+Billy, and in the days when he had been a
+wayward bucking mustang he lived in the Sierra.
+Now, even in the hills surrounding our valley,
+colts were killed by mountain lions. How much
+more in the Sierra. Mountain lions are large
+fawn-colored animals: that was it: Mountain
+Billy was suffering from an acute attack of association
+of ideas. The sight of the deer had awakened
+memories of the nightmare of his colthood
+days.</p>
+
+<p>We made frequent visits to the wren tree, and
+both my nervous little horse and I had a start one
+morning, for as we rode in, a covey of quail flew up
+with a whirr from under the tree in front of us.</p>
+
+<p>When the wren had become reconciled to us
+she worked rapidly, flying back and forth with
+material, followed by her mate, who sang while she
+was on the nest and chased away with her afterwards.
+Often when she appeared in the doorway
+ready to go, his song, which had been just a merry
+round before, at sight of her would suddenly
+change to a most ecstatic love song. He would
+sit with drooping tail, his wings sometimes shaking
+at his sides, at others raised till they almost
+met over his back, trembling with the excitement
+of his joy. This peculiar tremulous motion of the
+wings was marked in both wrens; their emotions
+seemed too large for their small bodies.</p>
+
+<p>I found the wrens building, the last of April.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
+The third week in May the little lover was singing
+as hard as ever. I wrote in my note-book&mdash;"Wrens
+do not take life with proper seriousness,
+their duties certainly do not tie them down."
+When the eggs were in the nest, if her mate sang
+at her door, the mother bird would fly out to him
+and away they would go together; for it never
+seemed to occur to the care-free lover that he
+might brood the eggs in her absence.</p>
+
+<p>When the young hatched, however, affairs took
+a more serious turn. Mother wren at least was
+kept busy looking for spiders, and later, when
+both were working together, if not hunting among
+the green treetops, the pretty little brown birds
+often flew to the ground and ran about under the
+weeds to search for insects. Once when the
+mother bird had flown up with her bill full, she
+suddenly stopped at the twig in front of the nest,
+looking down, her tail over her back wren fashion,
+the sun on her brown sides, and her bill bristling
+with spiders' legs.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 257px;">
+<img src="images/i048.png" width="257" height="523" alt="A Trying Moment." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A Trying Moment.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>On June 7 I noticed a remarkable thing. For
+more than five weeks, all through the building
+and brooding, the little lover had been acting as
+if on his honeymoon&mdash;as if the nest were a joke
+and there were nothing for him to do in the world
+but sing and make love to his pretty mate&mdash;as
+if life were all 'a-courtin'.' On this day he first
+came to the tree with food, sang out for his spouse,
+gave her the morsel, and flew off. Later in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>
+morning he brought food and his mate carried it to
+the young. But afterwards, when she started to
+take a morsel from him, behold! he&mdash;the gay, frivolous
+little beau,
+the minstrel lover&mdash;actually
+acted as
+if he didn't want
+to give it up, as if
+he wanted to feed
+his own little birds
+himself. With
+wings trembling at
+his sides he turned
+his back on his
+mate and started
+to walk down the
+branch away from
+her! But he was
+too fond of her to
+even seem to refuse
+her anything, and
+so, coming back,
+gave her the morsel.
+She probably
+divined his
+thought, and, let
+us hope, was glad
+to have him show an interest in his children at
+last; at all events, when he came again with food
+and clung to the tip of a drooping twig waiting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
+although she first lit above him and came down
+toward him with bill wide open and wings fluttering
+in the pretty, helpless, coquettish way female
+birds often tease to be fed; suddenly, as if remembering,
+she flew off, and&mdash;he went in to the
+nest himself! It was a conquest; the little lover
+was not altogether lacking in the paternal instinct
+after all! I looked at him with new
+respect.</p>
+
+<p>On June 12 I wrote: "The wrens seem to have
+settled down to business." It was <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'delighful'">delightful</ins> to
+find the small father actually taking turns feeding
+the young. I saw him feed his mate only
+once or twice, and noticed much less of the quivering
+wings, though after leaving the nest he would
+sometimes light on a branch and move them
+tremulously at his sides for a moment. June 15 I
+wrote: "The birds are feeding rapidly to-day. I
+hear very little song from the male; probably he
+has all he can attend to. I'd like to know how
+many young ones there are in that hole." At
+all events, the voices of the young were getting
+stronger and more insistent, and it is no bagatelle
+to keep half a dozen gaping mouths full of spiders,
+as any mother bird can tell. This particular
+mother wren, however, seemed to enjoy her cares.
+She often called to the young from a branch in
+front of the nest before going in, and stopped to
+call back to them with a motherly-sounding <i>krup-up-up</i>
+as she stood in the entrance on leaving.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>One day as one of the old birds stood in the
+doorway its mate flew into the nest right over its
+head. The astonished doorkeeper was so startled
+that it took to its wings.</p>
+
+<p>Before this, in watching the wrens, I had
+looked off across a sunny field of golden oats,
+against the background of blue hills. On June
+14, when I went to the nest, the mowers had been
+at work around the sycamores and the oat-field
+was full of cocks. Just as the wren was most
+anxious for peace and quietness, for a safe world
+into which to launch her brood, up came this rout
+of haymakers with all their clattering machines,
+laying low the meadows to her very door.</p>
+
+<p>No wonder the little bird met me with nerves
+on edge. When the eggs had first hatched, she
+had objected to me, but mildly. To be sure, once
+when she found me staring she flew away over my
+head, scolding as much as to say, "Stop looking
+at my little birds," and finding me there when
+she came back, shook her wings at her sides and
+scolded hard, though her bill was full; but still
+her disapproval did not trouble me; it was too
+sociable. But now, for some time, affected by
+the shadow of coming events, she had been growing
+more and more fidgety under my gaze, darting
+inside, then whisking back to the door to look at
+me, in again to her brood and out to me, over and
+over like a flash&mdash;or, like a poor little troubled
+mother wren, distracted lest her unruly youngsters<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>
+should pop out of the hole in the tree trunk when
+I was below to catch them.</p>
+
+<p>On this day, when the wren came up from the
+dark nest pocket and found me below, she called
+back to her little ones in such distress that I felt
+reproached. By gazing fixedly through my glass
+into the dark hole I could see the head of a
+sprightly nestling pop up and turn alertly from
+side to side as if returning my inspection. The
+old wren's calls made me think of a human mother
+who can no longer control her big wayward
+offspring and has to entreat them to do as she
+bids. It was as if she said, "Oh, <i>do</i> be good children,
+<i>do</i> keep still; <i>do</i> put your heads back; you
+<i>naughty</i> children, you <i>must</i> do as I tell you!"</p>
+
+<p>On June 16, six weeks after I had found the
+birds building, I wrote in my note-book: "I am
+astonished every morning when I come and find
+the wrens still here, but perhaps it's easier feeding
+them in one spot than it would be chasing around
+after them in half a dozen different places."</p>
+
+<p>The young were chattering inside the nest.
+They all talked at once as children will, but one
+small voice assumed the tones of the mother;
+probably the oldest brother speaking with the air
+of authority featherless children sometimes assume
+with the weaker members of the family. When a
+parent came, I saw the big brother's head pop up
+from behind the wall,&mdash;the nest was in a pocket
+below,&mdash;and by the time the old bird got there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>
+with food the big throat blocked the way for the
+little ones down behind. Sometimes I could see
+a flutter of small wings and tails, when the birds
+were being fed.</p>
+
+<p>As nothing happened, I went off to watch another
+nest, but in an hour was back to make sure
+of seeing the small wrens when they left the
+nest. A loud continuous scolding met me on approaching,
+and one of the old wrens, with bill full
+of insects, flew&mdash;not up to the nest&mdash;but down
+in among the weeds! In less than an hour that
+whole brood of wrens had flown, and were three
+or four rods away in the high weeds&mdash;safe! I
+was taken aback. They had stolen a march on
+me. Surely I had not been treated as was fit
+and proper, being one of the family!</p>
+
+<p>It was amusing to see the young ones fly. They
+whirled away on their wings as if they had been
+flitting around in the big world always; but their
+stubby tails sadly interfered with their progress,
+and they came to earth before they meant.</p>
+
+<p>Weak cries came from the young hidden in the
+weeds. They could fly, but it was different from
+being safe inside a tree trunk! I hardly recognized
+their weak appealing voices, after the stentorian
+tones that had issued from the old nest.</p>
+
+<p>The weeds were a most admirable cover, and
+the dead stalks sticking up through them served
+as sentry posts, from which the old birds scolded
+me when I followed too close on their heels. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>
+youngsters sometimes appeared on the stalks, and
+looked very pert on their long legs with their
+short tails cocked over their backs.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon I went again to see the little
+family to which I had become so much attached
+and which were now slipping away from me.
+They had been led farther up the canyon, where,
+at a turn in the dry bed of the stream, the thick
+cover of weeds was still more protected by brush
+and overhanging trees, and the whole thicket
+was warmed by the afternoon sunshine. The old
+birds were busily flying back and forth feeding
+their invisible young. They scolded me as they
+flew past, but kept right on with their work.</p>
+
+<p>There was little use trying to keep track of the
+brood after that, and I thought I had given them
+up quite philosophically, reflecting that it was
+pleasant to leave them in such a sunny protected
+place. Still, day after day in riding along the
+line of sycamores on my way to other nests, it
+gave me a pang of loneliness to pass the old deserted
+wren tree where I had spent so many happy
+hours; and though the sycamores were silent, I
+could always hear and see the little lover singing
+to his pretty mate.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span></p>
+<h2>III.</h2>
+
+<div class='chaptertitle'>LIKE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT.</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">When</span> watching the little lover and his brood,
+I heard familiar voices farther down the line of
+oaks, voices of little friends I had made on my
+first visit to California, and had always remembered
+with lively interest as the jauntiest, most
+individual bits of humanity I had ever known in
+feathers. So, when Mountain Billy and I could
+be spared by the other bird families we were
+watching, we set out to hunt up the little bluish
+gray western gnatcatchers.</p>
+
+<p>The (sand) stream that widened under the
+wren's sycamores narrowed up the canyon to a&mdash;dry
+ditch, I should say, if it were not disrespectful
+to speak that way of a channel that once a year
+carries a torrent which excavates canals in the
+meadows. Billy and I started up this sand ditch,
+so narrow between its weed-grown banks that
+there was barely room for us, and so arched over
+in places by chaparral that we could get through
+only when Billy put down his ears and I bowed
+low on the saddle.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 408px;">
+<img src="images/i055.png" width="408" height="378" alt="Nest of Western Gnatcatcher. (From a photograph.)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Nest of Western Gnatcatcher.<br />
+
+(From a photograph.)</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>We had not gone far before we heard the gnatcatchers,
+bluish gray mites with heads that are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>
+always cocked on one side or the other to look
+down at something, and long tails that are always
+flipping about as their owners flaunt gayly through
+the bushes: At sound of their voices I pulled
+Billy up out of the ditch, and, slipping from his
+back, sat down on the ground to wait for the
+birds. Eureka! there, in a slender young oak
+on the edge of the stream not a rod away, one of
+the pair was gliding off its nest, a beautiful lichen-covered,
+compact little structure such as I had
+admired years before. I was jubilant. What a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>
+relief! I had fully expected it to be inside the
+dense brush, where no mortal could tell what was
+going on; and here it was out in the plain light
+of day. What a delightful time I should have
+watching it! Before leaving the spot, in imagination
+I had followed the brood out into the
+world and filled a note-book with the quaint airs
+and graces of the piquant pair.</p>
+
+<p>When insinuating yourself into the secrets of
+the bird world, it is not well to be too obtrusive
+at first: it is a mistake to spend the day when
+you make your first call; so contenting myself
+with thinking of the morrow, and fixing the small
+oak in my memory, I took myself off before the
+blue-gray should tell on me to her mate. As I
+rose to go, a dove flew out of the oak&mdash;she had
+been brooding right over my head. Another nest,
+and a mourning dove's, one of the most gentle and
+winning of birds! Surely my good star was in
+the ascendent!</p>
+
+<p>The next day, forgetful of this second nest, I
+rode Billy right up under the oak, and was startled
+to find the pretty dove sitting quietly over
+our heads, looking down at us out of her gentle
+eyes. It was a pleasant surprise. She let me
+talk to her, but when I had dismounted Billy
+tramped around so uneasily that the saddle caught
+in the oak branches and scared the poor bird
+away. I had hardly seated myself when the jaunty
+little gnatcatcher came flying over and lit in an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
+upper branch of the tree. What a contrast she
+was to the quiet dove! With many flirts of the
+tail she hopped down to the nest, jumping from
+branch to branch as if tripping down a pair of
+stairs. When she dropped into her deep cup
+her small head stuck up over one edge, her long
+tail pointed over the other.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p>I looked away a moment, and on glancing back
+found the nest empty. On the instant, however,
+came the sound of my small friend's voice. Such
+a talkative little person!&mdash;not one of your creep-in-and-out-of-the-nest-without-anybody's-knowing-it
+kind of a bird, not she! Her remarks sounded
+as if made over my head, and when Billy stamped
+about the brush and rapped the saddle trying to
+switch off flies, I imagined guiltily that they were
+addressed to me; but while I wondered if she
+would keep away all the rest of the morning because
+she had discovered me, back she came, talking
+to herself in complaining tones and whipping
+her tail impatiently, even after she stood on the
+edge of the nest, evidently absorbed in her own
+affairs, quite to the exclusion of the person down
+in the brush who thought herself so important!</p>
+
+<p>My doves were attending to me, however, altogether
+too much. The brooding bird was anxious
+to go to her nest. After flying out where she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>
+could see me, she whizzed toward it; but, fearful,
+hesitated and talked it over with her mate&mdash;both
+birds cooed with inflated breaths. After
+that the branches rattled overhead, but even then,
+though my back was turned, the timid bird dared
+not stay. She must make another inspection.
+From an opposite oak she peered through the
+branches, moving her head excitedly, and calling
+out her impressions to her mate. Meanwhile, he
+had flown down the sand stream and called back
+quite calmly. I, also, cooed reassuringly to her,
+and soon she quieted down and began to plume her
+feathers on the sunny branch. As the gnatcatchers
+did not honor us with their attention even
+when Billy stalked around in plain sight, I moved
+a little closer to their nest to give the dove more
+freedom; and soon the gentle bird slipped back
+to her brooding.</p>
+
+<p>Before leaving I went to see the dove in the
+oak, and spoke caressingly to her, admiring her
+soft dove-colored feathers and shining iridescent
+neck. She was on her own ground there, and felt
+that she could safely be friends, so she only
+winked in the sun, paying no heed to her mate
+when he called warningly. It was especially
+pleasant to watch this reserved lady-like bird,
+after the flippant tell-all-you-know little gnat.</p>
+
+<p>On going away, Billy and I took a run up the
+canyon. Billy was in high spirits, and went
+racing up the narrow road, winding and turning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>
+through the chaparral, brushing me against the
+the stiff scrub oak and loping under low branches
+so fast that the sharp leaves snapped back, stinging
+my cheeks. We had a gay ride, with a spice
+of excitement thrown in; for on our way home, in
+the thick dust across our path, besides the pretty
+quail tracks that made wall-paper patterns on the
+road, were the straight trails of gopher snakes,
+and the scalloped one of a rattlesnake we had
+been just too late to meet.</p>
+
+<p>At our next session with the blue-grays, when
+she was on the nest, her mate came back to relieve
+her and cried in his quick cheerful way,
+"Here I am, here I am!" Either she was taking
+a nap or didn't want to stir, for she didn't
+budge till he called insistently, "<i>Here</i> I am, <i>here</i>
+I am!" Then he hopped down in her place, and
+raising his head above the nest, remarked again,
+as if commenting upon the new situation, "Here
+I am!"</p>
+
+<p>It was quite a different matter when she came
+back to work. She only called "hello," not even
+hinting that he should make way for her, but he
+hopped off at the first sound of her voice, flying
+away promptly to another tree and calling back
+like a gleeful boy let out of school, "Here I am!"</p>
+
+<p>She was no more eager to go to the nest than
+he, however, and once when she came flirting
+leisurely along from twig to twig, she stopped a
+long time on the edge of the nest and leaned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>
+over, presumably to arrange the eggs; perhaps
+she and her mate had different views as to their
+proper positions. The next time I visited the
+gnats, she acted as if she really could not make
+up her mind to settle down to brooding on such a
+beautiful morning. The fog had cleared away
+and the air was fresh and full of life; goldfinches
+and lazuli buntings were singing merrily, and
+light-hearted vireos were shouting <i>chick-a-de-chick'-de-villet'</i>
+from the brush. How much pleasanter
+it would be for such an airy fairy to go off
+for a race with her mate than to settle down demurely
+tucked into a cup! "Tsang," she cried
+impatiently as she flew up to catch a fly. She
+flirted about the branches, whipped up in front of
+the nest, couldn't make up her mind to go in,
+and flounced off again. But the eggs would get
+cold if she didn't cover them, so back she came,
+hopped up on the edge of the nest, and stood
+twisting and turning, glancing this way and that
+as though for a fly to chase, till she happened to
+look down at the eggs; then she whipped her
+tail, dropped in and&mdash;jumped out again!</p>
+
+<p>During the morning when she was away and
+her mate was waiting for her to come back to
+'spell' him, he too got impatient. He hopped
+out of the nest crying, "Now here I am, quick,
+come quick!" and as he flew off, sang out in his
+funny little soliloquizing way, "Well, here I go;
+here I go!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>His restless spouse had only just settled down
+when a wren-tit&mdash;a wren-like bird with a long
+tail&mdash;flew into a bush near her oak, and she
+darted out of the nest to snap her bill over his
+head. I thought it merely an excuse to leave
+her brooding. Calling out "tsang," she again
+flew at the brown bird who was hopping around
+in the bush, so innocently, as I thought. Conqueror
+for the moment, she flaunted back to the
+nest, and after much ado finally settled down.</p>
+
+<p>For a time all was quiet. Hearing the low
+cooing of doves, I went to talk to the pretty bird
+in the oak, and she let me come near enough to
+see her bluish bill and quiet eyes. As I returned
+to the gnatcatchers, a chewink was hoeing in the
+sand stream. Again the wren-tit approached
+stealthily. I watched with languid interest till he
+got to the gnat's tree. The instant he touched
+foot upon her domain, she dashed down at him,
+crying loudly and snapping her bill in his face.
+The brown bird dodged her blows, held his footing
+in spite of her, and slowly made his way up
+to the nest. I was astonished and frightened.
+He leaned over the nest, and&mdash;what he actually
+did I could not see, for by that time the blue-gray's
+cries had called her mate and they were
+both screaming and diving down at him as if they
+would peck his eyes out; and it sounded as if
+they hit him on the back good and hard.</p>
+
+<p>A peaceful lazuli bunting, hearing the commotion,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>
+came to investigate, but when she saw what
+was happening held back against the side of a
+twig as though afraid of getting struck, and soon
+flew off, having no desire to get mixed up in that
+affray.</p>
+
+<p>When the wren-tit had at last been driven from
+his position, the gnatcatchers flew up into a tree
+and, standing near together, talked the matter
+over excitedly. Then one of them went back to
+the nest, reached down into it and brought up
+something that it appeared to be eating. Its mate
+went to the nest and did the same, after which
+one of them flew away with a broken eggshell.
+When the little creatures turned away from the
+plundered nest they broke out into cries of distress
+that were pitiful to hear. I felt indignant
+at the wren-tit. How could a bird with eggs of
+its own do such a cruel thing? But then, I reflected,
+we who pretend to be better folks than
+wren-tits do not always spare our neighbors because
+of our own troubles. When the poor birds
+had carried away their broken eggshell, one of
+them came and tugged at the nest lining till it
+pulled out a long horsehair and what looked like
+a feather, apparently trying to take out everything
+that the egg had soiled.</p>
+
+<p>When the little housekeeper was working over
+her nest, a brown towhee flew into the tree. On
+the instant there was a flash of wings&mdash;the gnat
+was ready for war. But after a fair look at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
+big peaceful bird, she flew to the next tree without
+a word&mdash;she evidently knew friends from
+enemies. I never liked the towhee so well before.
+But though the blue-gray had nothing to say
+against her neighbor sitting up in the tree if he
+chose, her nerves were so unstrung that when she
+lit in the next tree she cried out "tsang" in an
+overburdened tone. It sounded so unlike the
+usual cry of the light-hearted bird, it quite made
+me sad.</p>
+
+<p>Whether the poor little gnatcatchers did not
+recover from this attack upon their home, and took
+their nest to pieces to put it up elsewhere, as birds
+sometimes do; or whether the stealthy wren-tit
+again crept in like a thief in the night to plunder
+his neighbor's house, I do not know; but the next
+time I went to the oak the nest was demolished.
+It was a sorry ending for what had promised to
+be such an interesting and happy home.</p>
+
+<p>My poor dove's nest had a tragic end, too.
+What happened I do not know, but one day the
+body of a poor little pigeon lay on the ground
+under the nest. My sympathies went out to both
+mothers, but especially to the gentle dove, now a
+mourner, indeed.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p>
+<h2>IV.</h2>
+
+<div class='chaptertitle'>WAS IT A SEQUEL?</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">After</span> the wren-tit stole in like a thief in the
+night and broke up the pretty home of the gnatcatchers,
+I suspected that they took their house
+down to put it up again in a safer place, and so
+was constantly on the lookout to find where that
+safer place was. At last, one day, I heard the
+welcome sound of their familiar voices, and following
+their calls finally discovered them flying
+back and forth to a high branch on an old oak-tree;
+both little birds working and talking together.
+Mind, I do not stake my word on this
+being the same pair of gnats; but the nest followed
+closely on the heels of the plundered one,
+which was a point in its favor, and, being anxious
+to take up the lines with my small friends
+again, I let myself think they were the birds
+of the sand ditch nest. It was such a delight to
+find them that I deserted the nest I had been
+watching, and went to spend the next morning
+with my old friends. The tree they had chosen
+was a high oak in an open space in the brush,
+and they were building fifteen or twenty feet
+above the ground&mdash;so high that it was necessary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>
+to keep an opera-glass focused on the spot to see
+what was going on at their small cup.</p>
+
+<p>As the birds worked, I was filled with forebodings
+by seeing a pair of wren-tits on the premises.
+They went about in the casual indifferent way
+sad experience had shown might cover a multitude
+of evil intentions, and which made me suspect
+and resent their presence. How had they
+found the poor little gnats? It was not hard to
+tell. How could they help finding such talkative
+fly-abouts? But if birds are in danger from all
+the world, including those who should be their
+comrades and champions, why should not builders
+keep as still at the nest as brooding birds,
+instead of heedlessly giving information to observers
+that lurk about taking notes for future
+misdeeds? But then, could gnatcatchers keep
+still anywhere at any time? No, that was not to
+be hoped for. I could only watch the little chatterers
+from hour to hour and be thankful for
+every day that their home was unmolested.</p>
+
+<p>It was interesting to see how the jaunty indifferent
+gnats would act when settling down to
+plain matters of business. Strange to say, they
+proved to be the most energetic, tireless, and
+skillful of builders. Their floor had been laid&mdash;on
+the branch&mdash;before I arrived on the scene,
+and they were at work on the walls. The plan
+seemed to be twofold, to make the walls compact
+and strong by using only fine bits of material and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>
+packing them tightly in together; while at the
+same time they gave form to the nest and kept
+it trim and shipshape by moulding inside, and
+smoothing the rim and outside with neck and bill.
+Sometimes the bird would smooth the brim as a
+person sharpens a knife on a whetstone, a stroke
+one way and then a stroke the other. When the
+sides were not much above the floor, one bird
+came with a bit of material which it proceeded to
+drill into the body of the wall. It leaned over
+and threw its whole weight on it, almost going
+head first out of the nest, and had to flutter its
+wings to recover itself. The birds usually got inside
+to build, but there was a twig beside the nest
+that served for scaffolding, and they sometimes
+stood on that to work at the outside.</p>
+
+<p>At first they seemed to take turns at building,
+working rapidly and changing places quite regularly;
+but one morning when seated under the
+oak I saw that things were not as they had been.
+Perhaps a difference of opinion had arisen on
+architectural points, and Mrs. Gnatcatcher had
+taken matters into her own hands. At all events,
+this is what happened: instead of rapid changes
+of place, when one of the gnats was at work its
+mate flew up and started to go to the nest, hesitated,
+and backed away; then unwilling to give
+up having a finger in the pie, advanced again.
+This was kept up till the little bird put its pride
+in its pocket, and gently gave over its cherished
+bit of material to its mate at the nest!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Now as these gnatcatchers had the bad taste to
+dress so nearly alike that I could not tell them
+apart, I was left to my own surmises as to which
+took the material. Still, who could it have been
+but Mrs. Gnat? Would she give over the house
+to Mr. Gnat at this critical moment? She doubtless
+wanted to decorate as she went along, and
+men aren't supposed to know anything about
+such trivial matters! On the other hand, it might
+easily be he, for, supposing he had come of a family
+of superior builders, surely he would want to
+see to the laying of substantial walls; and unquestionably
+a good wall was the important part
+of this nest. Alas! it was a clear case of "The
+Lady or the Tiger." To complicate matters, the
+birds worked so fast, so high over my head, and
+so hidden by the leaves, that I had much ado to
+keep track of their exchanges at all. If I could
+only catch them and tie a pink ribbon around one
+of their necks!&mdash;then, at least, I would know
+which was doing what, or if it was doing what it
+hadn't done before! It is inconsiderate enough
+of birds to wear the same kind of clothes, but to
+talk alike too, when hidden by the leaves&mdash;that,
+indeed, is a straw to break the camel's back. If
+small gray gnatcatchers up in the treetops had
+only been big black magpies low in the brush, my
+testimony regarding their performances might be
+of more value; but then, the magpies of my acquaintance
+were so shy they would have none of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>
+me; so although life and field work are full of disappointments,
+they are also full of compensations.</p>
+
+<p>Not being able to do anything better with the
+gnat problems, I guessed at which was which&mdash;when
+I saw No. 2 go to the nest and No. 1 reluctantly
+make way as if not wanting No. 2 to meddle,
+I drew my own conclusions, although they were
+not scientifically final. I did see one thing that
+was satisfactory, as far as it went. One of the
+birds came with big tufts of stiff moss sticking out
+from either side of its bill like great mustachios,
+and going up to the nest, handed them to its mate&mdash;actually
+something big enough for a person to
+see, once! Whatever had been the birds' first
+feeling as to which should put the bricks in the
+wall, it was all settled now, and the little helpmate
+flew off singing out such a happy good-by it made
+one feel like writing a sermon on the moral effect
+of renunciation. After that I was sure the little
+helper fed his (?) mate on the nest, again singing
+out good-by as he flitted away. Once when he (?)
+brought material he found her (?) busy with what
+she had, and so went to the other end of the
+branch, and waited till she was ready for it, when
+he flew back and gave it to her.</p>
+
+<p>It was a real delight to watch the little blue-grays
+at their work. Once as one of them started
+to fly away&mdash;I am sure this was she&mdash;she suddenly
+stopped to look back at the nest as if to
+think what she wanted to get next; or, perhaps,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>
+just to get the effect of her work at a distance,
+as an artist walks away from his painting; or as
+any mother bird would stop to admire the pretty
+nest that was to hold her little brood. Another
+time one of the gnats,&mdash;I was sure this was he,&mdash;having
+driven off an enemy, flipped his tail by the
+nest with a paternal air of satisfaction. The birds
+made one especially pretty picture; the little pair
+stood facing each other close to the nest, and the
+sun, filtering through the green leaves over their
+heads, touched them gently as they lingered near
+their home.</p>
+
+<p>One morning when a gnat was in the nest a
+leaf blew down past it, startling it so it hopped
+out in such a hurry that the first I knew it was
+seated beneath the nest, flashing its tail.</p>
+
+<p>Back and forth the dainty pair flew across the
+space of blue sky between the oak and the brush.
+They went so fast and carried so little it seemed
+as if they might have made their heads save their
+heels&mdash;they brought so little I couldn't see that
+they brought anything; but I feel delicate about
+telling what I know about nest-making, and it
+may be that this was just the secret of the wonderfully
+compact solid walls of the nest; a little
+at a time, and that drilled in to stay.</p>
+
+<p>When one of the small builders flew down near
+me&mdash;within two yards&mdash;for material, I felt
+greatly pleased and flattered. Her mate warned
+her, but she paid no particular attention to him,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>
+and with jaunty twists and turns hopped about on
+the dead limbs, giving hurried jabs at the cobwebs
+she was gathering. Once she rubbed her
+little cheek against a twig as if a thread of the
+cobweb had gotten in her eye. She dashed in
+among the dead leaves after something, but flew
+back with a start as if she had seen a ghost. She
+was not to be daunted, however, and after whipping
+her tail and peering in for a moment, hopped
+bravely down again. Sometimes, when collecting
+cobweb, the gnat would whip its tail and snap
+its bill snip, snip, snip, as if cutting the web with
+a pair of scissors.</p>
+
+<p>I was amused one day by seeing a gnat fly down
+from the oak to the brush with what looked like a
+long brown caterpillar. The worm dangling from
+the tip of his beak was almost as large as the
+bird, and the little fellow had to crook his tail to
+keep from being overbalanced and going on his
+bill to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>As the nest went up, the leaves hid it; but I
+could still see the small wings and tails flip up
+in the air over the edge of the cup and jerk about
+as the bird moulded. I watched the workers so
+long that I felt quite competent to build a nest
+myself, till happening to remember that it required
+gnatcatcher tools.</p>
+
+<p>Ornithologists are discouraging people to wait
+for, and Mountain Billy got so restless under the
+gnat tree that he had to invent a new fly-brush<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>
+for himself. On one side of the oak the branches
+hung low to the ground, and he pushed into the
+tangle till the green boughs rested on his back
+and he was almost hidden from view. Meanwhile
+I sat close beside the chaparral wall, where all
+sorts of sounds were to be heard, suggestive of
+the industries of the population hidden within the
+brush at my back. Hearing small footsteps, I
+peered in through the brown twigs, and to my
+delight saw a pair of stately quail walking over
+the ground, promenading through the brush avenues.
+Afterwards I caught sight of a gray animal,
+probably a wood rat, running down a branch
+behind me, and heard queer muffled sounds of
+gnawing.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, looking back, I was startled to see a
+big ringed brown and yellow snake lying like a
+rope at the foot of the gnat's tree, just where I
+had sat. He was about four feet long, and had
+twenty-three rings. He started to wind into the
+crotch of the oak as if meaning to climb the tree,
+but instead, crept to a stump and festooned himself
+about it worming around the holes as he
+might do if looking for nest holes. Imagine how
+a mother bird would feel to have him come stealing
+upon her little brood in that horrid way! When
+he crawled over the dead leaves I noted with a
+shiver that he made no sound. Thinking of the
+gnats, I watched his every movement till he had
+left the premises and wormed his way off through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>
+the brush. Though quite engrossed with the
+gnats, it was finally forced upon me that there is
+more than one family in the world. The blue-gray's
+oak was a favored one. A pair of hang-birds
+had built there before the gnats came, and
+now two more families had come, making four
+for the big oak.</p>
+
+<p>When first suspecting a house on the north side
+of the tree, I moved my chair over there. Presently
+a vireo with disordered breast feathers flew
+down on a dead twig close to the ground and
+leaned over with a tired anxious look, and craning
+her neck, turned her head on one side, and bent
+her eyes on the ground scrutinizingly. Then she
+hopped down, picked up something, threw it away,
+picked up another piece and flew back to her perch
+with it, as if to make up her mind if she really
+wanted that. Then her mate came, raised his
+crown and looked down at the bit of material with
+a puzzled air as if wishing he knew what to say;
+as if he felt he ought to be able to help her decide.
+But he seemed helpless and could only follow her
+around when she was at work, singing to her betimes,
+and keeping off friends or enemies who
+came too near. When the young hatched I noticed
+a still more marked difference between the
+nervous manners of the gnats, and the repose of
+vireos. While the gnat flipped about distractedly,
+the vireo sat calmly beside her nest, an exquisite
+white basket hanging under the leaves in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>
+sun, or walked carefully over the branches looking
+for food for the young. Some days before finding
+out the facts, I suspected that the wood pewee
+perching on the old tree had more important
+business there, for the way he and his mate flew
+back and forth to the oak top was very pointed.
+So again I moved my chair. To my delight the
+wood pewee flew up in the tree, sat down on a
+horizontal crotch, and went through the motions
+of moulding.</p>
+
+<p>There were two birds, however, that simply
+used the tree as a resting-place, as far as I ever
+knew. A hummingbird perched on the tip of
+a twig, looking from below like a good sized
+bumblebee as he preened his feathers and looked
+off upon the world below. At the other side of
+the oak a pretty pink dove perched on a sunny
+branch that arched against the blue sky. It sat
+close to the branch beside the green leaves and
+dressed its feathers or dozed quietly in the sun.
+We had other visitors that the house owners did
+not accept so willingly. The gnatcatchers up the
+sand ditch whose nest had been broken up by
+the thief-in-the-night did not object to brown chippies,
+but perhaps, if this were the same pair, they
+had been made suspicious by their trouble. In
+any case, when a brown chippie lit on a limb near
+the nest, quite accidentally I believe, and turned
+to look at the pretty structure, quite innocently I
+feel sure, the little gnats fell on him tooth and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>
+nail, and when he hid under the leaves where they
+could not reach him they fluttered above the
+leaves, and the moment he ventured from under
+cover were both at him again so violently that at
+the first opportunity he took to his wings. There
+was one curious thing about this attack and expulsion;
+the gnats did not utter a word during
+the whole affair! I had never known them to be
+silent before when anything was going on&mdash;rarely
+when there wasn't.</p>
+
+<p>Another morning when I rode in there was a
+great commotion up in the oak. A chorus of
+small scolding voices, and a fluttering of little
+wings among the branches told that something
+was wrong, while a large form moving deliberately
+about in the tree showed the intruder to be
+a blue jay! Aha! the gossips would wag their
+heads. I disapprove of gossip, but as a truthful
+reporter am obliged to say that I saw the blue jay
+pitch down into the brush with something white
+in his bill&mdash;perhaps a cocoon&mdash;and that thereupon
+a great weeping and wailing arose from
+the little folk up in the treetop. A big brown
+California chewink stood by and watched the&mdash;robbery(?),
+great big fellow that he was; and
+not once offered to take the little fellows' part.
+I felt indignant. Why didn't he pitch into the
+big bully and drive him off before he had stolen
+the little birds' egg&mdash;if it was an egg. A
+grosbeak called <i>ick'</i> from the treetop, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>
+thought he'd better not meddle; and&mdash;it was
+a pair of wren-tits who looked out from a brush
+screen and then skulked off, chuckling to themselves,
+I dare say, that some one else was up to
+their tricks. It gave my faith in birds a great
+shock, this, together with the pillage of the gnat's
+nest by the thief-in-the-night. My spleen was
+especially turned against the brown chewink; he
+certainly was a good fighter, and might at least
+have helped to clear the neighborhood of such a
+suspicious character.</p>
+
+<p>Where did the egg&mdash;if it was an egg&mdash;come
+from? The vireos and pewees and gnats were still
+building, I reflected thankfully, though trembling
+for their future; and fortunately the hangbird
+had young. Perhaps the jay had found a nest
+that I could not discover.</p>
+
+<p>After that, things went on quietly for several
+days. The gnats got through with their building,
+and went off for a holiday until it should be
+time to begin brooding. They flitted about the
+branches warbling, as if having nothing special to
+do; dear little souls, at work as at play, always
+together. One of them unexpectedly found himself
+near me one day; but when he saw it was
+only I, whipped his tail and exclaimed "<i>Oh, it's
+you'. I'm' not afraid.</i>"</p>
+
+<p>This peace and quietness, however, did not last.
+The gnats' house was evidently haunted, and they
+did not like&mdash;blue&mdash;ghosts. One morning when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
+I got to the oak it was all in a hubbub, and the
+vireo was scolding loudly at a blue jay. When
+the giant pitched into the brush the wren-tit chattered,
+and I thought perhaps the jay was teaching
+him how it feels to have a shoe pinch. A few
+moments later I was amazed to see a gnat jab at
+the wall till it got a bill full of material and then
+fly off to the brush with it! My little birds had
+moved! Evidently the neighborhood was too
+exciting for them. More than ten days of hard
+work&mdash;no one can tell how hard until after watching
+a gnatcatcher build&mdash;had been spent in vain
+on this nest; and if, as suspected, this was their
+second, how much more work did that mean?
+It was a marvel that the birds could get courage
+to start in again, especially if they had had two
+homes broken up already.</p>
+
+<p>From my position at the big oak I could see
+that the gnats were carrying the frame of the
+old house to a small oak in the brush. The
+wood pewee had moved too, and to my surprise
+and pleasure I found it had begun its nest on a
+branch under the gnats, so that both families could
+be watched at the same time. I nearly got
+brushed off the saddle promenading through the
+stiff chaparral to find a place where the nests
+could be seen from the ground; but when at last
+successful, I too, like the rest of the old oak's floating
+population, moved to pastures new. Hanging
+my chair on the saddle, I made Billy carry it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>
+for me; then I buckled the reins around the
+trunk of the oak and withdrew into the brush to
+watch my birds. It was a cozy little nook, from
+which Billy could be heard stamping his feet to
+shake off the flies. The little crack in the chaparral
+was a pleasant place to sit in, protected as it
+was from the wind, with the sun only coming in
+enough to touch up the brown leaves on the ground
+and warm the fragrant sage, bringing out its delicious
+spicy aromatic smell.</p>
+
+<p>The pewee did not altogether relish having us
+established under its vine and fig-tree. When it
+saw Billy under the tree it whistled, and the bit
+of grass it had brought for its nest went sailing
+down to the brush disregarded. It did not think
+us as bad as the blue jay, however, for it came
+back with a long stem of grass in its bill, and,
+lighting on a high branch, called <i>pee-ree</i>. To be
+sure, when it had gone to the nest and I was inconsiderate
+enough to turn a page in my note-book,
+it dashed off. But if murder will out, so will
+good intentions; and before long the timid bird
+was brooding its nest with Billy and me for spectators.</p>
+
+<p>The gnat's nest here was so much lower than
+the other one that it was much easier to watch.
+The first day the birds built rapidly. One of
+them got his spider's web from beside the pewee's
+nest, when the pewee was away. He started to go
+for it once after the owner had returned, caught<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>
+sight of him, stopped short, and much to my
+amusement concluded to sit down and preen his
+feathers! The pewee had one special bare twig
+of his own that he used for a perch, and when
+the gnat seated himself there in his neighbor's
+absence he looked so small that I realized what a
+mite of a bird he really was. He sometimes sat
+there and talked while his mate moulded the nest.</p>
+
+<p>When the gnats got to brooding, many of the
+same pretty performances were repeated that had
+marked the first nest of all, up in the sand ditch.
+When the bird on the nest hopped out and called,
+"Come, come," its mate, who had been wandering
+around in the sunny green treetop, called out
+in sweet tones, "Good-by, good-by."</p>
+
+<p>When waiting for the gnats to do something, I
+heard a little sound in the oak brush by my side,
+and, looking through the brown branches, saw a
+wren-tit come hopping toward me. It came up
+within three feet of me, near enough to see its
+bright yellow eyes. I began to wonder if it had
+a nest near by, and felt my prejudices melting
+away and my heart growing tender. Some thieves
+are very honest fellows; it is largely a difference
+in ethical standards! I began to feel a keen interest
+in the bird and its affairs, for the wren-tit
+was really a most original bird, and one I was
+especially anxious to study.</p>
+
+<p>My newly awakened interest was not chilled by
+any second tragedy; all went well with the little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>
+blue-grays. The day the gnat's eggs hatched,
+the old folks performed most ludicrously. Perhaps
+they were young parents, and this being
+their first brood, maternal and paternal love had
+not yet blinded their eyes to the ridiculous;
+so that they looked down on these skinny, squirming,
+big-eyeballed prodigies with mingled emotions.
+It looked very much as if they were surprised
+to find that their smooth pretty eggs had
+suddenly turned into these ugly, weak, hungry
+things they did not know what to do with. At
+first it seemed that something must be wrong at
+the nest; the little gnat shook her wings and
+tail beside it as if afraid of soiling herself; and
+when she hopped into it, jerked out again and
+flitted around distractedly. Every time the
+birds looked into the nest they got so excited
+that, had they been girls, they surely would have
+hopped up and down wringing their hands. I
+laughed right out alone in the brush, they acted
+so absurdly.</p>
+
+<p>They began feeding the nestlings in the most
+remarkable way I had ever witnessed. When the
+young mother was on the nest her mate came
+and brought her the food, whereupon, instead of
+jumping off the nest and feeding the young in
+the conventional way, she simply raised up on
+her feet and, apparently, poked the food backwards
+into the bills of the young under her
+breast! Even when the gnats got to feeding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>
+more in the ordinary way, they did it nervously.
+They fed as if expecting the young to bite them.
+They would fly up on the branch beside the nest,
+give a jab down at the youngsters, whip tails
+and flee. You would have thought the young
+parents had been playing house before, and
+their dolls had suddenly turned into live hungry
+nestlings.</p>
+
+<p>I watched this family till the house was deserted,
+and I had to ride along a line of brush
+before finding them. The young were now
+pretty silvery-breasted creatures who sat up in a
+small oak while the old birds hunted through the
+brush for food for them. Though I rode Billy
+into the chaparral after them, and got near
+enough to see the black line over the bill of the
+father bird, they did not mind, but hunted away
+quite unconcernedly; for we had been through
+many things together, and were now old and fast
+friends.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p>
+<h2>V.</h2>
+
+<div class='chaptertitle'>LITTLE PRISONERS IN THE TOWER.</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">I had</span> not spent many days in The Little
+Lover's door-yard before realizing that there was
+something in the wind. If an inoffensive person
+fancies sitting in the shade of a sycamore
+with her horse grazing quietly beside her, who
+should say her nay? If, at her approach, a&mdash;feathered&mdash;person
+steals away to the top of the
+highest, most distant oak within sight and, silent
+and motionless, keeps his eye on her till she
+departs; if, as she innocently glances up at the
+trees, she discovers a second&mdash;feathered&mdash;person's
+head extended cautiously from behind a
+trunk, its eyes fixed on hers; or if, as she passes
+along a&mdash;sycamore&mdash;street, a person comes to
+a window and cranes his neck to look at her,
+and instantly leaves the premises; then surely,
+as the world wags, she is quite justified in having
+a mind of her own in the matter. Still
+more, when it comes to finding chips under
+a window&mdash;who could do aught but infer that
+a carpenter lived within? Not I. And so
+it came about that I discovered that one of the
+apartments in the back of the wren sycamore<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>
+had been rented by a
+pair of well-meaning
+but suspicious California
+woodpeckers, first
+cousins of the eastern
+red-heads.</p>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Woodpeckers">
+<tr><td align='left'><div class="figcenter" style="width: 215px;">
+<img src="images/i082a.png" width="215" height="224" alt="California Woodpecker. (One half natural size.)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">California Woodpecker.<br />
+(One half natural size.)</span>
+</div>
+</td><td align='left'><div class="figcenter" style="width: 201px;">
+<img src="images/i082b.png" width="201" height="187" alt="Red-headed Woodpecker&mdash;Eastern.
+(One half natural size.)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Red-headed Woodpecker&mdash;Eastern.<br />
+(One half natural size.)</span>
+</div>
+</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>It is unpleasant to
+be treated as if you
+needed detectives on
+your track. It strains
+your faith in human
+nature; the rest of the
+world must be very wicked if people suspect such
+extremely good creatures as you are! And then
+it reflects on the detectives; it shows them so
+lacking in discernment. Nevertheless, "A friend
+should bear his friend's infirmities," and I was
+determined to be friends with the woodpeckers.
+One of them kept me
+waiting an hour one
+morning. When I first
+saw it, it was on its tree
+trunk, but when it first
+saw me, it promptly left
+for parts unknown. I
+stopped at a respectful
+distance from its tree&mdash;several
+rods away&mdash;and
+threw myself down on
+the warm sand in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
+bed of the dry stream, between high hedges of
+exquisite lemon-colored mustard. Patient waiting
+is no loss, observers must remember if they
+would be consoled for their lost hours. In this
+case I waited till I felt like a lotus-eater who
+could have stayed on forever. A dove brooded
+her eggs on a branch of the spreading sycamore
+whose arms were outstretched protectingly above
+me; the sun rested full on its broad leaves, and
+bees droned around the fragrant mustard, whose
+exquisite golden flowers waved gently against a
+background of soft blue California sky.</p>
+
+<p>But that was not the last day I had to wait.
+It was over a month before the birds put any trust
+in me. The nest hole was excavated before the
+middle of May; on June 15 I wrote in my note-book,
+"The woodpecker has gotten so that when
+I go by she puts her head out of the window, and
+when I speak to her does not fly away, but cocks
+her head and looks down at me."<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> That same
+morning the bird actually entered the nest in my
+presence. She came back to her sycamore while
+I was watching the wrens, and flew right up to the
+mouth of the nest. She was a little nervous. She
+poked in her bill, drew it back; put in her head,
+drew that back; then swung her body partly in;
+but finally the tip of her tail disappeared down
+the hole.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p>
+<p>The next morning, in riding by, I heard weak
+voices from the woodpecker mansion. If young
+were to be fed, I must be on hand. Such luxurious
+observing! Riding Mountain Billy out
+into the meadow, I dismounted, and settled myself
+comfortably against a haycock with the bridle
+over my arm. It was a beautiful quiet morning.
+The night fog had melted back and the mountains
+stood out in relief against a sky of pure
+deep blue. The line of sycamores opposite us
+were green and still against the blue; the morning
+sun lighting their white trunks and framework.
+The songs of birds filled the air, and the
+straw-colored field dotted with haycocks lay sunning
+under the quiet sky. In the East we are
+accustomed to speak of "the peace of evening,"
+but in southern California in spring there is a
+peculiar interval of warmth and rest, a langorous
+pause in the growth of the morning, between the
+disappearance of the night fog and the coming of
+the cool trade wind, when the southern sun shines
+full into the little valleys and the peace of the
+morning is so deep and serene that the labor of
+the day seems done. Nature appears to be slumbering.
+She is aroused slowly and gently by the
+soft breaths that come in from the Pacific. On
+this day I watched the awakening. Up to this
+time not a grass blade had stirred, but while I
+dreamed a brown leaf went whirling to the ground,
+the stray stalks of oats left from the mowing began<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>
+to nod, and the sycamore branches commenced
+to sway. Then the breeze swelled stronger, coming
+cool and fresh from the ocean; the yellow primroses,
+around which the hummingbirds whirred,
+bowed on their stately stalks, and I could hear the
+wind in the moving treetops.</p>
+
+<p>Mountain Billy grazed near me till it occurred
+to him that stubble was unsatisfactory, when he
+betook him to my haycock. Though I lectured
+him upon the rights of property and enforced my
+sermon with the point of the parasol, he was soon
+back again, with the amused look of a naughty
+boy who cannot believe in the severity of his
+monitor; and later, I regret to state, when I was
+engrossed with the woodpeckers, a sound of
+munching arose from behind my back.</p>
+
+<p>The woodpeckers talked and acted very much
+like their cousins, the red-heads of the East.
+When they went to the nest they called <i>chuck'-ah</i>
+as if to wake the young, flying away with the
+familiar rattling <i>kit-er'r'r'r'</i>. They flew nearly
+half a mile to their regular feeding ground, and
+did not come to the nest as often as the wrens
+when bringing up their brood. Perhaps they got
+more at a time, filling their crops and feeding by
+regurgitation, as I have seen waxwings do when
+having a long distance to go for food.</p>
+
+<p>I first heard the voices of the young on June
+16; nearly three weeks later, July 6, the birds
+were still in the nest. On that morning, when I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
+went out to mount Billy, I was shocked to find the
+body of one of the old woodpeckers on the saddle.
+I thought it had been shot, but found it had been
+picked up in the prune orchard. That afternoon
+its mate was brought in from the same place.
+Probably both birds had eaten poisoned raisins
+left out for the gophers. The dead birds were
+thrown out under the orange-trees near the house,
+and not many hours afterward, when I looked out
+of the window, two turkey vultures were sitting
+on the ground, one of them with a pathetic little
+black wing in his bill. The great black birds
+seemed horrible to me,&mdash;ugly, revolting creatures.
+I went outside to see what they would do, and
+after craning their long red necks at me and stalking
+around nervously a few moments they flew off.</p>
+
+<p>Now what would become of the small birds imprisoned
+in the tree trunk, with no one to bring
+them food, no one to show them how to get out,
+or, if they were out, to feed them till they had
+learned how to care for themselves? Sad and
+anxious, I rode down to the sycamore. I rapped
+on its trunk, calling <i>chuck'-ah</i> as much like the
+old birds as possible. There was an instant answer
+from a strong rattling voice and a weak piping
+one. The weak voice frightened me. If that
+little bird's life were to be saved, it was time to
+be about it. The ranchman's son was pruning the
+vineyard, and I rode over to get him to come and
+see how we could rescue the little prisoners.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On our way to the tree we came on a gopher
+snake four feet long. It was so near the color of
+the soil that I would have passed it by, but the
+boy discovered it. The creature lay so still he
+thought it was dead; but as we stood looking, it
+puffed itself up with a big breath, darted out its
+tongue, and began to move off. I watched to see
+how it made the straight track we so often saw in
+the dust of the roads. It bent its neck into a
+scallop for a purchase, while its tapering tail made
+an S, to furnish slack; and then it pulled the
+main length of its body along straight. It crawled
+noiselessly right to the foot of the woodpecker
+tree, but was only hunting for a hole to hide
+in. It got part way down one hole, found that
+it was too small, and had to come backing out
+again. It followed the sand bed, taking my regular
+beat, from tree to tree! To be sure, gopher
+snakes are harmless, but they are suggestive, and
+you would rather their ways were not your ways.</p>
+
+<p>Although the little prisoners welcomed us as
+rescuers should be welcomed, they did it by mistake.
+They thought we were their parents. At
+the first blow of the axe their voices hushed, and
+not a sound came from them again. It seemed as
+if we never should get the birds out.</p>
+
+<p>It looked easy enough, but it wasn't. The nest
+was about twelve feet above the ground. The
+sycamore was so big the boy could not reach
+around it, and so smooth and slippery he could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>
+not get up it, though he had always been a good
+climber. He clambered up a drooping branch on
+the back of the tree,&mdash;the nest was in front,&mdash;but
+could not swing himself around when he got
+up. Then he tried the hollow burned at the foot
+of the tree. The charred wood crumbled beneath
+his feet, but at last, by stretching up and clinging
+to a knothole, he managed to reach the nest.</p>
+
+<p>As his fingers went down the hole, the young
+birds grabbed them, probably mistaking them for
+their parents' bills. "Their throats seem hot,"
+the boy exclaimed; "poor hungry little things!"
+His fingers would go through the nest hole, but not
+his knuckles, and the knothole where he steadied
+himself was too slippery to stand on while he enlarged
+the hole. It was getting late, and as he had
+his chores to do before dark I suggested that we
+feed the birds and leave them in the tree till morning;
+but the rescuer exclaimed resolutely, "We'll
+get them out to-night!" and hurried off to the
+ranch-house for a step-ladder and axe.</p>
+
+<p>The ladder did not reach up to the first knothole,
+four or five feet below the nest; but the boy
+cut a notch in the top of the knot and stood in it,
+practically on one foot, and held on to a small
+branch with his right hand&mdash;the first limb he
+trusted to broke off as he caught it&mdash;while with
+the left hand he hacked away at the nest hole.
+It was a ticklish position and genuine work, for
+the wood was hard and the hatchet dull.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I stood below holding the carving-knife,&mdash;we
+hadn't many tools on the ranch,&mdash;and as the boy
+worked he entertained me with an account of an
+accident that happened years before, when his
+brother had chopped off a branch and the axe head
+had glanced off, striking the head of the boy who
+was watching below. I stood from under as he
+finished his story, and inquired with interest if he
+were sure his axe head was tight! Before the lad
+had made much impression on the hard sycamore,
+he got so tired and looked so white around the
+mouth that I insisted on his getting down to rest,
+and tried to divert him by calling his attention to
+the sunset and the voices of the quail calling from
+the vineyard. When he went up again I handed
+him the carving-knife to slice off the thinner wood
+on the edge of the nest hole, warning him not to
+cut off the heads of the young birds.</p>
+
+<p>At last the hole was big enough, and, sticking
+the hatchet and knife into the bark, the lad threw
+one arm around the trunk to hold on while he
+thrust his hand down into the nest. "My, what
+a deep hole!" he exclaimed. "I don't know as
+I can reach them now. They've gone to the bottom,
+they're so afraid." Nearly a foot down he
+had to squeeze, but at last got hold of one bird
+and brought it out. "Drop him down," I cried,
+"I'll catch him," and held up my hands. The
+little bird came fluttering through the air. The
+second bird clung frightened to the boy's coat, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>
+he loosened its claws and dropped it down to me.
+What would the poor old mother woodpecker
+have thought had she seen these first flights of
+her nestlings!</p>
+
+<p>I hurried the little scared brothers under my
+jacket, my best substitute for a hollow tree, and
+called <i>chuck'-ah</i> to them in the most woodpecker-like
+tones I could muster. Then the boy shouldered
+the ladder, and I took the carving-knife,
+and we trudged home triumphant; we had rescued
+the little prisoners from the tower!</p>
+
+<p>When we had taken them into the house the
+woodpeckers called out, and the cats looked up so
+savagely that I asked the boy to take the birds
+home to his sister to keep till they were able to
+care for themselves. On examining them I understood
+what the difference in their voices had
+meant. One of them poked his head out of the
+opening in my jacket where he was riding, while
+the other kept hidden away in the dark; and when
+they were put into my cap for the boy to carry
+home, the one with the weak voice disclosed a
+whitish bill&mdash;a bad sign with a bird&mdash;and its
+feeble head bent under it so weakly that I was
+afraid it would die.</p>
+
+<p>Three days later, when I went up to the lad's
+house, it was to be greeted by loud cries from the
+little birds. Though they were in a box with a
+towel over it, they heard all that was going on.
+Their voices were as sharp as their ears, and they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>
+screamed at me so imperatively that I hurried out
+to the kitchen and rummaged through the cupboards
+till I found some food for them. They
+opened their bills and gulped it down as if starving,
+although their guardian told me afterwards
+that she had fed them two or three hours before.</p>
+
+<p>When held up where the air could blow on
+them, they grew excited; and one of them flew
+down to the floor and hid away in a dark closet,
+sitting there as contentedly as if it reminded him
+of his tree trunk home.</p>
+
+<p>I took the two brothers out into the sitting-room
+and kept them on my lap for some time,
+watching their interesting ways. The weak one I
+dubbed Jacob, which is the name the people of
+the valley had given the woodpeckers from the
+sound of their cries; the stronger bird I called
+Bairdi, as 'short' for <i>Melanerpes <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'formicivorous'">formicivorus</ins>
+bairdi</i>&mdash;the name the ornithologists had given
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Jacob and Bairdi each had ways of his own.
+When offered a palm, Bairdi, who was quite like
+'folks,' was content to sit in it; but Jacob hung
+with his claws clasping a little finger as a true
+woodpecker should; he took the same pose when
+he sat for his picture. Bairdi often perched in
+my hand, with his bill pointing to the ceiling,
+probably from his old habit of looking up at the
+door of his nest. Sometimes when Bairdi sat in
+my hand, Jacob would swing himself up from my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>
+little finger, coming bill to bill with his brother,
+when the small bird would open his mouth as he
+used to for his mother to feed him. Poor little
+orphans, they could not get used to their changed
+conditions!</p>
+
+<p>They did other droll things just as their fathers
+had done before them. They used to screw their
+heads around owl fashion, a very convenient thing
+for wild birds who cling to tree trunks and yet
+need to know what is going on behind their backs.
+Once, on hearing a sudden noise, one of them
+ducked low and drew his head in between his
+shoulders in such a comical way we all laughed at
+him.</p>
+
+<p>I often went up to the ranch to visit them. We
+would take them out under a big spreading oak
+beside the house, where the little girl's mother sat
+with her sewing, and then watch the birds as we
+talked. When we put them on the tree trunk,
+at first they did not know what to do, but soon
+they scrambled up on the branches so fast their
+guardian had to climb up after them for fear they
+would get away. Poor little Jacob climbed as if
+afraid of falling off, taking short hops up the side
+of the tree, bending his stiff tail at a sharp angle
+under him to brace himself against the bark.
+Bairdi, his strong brother, was less nervous, and
+found courage to catch ants on the bark. Jacob
+did a pretty thing one day. When put on the
+oak, he crept into a crack of the bark and lay<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>
+there fluffed up against its sides with the sun
+slanting across, lighting up his pretty red cap.
+He looked so contented and happy it was a pleasure
+to watch him. Another time he started to
+climb up on top of my head and, I dare say, was
+surprised and disappointed when what he had
+taken for a tree trunk came to an untimely end.
+When we put the brothers on the grass, one of
+them went over the ground with long hops, while
+the other hid under the rocking-chair. One bird
+seemed possessed to sit on the white apron worn
+by the little girl's mother, flying over to it from
+my lap, again and again.</p>
+
+<p>The woodpeckers had brought from the nest a
+liking for dark, protected places. Bairdi twice
+clambered up my hair and hung close under the
+brim of my black straw hat. Another time he
+climbed up my dress to my black tie and, fastening
+his claws in the silk, clung with his head
+in the dark folds as if he liked the shade. I covered
+the pretty pet with my hand and he seemed
+to enjoy it. When I first looked down at him his
+eyes were open, though he kept very still; but
+soon his head dropped on my breast and he went
+fast asleep, and would have had a good nap if
+Jacob had not called and waked him up.</p>
+
+<p>Jacob improved so much after the first few
+days&mdash;and some doses of red pepper&mdash;that we
+had to look twice to tell him from his sturdy brother.
+He certainly ate enough to make him grow.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>
+The birds liked best to be fed with a spoon; probably
+it seemed more like a bill. After a little,
+they learned to peck at their food, a sign I hailed
+eagerly as indicative of future self-support; for
+with appetites of day laborers and no one to
+supply their wants, they would have suffered
+sorely, poor little orphans! Sometimes, when they
+had satisfied their first hunger, they would shake
+the bread from their bills as if they didn't like it
+and wanted food they were used to.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 342px;">
+<img src="images/i095.jpg" width="342" height="550" alt="JACOB AND BAIRDI VISITING THE OLD NEST TREE" title="" />
+<span class="caption">JACOB AND BAIRDI VISITING THE OLD NEST TREE</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>When one got hungry he would call out, and
+then his brother would begin to shout. The little
+tots gave a crooning gentle note when caressed,
+and a soft cry when they snuggled down in our
+hands or cuddled up to us as they had done
+under their mother's wing. Their call for food
+was a sibilant chirr, and they gave it much oftener
+than any of the grown-up woodpecker notes.
+But they also said <i>chuck'-ah</i> and rattled like the
+old birds.</p>
+
+<p>I was glad there were two of them so they would
+not be so lonely. If separated they showed their
+interest in each other. If Bairdi called, Jacob
+would keep still and listen attentively, raising his
+topknot till every microscopic red feather stood
+up like a bristle, when he would answer Bairdi in
+a loud manly voice.</p>
+
+<p>It was amusing to see the small birds try to
+plume themselves. Sometimes they would take a
+sudden start to make their toilettes, and both work<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>
+away vigorously upon their plumes. It was comical
+to see them try to find their oil glands. Had
+the old birds taught them how to oil their feathers
+while they were still in the nest? They were
+thickly feathered, but when they reached back to
+their tails the pink skin showed between their
+spines and shoulders, giving a good idea of the
+way birds' feathers grow only in tracts.</p>
+
+<p>When the little princes were about a month
+old, I arranged with a neighboring photographer
+to have them sit for their picture. He drove over
+to the sycamore, and the lad who had rescued the
+prisoners took them down to keep their appointment.
+One of them tried to tuck its head up
+the boy's sleeve, being attracted by dark holes.
+While we were waiting for the photographer, the
+boy put Jacob in a hollow of the tree, where he
+began pecking as if he liked it. He worked away
+till he squeezed himself into a small pocket, and
+then, with his feathers ruffled up, sat there, the
+picture of content. Indeed, the little fellow looked
+more at home than I had ever seen him anywhere.
+The rescuer was itching to put the little princes
+back in their hole, to see what they would do,
+but I wouldn't listen to it, being thankful to
+have gotten them out once.</p>
+
+<p>When Bairdi was on the bark and Jacob was
+put below him, he turned his head, raised his red
+cap, and looked down at his brother in a very
+winning way.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Soon the photographer came, and asked, "Are
+these the little chaps that try to swallow your
+fingers?" We were afraid they would not sit
+still enough to get good likenesses, but we had
+taken the precaution to give them a hearty breakfast
+just before starting, and they were too sleepy
+to move much. In the picture, Jacob is clinging
+to the boy's hand in his favorite way, and Bairdi
+is on the tree trunk.</p>
+
+<p>Mountain Billy pricked up his ears when he
+discovered the woodpeckers down at the sycamore,
+but he often saw them up at the ranch and took
+me to make a farewell call on them before I left
+for the East. We found the birds perched on the
+tobacco-tree in front of the ranch-house, with a
+tall step-ladder beside it so the little girl could
+take them in at night. Their cup of bread and
+milk stood on the ladder, and when I called them
+they came over to be fed. They were both so
+strong and well that they would soon be able to
+care for themselves, as their fathers had done
+before them. And when they were ready to fly,
+they might have help; for an old woodpecker of
+their family&mdash;possibly an unknown uncle&mdash;had
+been seen watching them from the top of a neighboring
+oak, and may have been just waiting to
+adopt the little orphans. In any case, however
+they were to start out in the world, it was a great
+satisfaction to have rescued them from their
+prison tower.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></p>
+<h2>VI.</h2>
+
+<div class='chaptertitle'>HINTS BY THE WAY.</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">On</span> our way back and forth along the line of
+oaks and sycamores belonging to the little prisoners,
+the little lover, and the gnatcatchers,
+Mountain Billy and I got a good many hints, he
+of places to graze, and I of new nests to watch.</p>
+
+<p>While waiting for the woodpeckers one day
+I saw a small brownish bird flying busily back
+and forth to some green weeds. She was joined
+by her mate, a handsome blue lazuli bunting,
+even more beautiful than our lovely indigo bunting,
+and he flew beside her full of life and joy.
+He lit on the side of a cockle stem, and on the
+instant caught sight of me. Alas! he seemed
+suddenly turned to stone. He held onto that
+stalk as if his little legs had been bars of iron
+and I a devouring monster. When he had collected
+his wits enough to fly off, instead of the
+careless gay flight with which he had come out
+through the open air, he timidly kept low within
+the cockle field, making a circuitous way through
+the high stalks.</p>
+
+<p>He could be afraid of me if he liked, I thought,&mdash;for
+after a certain amount of suspicion an innocent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>
+person gets resentful; at any rate, I was
+going to see that nest. Creeping up cautiously
+when the mother bird was away, so as not to
+scare her, and carefully parting the mallows, I
+looked in. Yes, there it was, a beautiful little
+sage-green nest of old grass laid in a coil. I felt
+as pleased as if having a right to share the family
+happiness.</p>
+
+<p>After that I watched the small worker gather
+material with new interest, knowing where she
+was going to put it. She worked fast, but did
+not take the first thing she found, by any means.
+With a flit of the wing she went in nervous haste
+from cockle to cockle, looking eagerly about her.
+Jumping down to the ground, she picked up a bit
+of grass, threw it down dissatisfied, and turned
+away like a person looking for something. At
+last she lit on the side of a thistle, and tweaking
+out a fibre flew with it to the nest.</p>
+
+<p>When the house was done, one morning in
+passing I leaned down from the saddle, and
+through the weeds saw her brown wings as she
+sat on the nest. A month after the first encounter
+with the father lazuli, I found him looking
+at me around the corner of a cockle stalk,
+and in passing back again caught him singing
+full tilt, though his bill was full of insects! After
+we had turned our backs, I looked over my shoulder
+and had the satisfaction of seeing him take
+his beakful to the nest. You couldn't help admiring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>
+him, for though not a warrior who would
+snap his bill over the head of an enemy of his
+home, he had a gallant holiday air with his blue
+coat and merry song, and you felt sure his little
+brown mate would get cheer and courage enough
+from his presence to make family dangers appear
+less frightful. Even this casual acquaintance
+with the little pair gave me a new and tender
+interest in all of their name I might know in
+future.</p>
+
+<p>While watching the lazulis from the sycamores,
+on looking up on a level with Billy's ears, I discovered
+a snug canopied nest held by a jointed
+branch of the twisted tree, as in the palm of your
+hand. It was as if the old sycamore were protecting
+the little brood, holding it secure from all
+dangers. Looking at the nest, I spied a brown
+tail resting against the limb, and then a small
+brown head was raised to look at me from between
+the leaves. It was the little bird whose
+sweet home-like song had so cheered my heart in
+this far-away land, the home song sparrow, dearer
+than all the birds of California. It was such a
+pleasure to find her that I sat in the saddle and
+talked to the pretty bird while she brooded her
+eggs under the green leaves.</p>
+
+<p>The next time we went down to the sycamore
+the bird was away, and it seemed as if the tree
+had been deserted. It was empty and uninteresting.
+Again I came, and this time the father<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>
+song sparrow sang blithely in the old tree, while
+his gentle mate went about looking for food for
+her brood. Her little birds had come! How
+happy and full of business she seemed! She ran
+nimbly over the ground, weaving in and out between
+the stalks of the oats and the yellow mustard,
+as if there were paths in her forest. When
+she had to run across the sand bed, out in open
+sight, she put up her tail, held her wings tight at
+her sides, and scudded across. Then with the
+sunlight through the leaves dappling her back,
+she ran around the foot of the sycamore. She
+had something in her bill, and with a happy
+chirp was off to her brood.</p>
+
+<p>There was another family abroad on our beat.
+When riding past the little lover's, I heard voices
+of young birds beyond, and rode out to the oak
+in the middle of the field from which they came,
+to see who it was. It was a surprise to find a
+family of full-fledged blue jays&mdash;a surprise, because
+the jays had been terrorizing the small
+birds of the neighborhood till it seemed strange
+to think they had any family life themselves. I
+had come to feel that they were great hobgoblins
+going about seeking whom they could devour;
+but such harsh judgments are usually false,
+whether of birds or beasts, and I was convinced
+against my will on hearing the tender tone in
+which the old jays called to their young.</p>
+
+<p>To be sure, they were imperative in their commands.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>
+As I rode, around the tree, one of them
+looked at me sharply and proceeded to take
+measures to protect his brood. When one of
+the children told me where he was, his parent
+promptly flew over and shouted in his ear, "Be
+quiet!" with such a ring of command that an unbroken
+hush followed. Moreover, when one child,
+probably a greedy one, teased for food, its parent
+ran down the branch to drive it off; and in
+some way best known to themselves the old birds
+hushed up the boisterous young ones and spirited
+them out of my sight. But all these things were
+in line with good family government and the best
+interests of the children, and were more than
+atoned for by the soft gentle notes the old birds
+used when they were leading around their
+cherished brood out of harm's way.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span></p>
+<h2>VII.</h2>
+
+<div class='chaptertitle'>AROUND OUR RANCH-HOUSE.</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Close</span> up under the hills, the old vine-covered
+ranch-house stood within a circle of great spreading
+live oaks. The trees were full of noisy,
+active blackbirds&mdash;Brewer's blackbirds, relatives
+of the rusty that we know in New York. The
+ranchman told me that they always came up the
+valley from the vineyard to begin gathering
+straws for their nests on his brother's birthday,
+the twenty-fifth of March. After that time it
+was well for passers below to beware. If an
+unwary cat, or even a hen or turkey gobbler,
+chanced under the blackbirds' tree, half a dozen
+birds would dive down at it, screaming and scolding
+till the intruders beat an humble retreat.
+But the blackbirds were not always the aggressors.
+I heard a great outcry from them one day,
+and ran out to find them collecting at the tree in
+front of the house. A moment later a hawk flew
+off with a young nestling, and was followed by an
+angry black mob.</p>
+
+<p>One pair of the blackbirds nested in the oak
+by the side of the house, over the hammock.
+Though making themselves so perfectly at home<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>
+on the premises, driving off the ranchman's cats
+and gobblers, and drinking from his watering-trough,
+if they were taken at close quarters, with
+young in their nests, the noisy birds were astonishingly
+timid. One could hardly understand it
+in them.</p>
+
+<p>One afternoon I sat down under the tree to
+watch them. Mountain Billy rested his bridle
+on my knee, and the ranchman's dog came out to
+join us; but the mother blackbird, though she
+came with food in her bill and started to walk
+down the branch over our heads, stopped short
+of the nest when her eye fell on us. She shook
+her tail and called <i>chack</i>, and her mate, who sat
+near, opened wide his bill and whistled <i>chee</i>.
+The small birds were hungry and grew impatient,
+seeing no cause for delay, so raised their
+three fuzzy heads above the edge of the nest and
+sent imperative calls out of their three empty
+throats. As the parents did not answer the summons,
+the young dozed off again, but when the
+old ones did get courage to light near the nest
+there was such a rousing chorus that they flew off
+alarmed for the safety of their clamorous brood.
+After that outbreak, it seemed as if the mother
+bird would never go back to her children; but
+finally she came to the tree and, after edging
+along falteringly, lit on a branch above them.
+The instant she touched foot, however, she was
+seized with nervous qualms and turned round<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>
+and round, spreading her tail fan-fashion, as if
+distracted.</p>
+
+<p>To my surprise, it was the father bird who first
+went to the nest, though he had the wit to go to
+it from the outside of the tree, where he was less
+exposed to my dangerous glance. I wondered
+whether it was mother love that kept her from
+the nest when he ventured, or merely a case of
+masculine common-sense versus nerves. How
+birds could imagine more harm would be done by
+going to the nest than by making such a fuss five
+feet away from it was a poser to me. Perhaps
+they attribute the same intelligence to us that
+some of us do to them!</p>
+
+<p>While the blackbirds were making such a time
+over our heads, I watched the hummingbirds
+buzzing around the petunias and pink roses under
+the ranch-house windows, and darting off to
+flutter about the tubular flowers of the tobacco-tree
+by the well. One day the small boy of the
+family climbed up to the hummingbird's nest in
+the oak "to see if there were eggs yet," and the
+frightened brood popped out before his eyes.
+His sister caught one of them and brought it into
+the house. When she held it up by the open
+door the tiny creature spread its little wings and
+flew out into the vines over the window. The
+child was so afraid its mother would not find it
+she carried it back to its oak and watched till the
+mother came with food. The hummers were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>
+about the flowers in front of the windows so
+much that when the front door was left open
+they often came into the room.</p>
+
+<p>In an oak behind the barn I found a hummingbird's
+nest, and, yielding to temptation, took out
+the eggs to look at them. In putting them back
+one slipped and dropped on the hard ground,
+cracking the delicate pink shell as it fell. The
+egg was nearly ready to hatch, and I felt as guilty
+as if having killed a hummingbird.</p>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="orioles">
+<tr><td align='left'><div class="figcenter" style="width: 207px;">
+<img src="images/i107a.png" width="207" height="131" alt="Arizona Hooded Oriole. (One half natural size.)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Arizona Hooded Oriole.<br />
+(One half natural size.)</span>
+</div>
+</td><td align='left'><div class="figcenter" style="width: 209px;">
+<img src="images/i107b.png" width="209" height="137" alt="Baltimore Oriole&mdash;Eastern.
+(One half natural size.)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Baltimore Oriole&mdash;Eastern.<br />
+(One half natural size.)</span>
+</div>
+
+</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<p>When in the hammock under the oak one day,
+I saw a pair of the odd-looking Arizona hooded
+orioles busily going and coming to a drooping
+branch on the edge of
+the tree. They had
+a great deal to talk
+about as they went
+and came, and when
+they had gone I
+found, to my great
+satisfaction, that they
+had begun a nest.
+They often use the
+gray Spanish moss,
+but here had found a
+good substitute in the
+orange-colored parasitic
+vine of the meadows
+known among
+the people of the valley<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>
+as the 'love-vine' (dodder). The whole pocket
+was composed of it, making a very gaudy nest.</p>
+
+<p>Linnets nested in the same old tree. Indeed,
+it is hard to say where these pretty rosy house
+finches, cousins of our purple finches, would not
+take it into their heads to build. They nested
+over the front door, in the vines over the windows,
+in the oaks and about the outbuildings, and their
+happy musical songs rang around the ranch-house
+from morning till night. As I listened to their
+merry roundelay day after day during that beautiful
+California spring, it sounded to me as though
+they said, "<i>How-pretty-it-is'-out, how-pretty-it-is'-out,
+how-pretty-it-is'!</i>" The linnets are ardent
+little wooers, singing and dancing before the indifferent
+birds they would win for their mates.
+I once saw a rosy lover throw back his pretty
+head and hop about before his brown lady till
+she was out of patience and turned her back on
+him. When that had no effect, she opened her
+bill, spread her wings, and leaned toward him as
+if saying, "If you don't stop your nonsense,
+I'll&mdash;&mdash;" But the fond linnets' gallantry and tenderness
+are not all spent in the wooing. When
+the mother bird was brooding her nest over our
+front door, her crimson-throated mate stood on the
+peak of the ridgepole above and sang blithely to
+her, turning his head and looking down every
+little while to make sure that she was listening to
+his pretty prattle.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>One of the birds that nested in the trees by
+the ranch-house was the bee-bird, who was soft
+gray above and delicate yellow below, instead of
+dark gray above and shining white below, like his
+eastern relative, the kingbird. The birds used
+to perch on the bare oak limbs, flycatching. It
+was interesting to watch them. They would fly
+obliquely into the air and then turn, with bills
+bristling with insects, and sail down on outstretched
+wings, their square tails set so that the
+white outer feathers showed to as good advantage
+as the white border of the kingbird's does in similar
+flights. They made a bulky untidy nest in
+the oaks by the barn, using a quantity of string
+borrowed from the ranchman. Their voices were
+high-keyed and shrill with an impatient emphasis,
+and at a distance suggested the shrill yelping of
+the coyote. <i>Kee'-ah, kee-kee' kee'-ah</i>, they would
+cry. The wolves were so often heard around the
+ranch-house that in the early morning I have
+sometimes mistaken the birds for them.</p>
+
+<p>One of the favorite hunting-grounds of the bee-birds
+was the orchard, where they must have done
+a great deal of good destroying insects. They
+were quarrelsome birds, and were often seen falling
+through the air fighting vigorously. I saw
+one chase a sparrow hawk and press it so hard
+that the hawk cried out lustily. The ranchman's
+son told me of one bee-bird who defended his
+nest with his life. Two crows lit in a tree where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>
+the flycatcher had a nest containing eggs. The
+crows had difficulty in getting to the tree to begin
+with, for the bee-birds fought them off; and
+though they lighted, were soon dislodged and
+chased down the vineyard. The man was at work
+there, and as the procession passed over his head
+the bee-bird dove at the crow; the crow struck
+back at him, crushing his skull, and the flycatcher
+dropped through the air, dead! The other bee-bird
+followed its dead mate to the ground, and
+then, without a cry, flew to a tree and let the
+crows go on their way.</p>
+
+<p>The bee-bird was one of the noisiest birds
+about the ranch-house, but commoner than he; in
+fact, the most abundant bird, next to the linnet
+and blackbird, was the California chewink, or, as
+the ranchman appropriately called him, the 'brown
+chippie;' for he does not look like the handsome
+chewink we know, but is a fat, dun brown bird
+with a thin <i>chip</i> that he utters on all occasions.
+He is about the size of the eastern robin, and,
+except when nesting, almost as familiar. There
+were brown chippies in the door-yard, brown chippies
+around the barns, and brown chippies in the
+brush till one got tired of the sight of them.</p>
+
+<p>The temptations that come to conscientious
+observers are common to humanity, and one of
+the subtlest is to undervalue what is at hand and
+overvalue the rare or distant. Unless a bird is
+peculiarly interesting, it requires a definite effort<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>
+to sit down and study him in your own dooryard,
+or where he is so common as to be an
+every-day matter. The chippies were always sitting
+around, scratching, or
+picking up seeds; or else
+quarreling among themselves.
+Feeling that it was
+my duty to watch them, I
+reasoned with myself, but
+they seemed so mortally
+dull and uninteresting it
+was hard work to give up
+any time to them. When
+they went to nesting, their wild instincts asserted
+themselves, and they hid away so closely I was
+never sure of but one of their nests, and that
+only by most cautious watching.
+Then for the first time
+they became interesting! To
+my surprise, one day I heard
+a brown chippie lift up his
+voice and sing. It was in a
+sunny grove of oaks, and
+though his song was a queer
+squeaky warble, it had in it a
+good deal of sweetness and
+contentment; for the bird seemed to find life very
+pleasant. The ranchman's son told me that up
+in the canyons at dusk he had sometimes heard
+towhee concerts, the birds answering each other
+from different parts of the canyon.</p>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Chewinks">
+<tr><td align='left'><div class="figcenter" style="width: 177px;">
+<img src="images/i111a.png" width="177" height="159" alt="California Chewink. (One half natural size.)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">California Chewink.<br />
+(One half natural size.)</span>
+</div></td><td align='left'><div class="figcenter" style="width: 155px;">
+<img src="images/i111b.png" width="155" height="167" alt="Eastern Chewink. (One half natural size.)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Eastern Chewink.<br />
+(One half natural size.)</span>
+</div></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There was a nest in the chaparral which probably
+belonged to these chewinks. It was in a
+mass of poison ivy that had climbed up on a
+scrub-oak. I spent the best part of a morning
+waiting for the birds to give in their evidence.
+Brown sentinels were posted on high bare brush
+tops, where they chipped at me, and once a brown
+form flew swiftly away from the nest bush; but
+like most people whose conversation is limited to
+monosyllables, the towhees are good at keeping a
+secret. While watching for them, I heard a noise
+that suggested angry cats spitting at each other;
+and three jack-rabbits came racing down the
+chaparral-covered knoll. One of them shot off
+at a tangent while the other two trotted along
+the openings in the brush as if their trails were
+roads in a park. Then a cottontail rabbit came
+out on a spot of hard yellow earth encircled by
+bushes, and lying down on its side kicked up its
+heels and rolled like a horse; after which the
+pretty thing stretched itself full length on the
+ground to rest, showing a pink light in its ears.
+After a while it got up, scratched one ear, and
+with a kick of one little furry leg ran off in the
+brush. Another day, when I sat waiting, I saw
+a jack-rabbit's ears coming through the brush.
+He trotted up within a few feet, when he stopped,
+facing me with head and ears up; a noble-looking
+little animal, reminding me of a deer with antlers
+branching back. He stood looking at me, not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>
+knowing whether to be afraid or not, and turning
+one ear trumpet and then the other. But though
+smiling at him, I was a human being, there was
+no getting around that; and after a few undecided
+hops, this way and that, he ran off and disappeared
+in the brush. Near where he had been
+was a spot where a number of rabbit runways came
+to a centre, and around it the rabbit council had
+been sitting in a circle, their footprints proved.</p>
+
+<p>Brown chippies were not much commoner
+around the ranch-house than western house wrens
+were, but the big prosaic brown birds seemed
+much more commonplace. The wrens were
+strongly individual and winning wherever they
+were met. They nested in all sorts of odd nooks
+and corners about the buildings. One went so
+far as to take up its abode in the wire-screened
+refrigerator that stood outside the kitchen under
+an oak! Another pair stowed their nest away in
+an old nosebag hanging on a peg in the wine
+shed; while a third lived in one of the old grape
+crates piled up in the raisin shed.</p>
+
+<p>The crate nest was delightful to watch. The
+jolly little birds, with tails over their backs and
+wings hanging, would sing and work close beside
+me, only three or four feet away. They would look
+up at me with their frank fearless eyes and then
+squeeze down through their crack into the crate,
+and sit and scold inside it&mdash;such an amusing
+muffled little scold! The nest was so astonishingly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>
+large I was interested to measure it. Twigs
+were strewn loosely over one end of the box,
+covering a square nearly sixteen inches on a side.
+The compact high body of the nest measured
+eight by ten inches, and came so near the top
+of the crate that the birds could just creep in
+under the slats. Some of the twigs were ten
+inches long, regular broom handles in the bills of
+the short bobbing wrens. One of the birds once
+appeared with a twig as long as itself. It flew to
+the side of a beam with it, at sight of me, and
+stood there balancing the stick in its bill, in
+pretty fashion. Another time it flew to the peak
+of the shed to examine an old swallow's nest now
+occupied by linnets, and amused itself throwing
+down its neighbors' straws&mdash;the naughty little
+rogue!</p>
+
+<p>Such jolly songsters! They were fairly bubbling
+over with happiness all the time. They
+had an old stub in front of the shed that might
+well have been called the singing stub, for they
+kept it ringing with music when they were not
+running on inside the shed. They seemed to
+warble as easily as most birds breathe; in fact,
+song seemed a necessity to them. There was a
+high pole in front of the shed, and one day I
+found my ebullient little friend squatting on top
+to hold himself on while he sang out at the top of
+his lungs! Another time I came face to face
+with a pair when the songster was in the midst of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>
+his roundelay. He stopped short, bobbed nervously
+from side to side, and then, rising to his
+feet and putting his right foot forward with a
+pretty courageous gesture, took up his song again.
+When the pair were building in the crate, I stuck
+some white hen's feathers there, thinking they
+might like to use them. Mr. Troglodytes came
+first, and seeing them, instead of turning tail as
+I have known brave guardians of the nest to do,
+burst out singing, as if it were a huge joke.
+Then he hopped down on the rim of the box to
+scrutinize the plumes, after which he flew out.
+But he had to stop to sing atilt of an elder stem
+before he could go on to tell his spouse about
+them.</p>
+
+<p>One day, when riding back to the ranch, I saw
+half a dozen turkey buzzards soaring over the
+meadow&mdash;perhaps there was a dead jack-rabbit
+in the field. It was astonishing to see how soon
+the birds would discover small carrion from their
+great height. The ranchman never thought of
+burying anything, they were such good scavengers.
+A few hours after an animal was thrown
+out in the field the vultures would find it. They
+would stand on the body and pull it to pieces in
+the most revolting way. The ranchman told me
+he had seen them circle over a pair of fighting
+snakes, waiting to devour the one that was injured.
+They were grotesque birds. I often saw
+them walk with their wings held out at their sides<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>
+as if cooling themselves, and the unbird-like attitude
+together with the horrid appearance of their
+red skinny heads made them seem more like harpies
+than before.</p>
+
+<p>They were most interesting at a distance. I
+once saw three of them standing like black images
+on a granite bowlder, on top of a hill overlooking
+the valley. After a moment they set out
+and went circling in the sky. Although they
+flew in a group, it seemed as if the individual
+birds respected one another's lines so as not to
+cover the same ground. Sometimes when soaring
+they seemed to rest on the air and let themselves
+be borne by the wind; for they wobbled from
+one side to the other like a cork on rough water.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most interesting birds of the valley
+is the road-runner or chaparral cock, a grayish
+brown bird who stands almost as high as a crow
+and has a tail as long as a magpie's. He is noted
+for his swiftness of foot. Sometimes, when we
+were driving over the hills, a road-runner would
+start out of the brush on a lonely part of the
+road and for quite a distance keep ahead of the
+horses, although they trotted freely along. When
+tired of running he would dash off into the brush,
+where he stopped himself by suddenly throwing
+his long tail over his back. A Texan, in talking
+of the bird, said, "It takes a right peart cur to
+catch one," and added that when a road-runner is
+chased he will rise but once, for his main reliance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>
+is in his running, and he does not trust much to
+his short wings. The chaparral cocks nested in
+the cactus on our hills, and were said to live
+largely on lizards and horned toads.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 477px;">
+<img src="images/i117.png" width="477" height="530" alt="Valley Quail and Road-Runner." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Valley Quail and Road-Runner.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>It became evident that a pair of these singular
+birds had taken up quarters in the chaparral on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>
+the hillside back of the ranch-house, for one of
+them was often seen with the hens in the dooryard.
+One day I was talking to the ranchman
+when the road-runner appeared. He paid no
+attention to us, but went straight to the hen-house,
+apparently to get cocoons. Looking between
+the laths, I could see him at work. He
+flew up on the hen-roosts as if quite at home; he
+had been there before and knew the ways of the
+house. He even dashed into the peak of the roof
+and brought down the white cocoon balls dangling
+with cobweb. When he had finished his hunt
+he stood in the doorway, and a pair of blackbirds
+lit on the fence post over his head, looking down
+at him wonderingly. Was he a new kind of
+hen? He was almost as big as a bantam. They
+sat and looked at him, and he stood and stared at
+them till all three were satisfied, when the blackbirds
+flew off and the road-runner walked out by
+the kitchen to hunt among the buckets for food.</p>
+
+<p>These curious birds seem to be of an inquiring
+turn of mind, and sometimes their investigations
+end sadly. The windmills, which are a new thing
+in this dry land, naturally stimulate their curiosity.
+A small boy from the neighboring town&mdash;Escondido&mdash;told
+me that he had known four
+road-runners to get drowned in one tank; though
+he corrected himself afterwards by saying, "We
+fished out <i>one</i> before he got drowned!"</p>
+
+<p>Another lad told me he had seen road-runners<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>
+in the nesting season call for their mates on the
+hills. He had seen one stand on a bowlder fifteen
+feet high, and after strutting up and down
+the rock with his tail and wings hanging, stop to
+call, putting his bill down on the rock and going
+through contortions as if pumping out the sound.
+The lad thought his calls were answered from the
+brush below.</p>
+
+<p>In April the ranchman reported that he had
+seen dusky poor-wills, relatives of our whip-poor-wills,
+out flycatching on the road beyond the
+ranch-house after dark. He had seen as many as
+eight or nine at once, and they had let him come
+within three feet of them. Accordingly, one night
+right after tea I started out to see them. The
+poor-wills choose the most beautiful part of the
+twenty-four hours for their activity. When I
+went out, the sky above the dark wall of the valley
+was a quiet greenish yellow, and the rosy
+light was fading in the north at the head of the
+canyon. White masses of fog pushed in from
+the ocean. Then the constellations dawned and
+brightened till the evening star shone out in her
+full radiant beauty. Locusts and crickets droned;
+bats zigzagged overhead; and suddenly from the
+dusty road some black objects started up, fluttered
+low over the barley, and dropped back on the
+road again. At the same time came the call of
+the poor-will, which, close at hand, is a soft burring
+<i>poor-will, poor-wil'-low</i>. Two or three hours<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>
+later I went out again. The full moon had risen,
+and shone down, transforming the landscape.
+The road was a narrow line between silvered
+fields of headed grain, and the granite bowlders
+gleamed white on the hills inclosing the sleeping
+valley. For a few moments the shrill barking of
+coyote wolves disturbed the stillness; then again
+the night became silent; peace rested upon the
+valley, and from far up the canyon came the faint,
+sad cry, <i>poor-wil'-low, poor-wil'-low</i>.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span></p>
+<h2>VIII.</h2>
+
+<div class='chaptertitle'>POCKET MAKERS.</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> bush-tits are cousins of the eastern chickadees,
+which is reason enough for liking them,
+although the California fruit growers have a more
+substantial reason in the way the birds eat the
+scale that injures the olive-trees. The bush-tits
+might be the little sisters of the chickadee family,
+they are so small. They look like gray balls
+with long tails attached, for they are plump fluffy
+tots, no bigger than your thumb, without their
+tails. One of them, when preoccupied, once came
+within three feet of where I stood. When he
+discovered me a comical look of surprise came
+into his yellow eyes and he went tilting off, for
+his long tail gave him a pitching flight as if he
+were about to go on his bill, a flight that reminds
+one of the tail that wagged the dog.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 387px;">
+<img src="images/i122.png" width="387" height="540" alt="Nest of the Bush-tit." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Nest of the Bush-tit.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>There were so many of the gray pocket nests
+in the oaks that it was hard to choose which to
+watch, but one of the most interesting hung from
+a branch of the big double oak of the gnatcatchers,
+above the ranch-house, where I could
+see it when sitting in the crotch of the tree.
+While watching it I looked beyond over the chaparral<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>
+wall away to a dark purple peak standing
+against a sky flecked with sun-whitened clouds.
+The nest was like an oriole's, but nearly twice as
+long, though the builders were less than half the
+size of the orioles. Instead of being open at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>
+top, it was roofed over, and the only entrance was
+a small round hole, the girth of the bird, about
+two inches under the roof.</p>
+
+<p>One might imagine that such big houses would
+be dark with only one small dormer window, and
+the valley children assured me that the birds
+hung living firefly lamps on their walls! I suggested
+that a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
+to Fireflies would be needed if that were the
+case; but when it comes to that, what bird would
+choose to brood by gaslight?</p>
+
+<p>When I first saw the bush-tit in its round doorway,
+it suggested Jack Horner's famous plum,
+comical little ball of feathers! When first watching
+the nest the small pair put me on their list
+of enemies, along with small boys, blue jays, and
+owls. To go down into the pocket under my
+stare seemed a terrible thing. When one of them
+came with a bit of moss for lining, it started for
+the front door, saw me, stopped, and turned to
+go to the back of the nest. Then it tried to get
+up courage to approach the house from the side,
+got in a panic and dashed against the wall as if
+expecting a door would open for it. When at
+last it did make bold to dart into the nest it was
+struck with terror, and, whisking around, jabbed
+the moss into the outside wall and fled!</p>
+
+<p>Seeing that nothing awful happened, the birds
+finally took me off the black list and allowed me
+to oversee their work, as long as I gave no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>
+directions. Sometimes both little tots went down
+into the bag to work together; surely there was
+plenty of room for many such as they. But it
+is not always a matter of cubic inches, and one
+morning when the second bird was about to pop
+in, apparently it was advised to wait a minute.
+There was no ill feeling, though, for when the
+small builder came out it flew to the twig in
+front of the door, where its mate was waiting,
+and sat down beside it, a little Darby by his
+Joan.</p>
+
+<p>They worked busily. Sometimes they popped
+in only to pop out again; at other times they
+stayed inside as long as if they had been human
+housekeepers, hanging pictures, straightening
+chairs, and setting their bric-a-brac in order for
+the fortieth time; each change requiring mature
+deliberation.</p>
+
+<p>One morning&mdash;after the birds had been putting
+in lining long enough to have wadded half a
+dozen nests&mdash;if my judgment is of any value in
+such matters&mdash;I discovered that the roof was
+falling in; it was almost on top of the front door!
+The next day, to my dismay, the door had vanished.
+What was the trouble? Were the pretty
+pair young builders; was this their first nest, and
+had they paid more attention to decorating their
+house inside than to laying strong foundations;
+or had their pocket been too heavy for its frame?</p>
+
+<p>However it came about, the wise birds concluded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>
+that they would not waste time crying
+over spilt milk. They calmly went to work to
+tear the first nest to pieces and build a second
+one out of it. One of them tweaked out its board
+with such a jerk it sent the pocket swinging like
+a pendulum. But the next time it wisely planted
+its claw firmly to steady itself, while it cautiously
+pulled the material out with its bill.</p>
+
+<p>If the birds were inexperienced, they were
+bright enough to profit by experience. This time
+they hung their nest between the forks of a strong
+twig which had a cross twig to support the roof,
+so that the accident that had befallen them could
+not possibly occur again. They began work at
+the top, holding onto the twig with their claws
+and swinging themselves down inside to put in
+their material; and they moulded and shaped the
+pocket as they went along.</p>
+
+<p>After watching the progress of the new nest, I
+went to see what had become of the old one. It
+was on the ground. On taking it home and pulling
+it to pieces, I found that the wall was from
+half an inch to an inch thick, made of fine gray
+moss and oak blossoms. There was a thick wadding
+of feathers inside. I counted <i>three hundred</i>,
+and there were a great many more! The amount
+of hard labor this stood for amazed me. No
+wonder the nest pulled down, with a whole feather-bed
+inside! Why had they put it in? I asked
+some children, and one said, "To keep the eggs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
+warm, I guess;" while the other suggested, "So
+the eggs wouldn't break." Most of the feathers
+were small, but there must have been several
+dozen chicken's feathers from two to three inches
+long. Among them was a plume of an owl.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 354px;">
+<img src="images/i127.jpg" width="354" height="550" alt="POCKET NEST IN AN OAK" title="" />
+<span class="caption">POCKET NEST IN AN OAK</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Much to my surprise, in the bush-tit's nest
+there was a broken eggshell. Had the egg broken
+in falling, or had a snake been there? One of
+the boys of the valley told me about seeing a
+racer snake go into a bush-tit's pocket. The cries
+of the birds rallied several other pairs, and they
+all flew about in distress, though not one of them
+dared touch the dreadful tail that hung out of
+the nest hole. As the snake was about three feet
+long, the pocket bulged as it moved around inside.
+There were four nestlings about a quarter grown,
+and the relentless creature devoured them all.
+The boy waited below with a stick, and when it
+came out, killed it and shook it by the tail till
+the small birds popped out of its mouth. If my
+broken eggshell pointed to any such tragedy, it
+cleared the birds of the accusation of being poor
+builders.</p>
+
+<p>The nest, which the first day was a filmy spot
+in the leaves, by the next day had become a
+gray pocket over eight inches long, although I
+could still see daylight through it. In working,
+the birds flew to the top of the open bag and
+hopped down inside. I could see the pocket
+shake and bulge as they worked within. When<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>
+they flew away to any distance, on their return
+they almost always came with their little call of
+<i>schrit, schrit</i>.</p>
+
+<p>This nest was so low that I used to throw myself
+on the sand beneath the tree to watch it, taking
+many a sunbath there, with hat drawn down
+till I could just see the nest in the pendent
+branches, and watch the changing mosaics made
+by the sky through the moving leaves. When
+resting on the sand the thought of rattlesnakes
+came to me, for the brush on either side was a
+shelter for them, and they might easily have
+crept up beside me without my hearing them.</p>
+
+<p>The second bush-tit's nest was shorter than the
+first one. Perhaps the builders thought the
+length had something to do with the fall of the
+first; or perhaps they didn't feel like collecting
+three hundred more feathers, with oak blossoms
+and moss to match. They first put the frame of
+the front door below the supporting cross twig,
+and then, as if they thought it needed more support,
+changed it and put the door above the twig,
+so that the roof could not possibly close the hole,
+even if it did fall in. The doorway was also
+made much larger than that of the first nest.</p>
+
+<p>After making away with the old nest, my conscience
+smote me. Perhaps the little pocket
+makers were not through with it, even if it was
+on the ground; so I brought a piece of it back
+and tied it with a grass stem to a twig below the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>
+nest they were at work on, to save them as much
+trouble as might be. When my bird came, her
+bright eyes were quick to espy the old nest. She
+looked around, bewildered, as if wondering
+whether she was really awake, and making sure
+that this strange looking affair were not her second
+nest, come to grief in her absence. Being
+reassured by her examination, she came back
+and hopped from twig to twig inspecting the old
+piece of nest. At last she caught sight of a
+feather. That, apparently, was just what she
+wanted. She quickly flew over, pulled out the
+white plume, and went straight to the new house
+with it!</p>
+
+<p>I was not able to watch any of my bush-tits
+through the season, that year, but five years later,
+when again in southern California, to my delight
+I found the tits building in almost the same tree
+where they had been before.</p>
+
+<p>One day an interesting brood was out in the
+brush, and I took notes on their proceedings:
+"A family of young were abroad this morning
+filling the leaves with their little moving forms,
+and the air with their fledgling cry of <i>schrit</i>.
+As nearly as I could judge, there were ten in the
+family&mdash;eight young tagging after two old birds.
+While I watched, a droll thing happened, proving
+that a family of eight may affect a parent's breakfast
+as well as his nerves. One of the family,
+which I took to be the father bird, had some goody<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>
+in his bill, and one of the young, presumably, followed
+him for it, flying up on his twig. The old
+bird turned his back upon the little one and went
+on shaking the grub. Presently a second one flew
+down on the other side of him,&mdash;he was between
+two fires; they touched him on both sides. I
+watched with interest to see what he would do
+about it, and was much amused when he opened
+his wings and flew up over their heads out of
+reach! Would he come back to feed them after
+his food was properly prepared? No,&mdash;he sat
+up on the branch and ate the morsel himself! I
+was rather shocked by such a deliberate proceeding,
+but then it occurred to me that parent
+birds have to take a bite themselves once in a
+while; though of course their business is to feed
+the children!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span></p>
+<h2>IX.</h2>
+
+<div class='chaptertitle'>THE BIG SYCAMORE.</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Before</span> going home from my morning sessions
+with the little lover and other feathered friends,
+I often took a gallop at the foot of the hills to
+visit a gigantic old tree, the king of the valley.
+One such ride is especially marked in my memory.
+It was on one of California's most perfect
+mornings. When the sun had risen over the valley,
+the fog dissolved before it, sinking away until
+only small white clouds were left in the tender
+blue of the notches between the red hills; while
+the bared vault overhead had that pure, deep,
+satisfying color peculiar to fog-cleared skies; and
+the cool fresh air was full of exhilaration. It put
+Mountain Billy so in tune with the morning that,
+when I chirrupped to him, shaking the reins on
+his neck, he quickly broke into a lope and his
+ringing hoofs beat time to my song as we sped
+down the valley, past vineyards and orchards and
+yellow fields of ripening grain. The free swift
+motion was a delight in itself, and after days and
+weeks given to the details of nest-making, shut
+away from the world in our little remote valley
+at the foot of the mountains, now, when we came<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>
+to a break in the hills and our nostrils were
+greeted by the cool salt breeze coming from the
+Pacific, suddenly the whole horizon broadened;
+the inclosing valley walls were overlooked; we
+were galloping under the high arching heavens
+in a wind blowing from far over the wide ocean.</p>
+
+<p>Here stood the great sycamore, with branches
+swaying; for the tree faced this break in the hills.
+It seemed as if the old monarch, with roots firmly
+planted, had battled for its ground; and now,
+as a conqueror, stood with arms uplifted to meet
+the ocean gales. I had never before appreciated
+the dignity of those straight upreared shafts, the
+vital strength of those deep grappling roots, the
+mighty grandeur of this old battle king.</p>
+
+<p>When one of the trunks fell, I had to hunt the
+sycamore over to find where it came from, not
+missing it in the massive framework that was
+left. The giant measured twenty-three feet and
+a half in circumference, three feet from the
+ground. Its enormous branches stretched out
+horizontally so far that, between the body of the
+tree and the tips that hung to the earth, there
+was a wide corridor where one could promenade
+on horseback. In fact, the tree spanned, from
+the tip of one branch to the tip of the other, one
+hundred and fifty-eight feet. In the photograph,
+the figure of a person is almost lost in the complicated
+network of the frame of the tree. The
+treetop was a grove in itself. A flock of blackbirds<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>
+flying up into it was lost among the
+branches.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i135.jpg" width="500" height="345" alt="THE BIG SYCAMORE" title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE BIG SYCAMORE</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The ranchman knew the sycamore as the 'swallow
+tree,' because in former years, before the valley
+was settled, swallows that have since taken
+to barns built there. Between three and four
+hundred of them plastered their nests on the
+underside of the big limbs, about half way up
+the tree, where the bark was rough. They built
+so close together that the nests made a solid mass
+of mud. For several seasons, it was said, "they
+had bad luck." They began building before the
+rainy season was over, and all but a few dozen
+nests which were in especially protected places
+were swept away. The number of nests was so
+enormous that the ground was covered several
+inches deep with mud.</p>
+
+<p>Billy used to improve his time by nibbling
+barley while I watched birds in the sycamore
+corridor. We had not been there long before I
+discovered a bee's nest in the hollow of one of the
+trunks. The owners were busily flying in and
+out, and a pair of big bee-birds flew down from
+their nest in the treetop and saved themselves
+trouble by lunching at this convenient ground
+floor restaurant. As I sat on Billy, facing the
+nest, one of the pair swept down over the
+mouth of the hole, caught a bee and settled back
+on the branch to swallow it. This seemed to be
+the regular performance, and was kept up so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>
+continuously, even when we were standing close
+by, that if, as is supposed, the birds eat only
+drones, few but workers would be left in that
+hive.</p>
+
+<p>The flycatchers seemed well suited to the sycamore;
+they were birds of large ideas and sweeping
+flights. Their nest was at the top of the
+tree; probably eighty feet from the ground, but
+when one of them flew down, instead of coming
+a branch at a time, he would set his wings and,
+giving a loud cry,&mdash;as a child shouts when pushing
+off his sled at the top of a steep hill,&mdash;he
+would sail obliquely down from the treetop to
+the foot of the hillside beyond. When looking
+for his material he would hover over the field
+like a ph&oelig;be. Then, on returning, unlike the
+other birds who lived in the tree and used the
+branches as ladders, he would start from the
+ground and with labored flights climb obliquely
+up the air to the treetop. Once his material
+dangled a foot behind him. The birds seemed to
+enjoy these great flights.</p>
+
+<p>Their nest was not finished, and while one
+went for material, the other&mdash;presumably the
+male&mdash;guarded the nest. As there was nothing
+to guard as yet, it often seemed a matter of
+venting his own spleen! When not occupied in
+arranging his plumes, he would shoot down at
+every small bird that came upstairs; a cowardly
+proceeding, but perhaps he thought it necessary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>
+to keep his hand in against meeting bigger boys
+than he! When coming with material, one of
+the bee-birds got caught in a heavy rope of cobweb
+that dangled from the nest, and had to flutter
+hard to extricate itself. About their nests
+these birds seemed as home-loving as any others.
+Their domesticity quite surprised me; they had
+always seemed such harsh, scolding, aggressive
+birds! When one of them sat among the green
+leaves, pluming the soft sulphur yellow feathers
+of its breast, it looked so gentle and attractive
+that it was a shock when the familiar petulant
+screams again jarred the air. The birds often
+hunted from the fence beyond the sycamore,
+and flew from post to post with legs dangling,
+shaking their wings as they lit, with a shrill
+<i>kit' r' r' r' r'</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The sycamore was a regular apartment house;
+so many birds were moving among the boughs
+it was impossible to tell where they all lived.
+One day I found a pair of doves sitting on a
+sunny branch above me. The one I took to be
+the male sat perched crosswise, while his mate sat
+facing him, lengthwise of the limb. He calmly
+fluffed out his feathers and preened himself,
+while his meek spouse watched him. She fluttered
+her wings, teasing him to feed her, but he
+kept on dressing out his plumes. Then she edged
+a little closer, and almost essayed to touch his
+majesty with her pretty blue bill, but he sat with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>
+lordly composure quite ignoring her existence till
+a blackbird bustled up, when they both started
+nervously, and turning, sat demurely side by side
+on the limb, the wind tilting their long tails.</p>
+
+<p>A pair of bright orange orioles had a nest in
+the sycamore, though I never should have known
+it had I not seen them go to it to feed their
+young. It was a well shaded cradle surely, with
+its canopy of big green leaves.</p>
+
+<p>There were a good many hints to be had, first
+and last. A song sparrow appeared and stood
+on a branch with its tail perked up in a business-like
+way as if it had been feeding a brood. A
+wren came to the tree,&mdash;a mere pinch of feathers
+in the giant sycamore,&mdash;and though I lost sight
+of it, many a hollow up in the fourteenth story
+might have afforded a home for the pretty dear
+without any one's being the wiser, unless it were
+the bee-bird in the attic. A family of bush-tits
+flew about in the sycamore top, looking like pin-heads
+in a grove of trees. A black ph&oelig;be sometimes
+lit on the fence posts under the branches&mdash;it
+wanted to find a nesting place about the
+windmill in the opposite field, I felt sure, though
+a boy had told me that the bird sometimes plastered
+its nest onto the branches of the big tree
+itself. Besides all the rest, rosy linnets and blue
+lazuli buntings made the old tree ring with their
+musical roundelays.</p>
+
+<p>One day when I rode down to the sycamore,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>
+the meadow bordering it was full of haycocks,
+and a rabbit ran out from under one of them,
+frightened by the clatter of Billy's hoofs. That
+morning the tree was fairly alive with blackbirds
+and doves&mdash;what a deafening medley the blackbirds
+made! In the fields near the sycamore
+flocks of redwings went swinging over the tall
+gleaming mustard. This was a great place for
+blackbirds, for the big tree was on the edge of
+the one piece of marsh land in the valley, and
+they were quick to take advantage of its reeds
+for nesting places.</p>
+
+<p>The cienaga&mdash;as they called the swamp&mdash;was
+used as a pasture. It was pleasant to look out
+upon, from under the branches of the great tree.
+A group of horses stood in the shade of a cluster
+of oaks on the farther side of it, while the cows,
+a beautiful herd of buff and white Guernseys,
+waded through the swamp grass to drink near
+the sycamore, and the blackbirds wound in and
+out among them. I had been in a dry land so
+long it was hard to believe there was actual
+water in the marsh till I saw it drip from their
+chins and heard the sucking sound as they
+laboriously dragged their feet out of the mud&mdash;a
+noise that took me back to eastern pastures,
+but sounded strangely unfamiliar here in this
+rainless land. One of the pretty Guernseys with
+a white star in her forehead strayed up under
+the tree, and the shadows of the leaves moved<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>
+over her as she raised her sensitive face to see
+who was there.</p>
+
+<p>The son of the ranchman who owned the dairy&mdash;the
+one who invited me down to see the play
+between his dog Romulus and the burrowing
+owl&mdash;said that when herding cows by the sycamore
+he once caught sight of a coyote wolf. He
+clapped his hands to send his dog, Romulus,
+after the wolf; and the noise frightened the
+wild creature so that he started to run up the
+hill across the road from the sycamore. Romulus
+followed hard at his heels till they got well up
+the hillside, when the coyote felt that he was
+on his own ground and turned on the dog, who
+fled back to his master with his tail between his
+legs. The lad, clapping his hands, set the dog
+on the coyote again, and this animated but bloodless
+performance was repeated and kept up till
+both were tired out, the animals chasing each
+other back and forth from the sycamore to the
+hillside with as much energy and perhaps as
+much courage as was displayed by that historic
+king of France who had five thousand men and&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"... marched them up a hill and then<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">He marched them down again."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>On one side of the sycamore was a great wall
+of weeds higher than my head when on horseback;
+a dense mass of yellow mustard, and
+fragrant wild celery which was covered with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>
+delicate white bloom. I saw blackbirds carrying
+material into this thicket, but as I had
+known of neighbors' horses getting bitten by
+rattlesnakes among the high weeds, did not
+think it worth while to wade around in it much
+for such common birds as they. But one day,
+seeing a pair of rare blue grosbeaks fly down
+into the tangle, I turned Billy right in after
+them, though holding his head well up in consideration
+of the snakes. The birds vanished,
+so we stood still to wait. Suddenly I heard a
+slight sound as of something slipping through
+the weeds at Billy's feet, and looking down saw
+a snake marked like a rattler; and as it slid by
+Billy's hoof I noticed with horror that the end
+of its tail was blunt&mdash;the harmless gopher snake
+that resembles the rattler has a tapering tail!
+I gazed at it spellbound, but in the dim light
+could not make out whether it had rattles or not.
+I had seen enough, however, and whipping up
+Billy was out of those weeds in a hurry. Safely
+outside, I looked at my little horse remorsefully&mdash;what
+if my desire to see a new nest had been
+the cause of his getting a rattlesnake bite!</p>
+
+<p>The next day when I went down to the sycamore
+a German was mowing there with a pair
+of mules. He was a typical Rhinelander, with
+blue eyes and long curling hair and beard,
+and as he drove he sang in a deep rich voice
+one of the beautiful melodies of his fatherland.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>
+Screened by the branches, I listened quite unmindful
+of my work till my reverie was interrupted
+by the man's giving a harsh cry to his
+mules. It was only an aside, however, for he
+dropped back into his song in the same rich
+sympathetic voice.</p>
+
+<p>In riding out from the tree on my way home,
+I saw that he was mowing just where the snake
+had been, and warned him to be careful lest the
+horses get bitten. At the word rattlesnake his
+blue eyes dilated, and he assured me that he
+would be on his guard. Seeing my glasses and
+note-book, he asked if I were studying birds.
+When told that I was, from his seat on the
+mowing-machine he took off his hat and bowed
+with the air of a lord, saying in broken English,
+"I am pleased to meet you!"&mdash;a pleasant tribute
+to the profession. A few days later, on
+meeting him, he asked if I had found the rattlesnake&mdash;he
+had killed it under the sycamore and
+hung it on a branch for me to see.</p>
+
+<p>As the memory of my morning rides down to
+the sycamore brings to mind the wonderful freshness
+of California's fog-cleared skies, so my sunset
+rides home from the great tree recall the
+peacefulness of the quiet valley at twilight. One
+sunset stands out with peculiar distinctness. As
+Mountain Billy turned from the sycamore marsh
+its leaning blades gleamed in the evening light,
+and the sun warmed the sides of the line of buff<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>
+Guernseys wading in procession through the high
+swamp grass to their out-door milking stand.
+Beyond, a load of hay was crossing the meadows
+with sun on the reins and the pitchforks the men
+carried over their shoulders; and beyond, at the
+head of the valley, the western canyons were
+filled with golden haze, while the last shafts of
+yellow light loitered over the apricot orchards
+below, where the tranquil birds were singing their
+evening songs. Slowly the long shadows of the
+mountain crept over orchard and vineyard until,
+finally, the sun rounded the last peak and left
+our little valley in darkness.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p>
+<h2>X.</h2>
+
+<div class='chaptertitle'>AMONG MY TENANTS.</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> first year I was in California the thought
+of the orchards that were to be set out on my
+ranch appealed to me much less than what the
+place already possessed. As an inheritance from
+the stream that came down in spring through the
+Ughland canyon&mdash;past the homes of the little
+lover, the gnatcatchers, the little prisoners, and
+the lazulis and blue jays&mdash;there was a straggling
+line of old sycamores, full of birds' nests; and a
+patch of weeds, wild mustard, and willows, which
+was a capital shelter for wandering warblers; and
+a bright sunny spot always ringing with songs.</p>
+
+<p>So many houses were being put up without so
+much as a by-your-leave that it was high time for
+an ornithological landlady to bestir herself and
+look to her ornithological squatters; so, day after
+day I turned my horse toward the ranch and
+spent the morning getting acquainted with my
+tenants, riding along the shady line and making
+friendly calls at each tree.</p>
+
+<p>Half of the blackbirds who worked in the vineyard
+must have been beholden to me for rent,
+I should judge by the jolly choruses of the sable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>
+hordes moving about my treetops. There was a
+bee's nest in one of the sycamores, and one day
+the buzzing mob 'took after me' so madly that
+I had to whip up Canello and beat about with
+my hat to get clear of them.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/i147.jpg" width="550" height="335" alt="ALONG THE LINE OF SYCAMORES" title="" />
+<span class="caption">ALONG THE LINE OF SYCAMORES</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Another day, when we stopped under a sycamore,
+such a loud shrill whistle sounded suddenly
+overhead that the horse started. A big bird in
+black sat with feathers bristled up about him like
+a threatening raven, croaking away sepulchrally
+directly overhead, bending down gazing at us out
+of his yellow eyes as if to see how we took it.
+It was a laughable sight. Blackbirds seem such
+human, humorous birds one can almost fancy
+them playing such pranks just for the fun of it.</p>
+
+<p>The blackbird colony was a busy one nesting-time.
+The builders would fly down to the road to
+get material, stepping along quickly, looking from
+side to side with an alert, business-like air, as if
+they knew just what they wanted. Some of them
+used the button-balls to line their nests.</p>
+
+<p>A pair had built in one of the round mats of
+mistletoe at the end of a branch, and while looking
+at the nest one day I was amazed to see a
+butcherbird come flying in a straight line toward
+it. He did not reach his destination, for while
+still in air both blackbirds darted down at him
+and drove him back faster than he had come.
+The guardian of the nest escorted him almost
+home, and when the victorious pair were returning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>
+they were joined by a noisy band of indignant
+members of the blackbird clan.</p>
+
+<p>I watched this attack with great interest, not
+knowing that shrikes were concerned in blackbird
+matters, and also because it was welcome
+news that one of these strange characters had
+rented a lot of me. I made a note of the direction
+my outlaw tenant took when driven ignominiously
+home, and at my earliest convenience called.
+Such cruel tales are told of his cold-blooded way
+of impaling birds and beasts upon thorns and
+barbed wires that one naturally looks upon him
+as a monster; but I found that he, like many
+another villain, turns a gentle face to his nest.</p>
+
+<p>He had pitched his tent on the farthest outpost
+of my ranch in a little bunch of willows, weeds,
+and mustard&mdash;long since converted into a well-kept
+prune orchard. The nest, which was a big
+round mass of sticks, was inside the willows in
+a clump of dry stalks about six feet from the
+ground. I had hardly found it before one of the
+builders swooped down to it right before my eyes,
+with the hardihood of one who fears no man;
+though it must be acknowledged that the shrikes,
+like other birds on the ranch, were so used to
+grazing horses they quite naturally took me for a
+cattle herder.</p>
+
+<p>In this case Canello did not act as my ally. He
+had been quiet and docile most of the morning,
+but now was hungry and saw some grass he was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>
+bent on having, so took the bit in his teeth and
+made such an obstinate fight that, before I had
+conquered him, the shrikes had left the premises
+and my call was finished without my hosts.</p>
+
+<p>On my next visit Canello behaved in more
+seemly manner, and permitted me to see something
+of the ways of the maligned birds. You
+would not have known them from any one else
+except for the remarkable stillness of their neighborhood.
+Some finches flew overhead as if meaning
+to stop, but saw the shrike and went on. I
+could hear the merry songs of the assembly down
+in the sycamores, but not a bird lit while we
+were there&mdash;the shrikes certainly have a bad
+name among their neighbors. They had a proud
+bearing and an imperative manner, but seemed so
+gentle and human in their domestic life that my
+prejudices were softened, as one's generally are by
+near acquaintance, and I became really very fond
+of my handsome tenants.</p>
+
+<p>It looked as if the shrike fed his mate. At
+any rate, they worked together and rested together,
+perching in lordly fashion high on the
+willows overlooking their home. They did not
+object to observers when at work. One day, when
+Canello's nose appeared by the nest, the builder
+looked at him over her shoulder and then quietly
+slid off the nest, flying up on her perch to wait
+till he should leave. It was a temptation to keep
+her waiting some time, for the shrike's corner was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>
+a pleasant place to linger in. The sea-breeze
+was so strong it turned the willow leaves white
+side out, and the beautiful glistening mustard
+grew so high there that when Canello walked into
+it, the golden blossoms waved over our heads.
+We haunted the premises till the birds had finished
+their framework, put in a lining of snow-white
+plant cotton, and had laid four eggs.</p>
+
+<p>But when getting to feel like an old friend of
+the family, on riding down one day I found the
+nest lying in the dust of the road broken and
+despoiled. It made me as unhappy as if the
+outlaws had been unimpeachable bird citizens&mdash;which
+comes of knowing both sides of a person's
+character! Do birds hand down traditions of ill
+luck? However it may be, five years later I
+found the nest of a pair in a dark mat of mistletoe
+at the end of a high oak branch, which was a
+much safer place than the low willow.</p>
+
+<p>While I was watching the first shrike family,
+Canello had two scares. Once when we were
+standing still by the willow we heard what sounded
+like a rattlesnake springing its rattle. The nervous
+horse pricked up his ears, raised his head,
+and looked in the grass as if he saw snakes, and
+though I succeeded in quieting him, when we
+went home he started at every stick and was ready
+to shy at every shadow. Another morning he
+saw a Mexican riding along by the vineyard,
+a man with a very dark face and a red shirt.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>
+Canello acted much as he had when hearing the
+rattlesnake, and did not quiet down till horse and
+rider were out of sight. The ranchman told me
+he had been cruelly treated by the Mexican who
+broke him, so perhaps it was another case of association
+of ideas.</p>
+
+<p>East of the willows, and separated from them
+by the dark green mallows and bright yellow
+California forget-me-nots, was the sycamore where
+the shrike was driven off by the blackbirds.
+Here a little brown wren had taken up her abode.
+The nest was in a dead limb with a lengthwise
+slit, and a scoop at the end like an apple-corer,
+so when one of the wrens flew down its hole with
+a stick, the twig stuck out of the crack as she
+ran along with it. She quite won my heart by
+her frank way of meeting her landlady. Instead
+of flying off, she looked me over and then quietly
+sat down in her doorway to wait for her mate.</p>
+
+<p>On the road to my sycamores was a deserted
+whitewashed adobe. The place had become overgrown
+with weeds, vines, and bushes, and was
+taken possession of by squirrels and birds.
+Nature had reclaimed it, covering its ugly scars
+with garlands, and making it bloom under her
+tender touch. One morning, as I rode by, a
+black ph&oelig;be was perched on the old adobe chimney
+of the little house, while his mate sat on the
+board that covered the well, in a way that made it
+easy to jump to a conclusion. When she flew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>
+up to the acacia beside the well and looked down
+anxiously, I put the pair on my calling list. It
+did not take many visits to
+prove my conclusion&mdash;there
+was a nest down in the well
+with white eggs in it. The
+ph&oelig;bes were most trustful
+birds, and not only let Canello
+tramp around their yard,
+but when a pump was put down
+the well, and water pumped up
+day by day, the brave parents,
+instead of deserting their eggs, went on brooding
+as if nothing had happened.</p>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Ph&oelig;bes">
+<tr><td align='left'><div class="figcenter" style="width: 138px;">
+<img src="images/i153a.jpg" width="138" height="169" alt="Black Ph&oelig;be. (One half natural size.)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Black Ph&oelig;be.<br />
+(One half natural size.)</span>
+</div>
+</td><td align='left'><div class="figcenter" style="width: 171px;">
+<img src="images/i153b.jpg" width="171" height="172" alt="Eastern Ph&oelig;be. (One half natural size.)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Eastern Ph&oelig;be.<br />
+(One half natural size.)</span>
+</div></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+
+<p>Five years later, on going back to the ranch, I
+found the ph&oelig;bes around the old place, but
+hunted in vain for the nest. A schoolhouse had
+been built in the interval, near the old adobe,
+and the birds perched on
+its gables, on the hitching
+posts in front of it, and on
+my prune-trees, that had
+taken the place of the willows,
+across the road. They
+even came up to my small
+ranch-house and filled me
+with delightful anticipations
+by inspecting the
+beams of the piazza; but they could not find
+what they wanted and flew off to build elsewhere.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>
+Later in the season, a neighbor whose ranch was
+opposite mine showed me a ph&oelig;be's nest inside
+his whitewashed chicken house. It was a mud
+pocket like a swallow's, made of large pellets of
+mud plastered against a board in the peak of
+the house. Of course I could never prove that
+these birds were my old friends, but it seemed
+very probable.</p>
+
+<p>The smallest of my tenants was a hummingbird.
+I saw it fly into a low spray, and it stayed
+there so long that when it left I rode up to look,
+and found that it was building on the tip of a
+twig under a sycamore leaf umbrella, one whose
+veining showed against the light. By rising in
+the saddle I could just reach the twig and pull
+it down to look inside the nest; but afterwards
+I found so many other hummers who could be
+watched with fewer gymnastics, I rested content
+with knowing that this little friend was there.</p>
+
+<p>One morning, when on the way to the sycamores,
+I found an oriole's nest high in a tree.
+Canello was hungry, but when permitted to eat
+barley under the branches kept reasonably quiet.
+There were two species of orioles in the valley;
+and not knowing to which the nest belonged,
+I prepared to wait for the return of the owner.
+The heat was so oppressive that I took off my
+hat, and a bird flew into the tree with bill open,
+gasping. After my hot ride down the valley the
+shade of the big tree was very grateful; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>
+the cool trade wind coming through a gap in the
+hills most refreshing.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly there was a flash&mdash;we all waked up&mdash;was
+that the house owner? What a remarkable
+bird! and what a display of color!&mdash;it had
+a red head, fiery in the sun; a black back, and a
+vivid yellow breast. On looking it up in Ridgway
+the stranger proved to be the Louisiana
+tanager, a high mountain bird. That was a red
+letter day for me. No one can know, without
+experiencing it, the delight of such discoveries.
+The pleasure is as genuine as if the world were
+made anew for you. In the excitement the oriole's
+nest was neglected; but ordinarily the rare
+unknown birds did not detract from the enjoyment
+of the old, more familiar ones.</p>
+
+<p>So when the brilliant stranger flew away and
+was seen no more I turned with pleasure to the
+pair of sparrow hawks who had come to live on
+the ranch. A branch had fallen from one of
+the trees, and the hawks found its hollow just
+suited to their needs. It was a good, spacious
+house, but a pair of their cousins who had built
+in a tree over the whitewashed hovel had made
+a sad mistake in choosing their dwelling&mdash;for
+the front door was so small they could hardly
+enter! I used to stop to watch them, and was
+very much amused at their efforts to make the
+best of it.</p>
+
+<p>Canello could stand up to his knees in alfilaree<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>
+clover under their tree, so he allowed me to watch
+the birds in peace. The first day the male sparrow
+hawk flew to the tree with what looked like a
+snake dangling from his bill, and as he alighted
+screamed <i>kit-kit'ar' r' r' r'</i>, spreading his wings
+and shaking them with emphasis. When this
+brought no response, he flew from branch to
+branch, crying out lustily. He revolved around
+the end of a broken limb in whose small hollow
+was framed the head of Madame Falco. From
+her height she looked like a rag doll at her window.
+Her funny round face, which filled the
+doorway, had black spots for bill and eyes, and
+dark lines down the cheeks that might have
+simulated rag doll tattooing.</p>
+
+<p>Evidently there was some reason why she did
+not want to come to breakfast. Once she
+started to turn back into the nest, but at last
+laboriously wedged her way out of the hole and
+flew to a branch. Her mate was at her side in
+an instant, and handed her the snake. She took
+it greedily and flew off with it, let us hope
+because she was afraid of me, not because she
+did not want to divide with him, or thought he
+would ask her to, after all his devotion and
+patience!</p>
+
+<p>When the bird went back to her nest, her
+hesitation about leaving it was explained. For
+a long time she sat on a limb near by with tail
+bobbing, apparently trying to make up her mind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>
+to go in. When she did fly up at the hole she
+could not get in, and half fell down. After this
+failure she sat down on a branch, her tail tilting
+as violently as a pipit's, and when Canello moved
+around too much, took the excuse and flew off.
+Her mate came back with her, but when he saw
+us, he screamed and flew away, leaving her to
+her fate.</p>
+
+<p>She sat looking at her hole a long time before
+she tried it again, and when she did try, failed.
+It was not till her fourth attempt that she succeeded.
+The hole was very much too small for
+her, and the surface of the branch below it was
+so smooth and slippery that it gave her nothing
+to hold to in trying to wedge herself in. She
+would fly against the hole and attempt to hook
+her bill over the edge, and so draw herself up,
+but her shoulders were too big for the space.
+She tried to make them smaller by drawing down
+her wings lengthwise. Once, in her efforts, she
+spread her tail like a fan. After her third
+struggle, she sat for a long time smoothing her
+ruffled feathers, shaking herself, scratching her
+face with her foot and trying to get her plumes
+in order.</p>
+
+<p>While making her toilet she apparently
+thought of a new plan. She went back to the
+hole and, raising her claw, fastened it inside the
+hole and with a spasmodic effort wedged in her
+body and disappeared down the black hollow.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>
+Her mate came a moment after, but she did not
+even appear in the doorway when he called.
+Again he came, crying <i>keek' keek' kick-er' r' r'</i>,
+in tender falsetto; but it was no use. Madame
+Falco had had altogether too hard a time getting
+in, to go out again in a hurry. He held a worm
+in his bill till he was tired, changed it to his
+claw, letting it dangle from that for a while;
+and then, as she would make no sign, finally
+flew off.</p>
+
+<p>The next day we had another session with the
+sparrow hawk. She had evidently profited by
+experience. She did not fly at the hole in the
+violent way she had done the day before, but
+ambled along a limb to get as close to it as possible,
+and then quietly flew up. She made two
+or three unsuccessful attempts to enter, but kept
+at the branch,&mdash;falling back but once. She got
+half way in once or twice, but could not force her
+wings through. She acted as if determined not
+to give up, and at last, when she found herself
+falling backwards, with a desperate effort drew
+herself in.</p>
+
+<p>There was another sparrow hawk family across
+the road from my ranch. In riding by one day,
+I saw a youngster looking out from the nest hole
+with big frightened eyes. Was it the only child,
+or was it monopolizing the fresh air while its
+brothers were smothering below? Another day
+there were two heads in the window; one was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
+the round domed, top of a fluffy nestling whose
+eyes expressed only vague fear; but the other
+was the strongly marked head of an old sparrow
+hawk, who eyed us with keen intelligence. As I
+stared up, the young one drew back into the hole
+behind its parent, probably in obedience to her
+command; and the old bird bent such an anxious
+inquiring gaze upon me that I took the hint and
+rode away to save the poor mother worry.</p>
+
+<p>These were not the only hawks of the valley.
+Once, seeing one of the large Buteos winging its
+way with nesting sticks hanging from its claws,
+I turned Canello into the field after it, following
+till it lit in the top of a high sycamore.
+The pair were both gathering material. Sometimes
+they flew with the twigs in their claws;
+sometimes in their bills; now they would fly
+directly to the nest, again circle around the tree
+before alighting. When one was at work, the
+other sometimes flew up and soared so high in
+the sky he looked no larger than a sparrow
+hawk. In swooping to the ground suddenly,
+the hawks would hollow in their backs, stick up
+their tails, drop their legs for ballast, and so let
+themselves come to earth. While one of the birds
+was peacefully gathering sticks, two blackbirds
+attacked it, apparently on general grounds, because
+it belonged to a family that had been
+traduced since history began. To tell the honest
+truth, I trembled a little myself at thought of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>
+what might happen to some of my small tenants,
+though I reassured myself by remembering that
+the facts prove the maligned hawks much more
+likely to eat gophers than birds.</p>
+
+<p>In the back of the stub occupied by one of
+the sparrow hawks it was a pleasure to find a
+flicker excavating its nest. Planting its claws
+firmly in the hole with tail braced against the
+bark, the bird leaned forward, thrusting its head
+in, over and again, as if feeding young. It used
+its feet as a pivot, and swung itself in, farther
+and farther, as it worked. Such gymnastics
+took strong feet, for the bird raised itself by
+them each time. It worked like an automatic
+toy wound up for the performance. When tired,
+the flicker hopped up on a branch and vented
+its feelings by shouting <i>if-if-if-if-if-if-if</i>, after
+which it quietly returned to work. The wood
+was so soft that the excavating made almost no
+noise, but it was easy to see what was going on,
+for the carpenter simply drew back its head and
+tossed out the glistening chips for all the world
+to see. At the end of a week the flicker was
+working so far down in its excavation that only
+the tip of its tail stuck out of the door.</p>
+
+<p>The nest of another Colaptes, I found by
+accident&mdash;a fresh chip dropped from mid-air
+upon my riding skirt. Just then Canello gave
+a stentorian sneeze and the bird came to her
+window to look down. She did not object to us,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>
+and was loath to turn back inside the dark hole&mdash;such
+a close stuffy place&mdash;when outside there
+were the rich green leaves of the tree, the sweet
+breath of the hayfield and the gentle breeze just
+springing up; all the warmth and sunshine and
+fragrance of the fields. How could she ever
+leave to go below? Perhaps she bethought her
+that soon the dark hole would be a home ringing
+with the voices of her little ones; at all
+events, she quickly turned and disappeared in her
+nest.</p>
+
+<p>At the foot of the ranch I discovered a comical,
+sleepy little brown owl, dozing in a sycamore
+window. When we waked it up, it went backing
+down the hole. I wondered if it kept awake
+all day without food, for surely owl children do
+not get many meals by daylight. I spoke to the
+ranchman's son about it, and he said he thought
+the old birds fed the young too much, that he
+had found about a dozen small kangaroo rats
+and mice in their holes! He told me that he
+had known old owls to change places in the daytime,
+and both birds to stay in the hole during
+the day. Down the valley, where an old well
+was only partly covered over, at different times
+he had found a number of drowned owls. They
+seemed to fly into any dark hole that offered.
+Three barn owls had been taken from a windmill
+tank in the neighborhood in about a month.
+In a mine at Escondido the man had found a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>
+number of owls sitting in a crevice where the
+earth, had caved; and he had seen about a dozen
+of them fifty to a hundred feet underground, at
+the bottom of the mine shaft.</p>
+
+<p>I did not wonder the birds wanted to keep out
+of sight in the daytime, knowing what happened
+to those that stayed out. A pair nested in the top
+of a high sycamore on my neighbors' premises, and
+when one stirred away from home, it did so to
+its sorrow. One morning there was such a commotion
+I rode down to see what was the matter.
+A big dark brown form flew down the avenue of
+sycamores ahead of us, followed by a mob of all
+the feathered house owners in the neighborhood.
+They escorted it home to the top of its own tree,
+where it seated itself on a limb, its big yellow eyes
+staring and its long ears dropped down, as if home
+were not home with a rout of angry bee-birds and
+blackbirds screeching and diving at you over your
+own doorsill. Two orioles started to fly over from
+the next tree, but went back, perhaps thinking it
+wiser not to make open war upon such near neighbors;
+while a sparrow hawk who came to help
+in the attack was judged too dangerous an ally
+and escorted home by a squad of blackbirds
+dispatched for the purpose. The poor persecuted
+owl screwed its head around to its back as if
+hoping to see pleasanter sights on that side; but
+the uncanny performance did not seem to please
+its enemies, and a blackbird flew rudely past, close<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>
+under its bill, as if to warn it of what might
+happen.</p>
+
+<p>The queerest of all my tenants was an old
+mother barn owl who lived in the black charred
+chimney of one of the sycamores. I found a
+white feather on the black wood one day in riding
+by, and pulling Canello up by the tree, broke off
+a twig and rapped on the door. She came blundering
+out and flew to a limb over our heads&mdash;such
+a queer old crone, with her hooked nose
+and her weazened face surrounded by a circlet of
+dark feathers. The light blinded her, and with
+her big round eyes wide open she leaned down
+staring to make out who we were. Then shaking
+her head reproachfully, she swayed solemnly
+from side to side. As the wind blew against her
+ragged feathers she drew her wings over her
+breast like a cloak, making herself look like a
+poverty-stricken wiseacre. Finding that we did
+not offer to go, the poor old crone took to her
+wings; but as she passed down the line of sycamores
+she roused the blackbird clan, and a pair
+of angry orioles flew out and attacked her. My
+conscience smote me for driving her out among
+her enemies, but on our return to the sycamores
+all was quiet again, and a lizard was sunning
+himself on the edge of the old owl's chimney.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XI</h2>
+
+<div class='chaptertitle'>AN UNNAMED BIRD.</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Six</span> years ago, on my first visit to California,
+I found a dainty cup of a nest out in the oaks,
+but the name of its owner was a puzzle. On
+returning East I consulted those who are wisest
+in matters of such fine china, but they were
+unable to clear up the matter. For five years
+that mystery haunted me. At the end of that
+time, when back in California, up in those same
+oaks, I found another cup of the same pattern;
+but the cup got broken and that was the end of it.</p>
+
+<p>The fact of the matter is, you can identify perhaps
+ninety per cent. of the birds you see, with
+an opera-glass and&mdash;patience; but when it comes
+to the other ten per cent., including small vireos
+and flycatchers, and some others that might be
+mentioned, you are involved in perplexities that
+torment your mind and make you meditate murder;
+for it is impossible to</p>
+
+<p>
+Name <i>all</i> the birds without a gun.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>On bringing my riddle to the wise men, they
+shook their heads and asked why I did not shoot
+my bird and find out who he was. On saying<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>
+the word his skin would be sent to me; but after
+knowing the little family in their home it would
+have been like raising my hand against familiar
+friends. Could I take their lives to gratify my
+curiosity about a name? I pondered long and
+weighed the matter well, trying to harden my
+heart; but the image of the winning trustful
+birds always rose before me and made it impossible.
+I will put the case before you, and you
+can judge if you would not have withheld your
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>One day, hearing the sound of battle up in the
+treetops, I hurried over to the scene of action,
+when out dashed a pair of courageous little dull-colored
+birds in hot pursuit of a blue jay, whom
+they dove at till they drove him from the field.
+My sympathies were enlisted at once. Fearless
+little tots to brave a bird four times as big as
+themselves in defense of their home! How hard
+to have to build and rear a brood in the face of
+such a powerful foe! I wanted to take up the
+cudgels for them and stand guard to see that no
+harm came.</p>
+
+<p>Planting my camp-stool under their oak, I
+watched eagerly to have my new friends show me
+their home. As I waited, a pair of turtle doves
+walked about on the sand under the farther
+branches of the tree; a pair of woodpeckers sat
+on a dead limb lying in wait for their prey; and
+a couple of titmice came hunting through the oak&mdash;all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>
+the world seemed full of happy home-makers.</p>
+
+<p>But soon I saw a sight that made me forget
+everything else. There were my brave little birds
+up in the oak working upon a beautiful moss cup
+that hung from a forked twig. They were building
+together, flying rapidly back and forth bringing
+bits of moss from the brush to put in their
+nest.</p>
+
+<p>They worked independently, each hunting moss
+and placing it to its own satisfaction. What one
+did the other would be well pleased with, I felt
+sure. But while each worked according to its
+own ideas, they always appeared to be working
+together; they could not bear to be out of sight
+of each other long at a time. When the small
+father bird found himself at the nest alone, after
+placing his material he would stand and call to
+let his pretty mate know that he was waiting for
+her; or else sit down by the nest and warble over
+such a contented, happy little lay it warmed my
+heart just to listen to him.</p>
+
+<p>When his mate appeared the merry birds would
+chase off for a race through the treetops. Song
+and play were mingled with their work, but, for
+all that, the happy builders' house grew under
+their hands, and they kept faithfully at their task
+of preparing the home for their little brood. Once
+the small, dainty mother bird,&mdash;surely it must
+have been she,&mdash;after putting in her bit of moss,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>
+settled down in the nest and sat there the picture
+of quiet happiness.</p>
+
+<p>This was all I saw of the nest builders that
+year. A great storm swept through the valley,
+and it must have washed away the frail mossy
+cup, for it was gone and the tree was deserted.
+Nevertheless, the birds had been so attractive,
+and their nest so interesting, that through the five
+years that passed before my return to California
+I kept their memory green, and could never think
+of them without tenderness&mdash;though I could call
+them by no name. If they had only worn red
+feathers in their caps, it would have been some clue
+to their coats-of-arms; but, out of hand, there
+seemed to be nothing to mark the plain, little,
+greenish gray birds from half a dozen of their
+cousins.</p>
+
+<p>When I finally returned to the California ranch,
+one of my first thoughts was for the moss nest
+makers up in the oaks. Now I had a chance to
+solve the mystery without harming one of their
+pretty feathers, for by long and patient watching I
+might get near enough to puzzle out the 'spurious
+primary' and the subtle distinctions of tint that
+make such a difference in calling birds by their
+right names.</p>
+
+<p>For six weeks I watched and listened in vain,
+but one day when riding up the canyon rejoicing
+at the new life that filled the trees, I stopped
+under an oak only a few rods from the one where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>
+the nest had been five years before, and looking
+up saw a small dull-colored bird with a bit of
+moss in its bill walking down into a mossy cup
+right before my eyes! For a few moments I was
+the happiest observer in the land. I had found
+my little friend again, after all these years! It
+looked over the edge of the twig at me several
+times, but went on gathering material as unconcernedly
+as if it, too, remembered me. The mossy
+cup seemed prettier than any rare bit of S&egrave;vres
+china, for I looked upon it with eyes that had
+been waiting for the sight for five years.</p>
+
+<p>As the bird worked, a cottontail rabbit rustled
+the leaves, and Billy started forward, frightening
+the timid animal so that it scampered off over
+the ground, showing the white underside of its
+tail. But though Billy and the rabbit were both
+terrified, the brave worker only flew down to a
+twig to look at them, and turned back calmly to
+its task.</p>
+
+<p>The nest was so protectively colored that I
+could not see it readily, and sometimes started to
+find that I had been looking right at it without
+knowing it. The prospect of identifying my birds
+was not encouraging. You might as well expect
+to see from the first floor what was going on up
+in a cupola as to expect to see from the ground
+what birds are doing up in the thick oak tops.
+You have reason to be thankful for even a glimpse
+of a bird in the heavy foliage, and as for 'spurious
+primaries,'&mdash;"Woe worth the chase!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Now and then I got a hint of family matters.
+My two little friends were working together, and
+occasionally I saw a bit of moss put in; but it
+was evident that the main part of the work was
+over. One day I waited half an hour, and when
+the bird came it acted as if it had really done all
+that was necessary, and only returned for the sake
+of being about its pretty home.</p>
+
+<p>The birds said a good deal up in the oak, sometimes
+in sweet lisping tones, as though talking to
+themselves about the nest. They often flew away
+from it not far over my head. The call note was
+a loud whistle&mdash;<i>whee-it'</i>&mdash;and the bird gave it
+so rapidly that I once took out my watch to time
+him, after which he called seventy times in sixty
+seconds. Often after whistling loudly he would
+give a soft low call. His clear ringing voice was
+one of the most cheering in the valley.</p>
+
+<p>When the building seemed done and I was looking
+forward to the brooding, as the birds would
+then, perforce, be more about the nest, one sad
+morning I rode up through the oaks and found
+the beautiful moss cup torn and dangling from
+its branch. It was the keenest disappointment
+of the nesting season, and there had been many.
+The pretty acquaintance to whose renewal I had
+looked forward so many years was now ended.</p>
+
+<p>Again I had to leave California without being
+able to name my winning little friends. If I
+had been too much interested in them before to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>
+set a price on their heads; now, rather than
+raise my voice against them, they should remain
+forever unnamed.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>XII.</h2>
+
+<div class='chaptertitle'>HUMMERS.</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">California</span> is the land of flowers and hummingbirds.
+Hummingbirds are there the winged
+companions of the flowers. In the valleys the
+airy birds hover about the filmy golden mustard
+and the sweet-scented primroses; on the blooming
+hillsides in spring the air is filled with whirring
+wings and piping voices, as the fairy troops pass
+and repass at their mad gambols. At one moment
+the birds are circling methodically around
+the whorls of the blue sage; at the next, hurtling
+through the air after a distant companion. The
+great wild gooseberry bushes with red fuchsia-like
+flowers are like bee-hives, swarming with
+noisy hummers. The whizzing and whirring
+lead one to the bushes from a distance, and on
+approaching one is met by the brown spindle-like
+birds, darting out from the blooming shrubs,
+gleams of green, gold, and scarlet glancing from
+their gorgets.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 324px;">
+<img src="images/i172.jpg" width="324" height="426" alt="The Little Hummer on her Bow-Knot Nest. (From a photograph.)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">The Little Hummer on her Bow-Knot Nest.<br />
+(From a photograph.)</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The large brown hummers probably stop in the
+valley only on their way north, but the little
+black-chinned ones make their home there, and
+the big spreading sycamores and the great live-oaks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>
+are their nesting grounds. In the big oak
+beside the ranch-house I have seen two or three
+nests at once; and a ring of live-oaks in front
+of the house held a complement of nests. From
+the hammock under the oak beside the house one
+could watch the birds at their work. If the front
+door was left open, the hummers would sometimes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>
+fly inside; and as we stepped out they often
+darted away from the flowers growing under the
+windows.</p>
+
+<p>California is the place of all places to study
+hummingbirds. The only drawback is that there
+are always too many other birds to watch at the
+same time; but one sees enough to want to see
+more. I never saw a hummingbird courtship
+unless&mdash;perhaps one performance I saw was part
+of the wooing. I was sitting on Mountain Billy
+under the little lover's sycamore when a buzzing
+and a whirring sounded overhead. On a twig sat
+a wee green lady and before her was her lover (?),
+who, with the sound and regularity of a spindle
+in a machine, swung shuttling from side to side
+in an arc less than a yard long. He never turned
+around, or took his eyes off his lady's, but threw
+himself back at the end of his line by a quick
+spread of his tail. She sat with her eyes fixed
+upon him, and as he moved from side to side her
+long bill followed him in a very droll way. When
+through with his dance he looked at her intently,
+as if to see what effect his performance had had
+upon her. She made some remark, apparently
+not to his liking, for when he had answered he
+flew away. She called after him, but as he did
+not return she stretched herself and flew up on
+a twig above with an amusing air of relief.</p>
+
+<p>This is all I have ever seen of the courtship;
+but when it comes to nest-building, I have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>
+often been an eye-witness to that. One little
+acquaintance made a nest of yellow down and
+put it among the green oak leaves, making me
+think that the laws of protective coloration had
+no weight with her, but before the eggs were
+laid she had neatly covered the yellow with
+flakes of green lichen. I found her one day
+sitting in the sun with the top of her head as
+white as though she had been diving into the
+flour barrel. Here was one of the wonderful
+cases of 'mutual help' in nature. The flowers
+supply insects and honey to the hummingbirds,
+and they, in turn, as they fly from blossom to
+blossom probing the tubes with the long slender
+bills that have gradually come to fit the shape
+of the tubes, brush off the pollen of one blossom
+to carry it on to the next, so enabling the plants
+to perfect their flowers as they could not without
+help. It is said that, in proportion to their
+numbers, hummingbirds assist as much as insects
+in the work of cross-fertilization.</p>
+
+<p>Though this little hummer that I was watching
+let me come within a few feet of her, when
+a lizard ran under her bush she craned her neck
+and looked over her shoulder at him with surprising
+interest. She doubtless recognized him as
+one of her egg-eating enemies, on whose account
+she put her nest at the tip of a twig too slender
+to serve as a ladder.</p>
+
+<p>Another hummingbird who built across the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>
+way was still more trustful&mdash;with people. I
+used to sit leaning against the trunk of her oak
+and watch the nest, which was near the tip of
+one of the long swinging branches that drooped
+over the trail. When the tiny worker was at
+home, a yard-stick would almost measure the
+distance between us. As she sat on the nest
+she sometimes turned her head to look down at
+the dog lying beside me, and often hovered over
+us on going away.</p>
+
+<p>The nest was saddled on a twig and glued to a
+glossy dark green oak leaf. Like the other nest,
+it was made of a spongy yellow substance, probably
+down from the underside of sycamore leaves;
+and like it, also, the outside was coated with lichen
+and wound with cobweb. The bird was a rapid
+worker, buzzing in with her material and then
+buzzing off after more. Once I saw the cobweb
+hanging from her needle-like bill, and thought
+she probably had been tearing down the beautiful
+suspension bridges the spiders hang from tree
+to tree.</p>
+
+<p>It was very interesting to see her work. She
+would light on the rim of the nest, or else drop
+directly into the bottom of the tiny cup, and place
+her material with the end of her long bill. It
+looked like trying to sew at arm's length. She
+had to draw back her head in order not to reach
+beyond the nest. How much more convenient it
+would have been if her bill had been jointed! It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>
+seemed better suited to probing flower tubes than
+making nests. But then, she made nests only in
+spring, while she fed from flowers all the year
+round, and so could afford to stretch her neck a
+trifle one month for the sake of having a good
+long fly spear during the other eleven. The peculiar
+feature of her work was her quivering
+motion in moulding. When her material was
+placed she moulded her nest like a potter, twirling
+around against the sides, sometimes pressing
+so hard she ruffled up the feathers of her breast.
+She shaped her cup as if it were a piece of clay.
+To round the outside, she would sit on the rim and
+lean over, smoothing the sides with her bill, often
+with the same peculiar tremulous motion. When
+working on the outside, at times she almost lost
+her balance, and fluttered to keep from falling.
+To turn around in the nest, she lifted herself by
+whirring her wings.</p>
+
+<p>When she found a bit of her green lichen about
+to fall, she took the loose end in her bill and drew
+it over the edge of the nest, fastening it securely
+inside. She looked very wise and motherly as
+she sat there at work, preparing a home for
+her brood. After building rapidly she would
+take a short rest on a twig in the sun, while
+she plumed her feathers. She made nest-making
+seem very pleasant work.</p>
+
+<p>One day, wanting to experiment, I put a handful
+of oak blossoms on the nest. They covered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>
+the cup and hung down over the sides. When
+the small builder came, she hovered over it a few
+seconds before making up her mind how it got
+there and what she had better do about it. Then
+she calmly lit on top of it! Part of it went off
+as she did so, but the rest she appropriated,
+fastening in the loose ends with the cobweb she
+had brought.</p>
+
+<p>She often gave a little squeaky call when on
+the nest, as if talking to herself about her work.
+When going off for material she would dart
+away and then, as if it suddenly occurred to her
+that she did not know where she was going, would
+stop and stand perfectly still in the air, her vibrating
+wings sustaining her till she made up her
+mind, when she would shoot off at an angle. It
+seemed as if she would be worn out before night,
+but her eyes were bright and she looked vigorous
+enough to build half a dozen houses.</p>
+
+<p>"There's odds in folks," our great-grandmothers
+used to say; and there certainly is in
+bird folks; even in the ways of the same one at
+different times. Now this hummingbird was content
+to build right in front of my eyes, and the
+hummer down at the little lover's tree, with her
+first nest, was so indifferent to Billy and me that
+I took no pains to keep at a distance or disguise
+the fact that I was watching her. But when her
+nest was destroyed she suddenly grew old in the
+ways of the world, and apparently repented having<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>
+trusted us. In any case, I got a lesson on being
+too prying. The first nest had not been down
+long before I found that a second one was being
+built only a few feet away&mdash;by the same bird?
+I imagined so. The nest was only just begun,
+and being especially interested to see how such
+buildings were started, I rode close up to watch
+the work. A roll of yellow sycamore down was
+wound around a twig, and the bottom of the nest&mdash;the
+floor&mdash;attached to the underside of this
+beam; with such a solid foundation, the walls
+could easily be supported.</p>
+
+<p>The small builder came when Billy and I were
+there. She did not welcome us as old friends,
+but sat down on her floor and looked at us&mdash;and
+I never saw her there again. Worse than that,
+she took away her nest, presumably to put it down
+where she thought inquisitive reporters would not
+intrude. I was disappointed and grieved, having
+already planned&mdash;-on the strength of the
+first experience&mdash;to have the mother hummer's
+picture taken when she was feeding her young on
+the nest.</p>
+
+<p>At first I thought this suspicion reflected upon
+the good sense of hummingbirds, but after thinking
+it over concluded that it spoke better for
+hummingbirds than for Billy and me. If this
+were, as I supposed, the same bird who had to
+brood her young with Billy grazing at the end
+of her bill, and if she had been present at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>
+unlucky moment when he got the oak branches
+tangled in the pommel of the saddle, although
+her branch was not among them, I can but admire
+her for moving when she found that the Philistines
+were again upon her, for her new house was
+hung at the tip of a branch that Billy might easily
+have swept in passing.</p>
+
+<p>These nests had all been very low, only four or
+five feet above the ground; but one day I found
+young in one of the common treetop nests. I
+could see it through the branches. Two little
+heads stuck up above the edge like two small
+Jacks-in-boxes. Billy made such a noise under
+the oak when the bird was feeding the youngsters
+that I took him away where he could not disturb
+the family, and tied him to an oak covered with
+poison ivy, for he was especially fond of eating
+it, and the poison did not affect him.</p>
+
+<p>Before the old hummer flew off, she picked up
+a tiny white feather that she found in the nest,
+and wound it around a twig. On her return, in
+the midst of her feeding, she darted down and set
+the feather flying; but, as it got away from her,
+she caught it again. The performance was
+repeated the next time she came with food; but
+she did it all so solemnly I could not tell whether
+she were playing or trying to get rid of something
+that annoyed her.</p>
+
+<p>She fed at the long intervals that are so trying
+to an observer, for if you are going to sit for hours<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>
+with your eyes glued to a nest, it really is pleasant
+to have something happen once in a while!
+Though the mother bird did not go to the nest
+often, she sometimes flew by, and once the sound
+of her wings roused the young, and they called
+out to her as she passed. When they were awake,
+it was amusing to see the little midgets stick out
+their long, thread-like tongues, preen their pin-feathers,
+and stretch their wings over the nest.</p>
+
+<p>One fine morning when I went to the oak I
+heard a faint squeak, and saw something fluttering
+up in the tree. When the mother came, she
+buzzed about as though not liking the look of
+things, for her children were out of the nest,
+and behold!&mdash;a horse and rider were under her
+tree. She tried to coax the unruly nestlings to
+follow her into the upper stories, but they would
+not go.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 162px;">
+<img src="images/i181.png" width="162" height="272" alt="The Swing Nest of the Hummer. (From a Photograph.)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">The Swing Nest of the Hummer.<br />
+
+(From a Photograph.)</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Although not ready to be led, one of the infants
+soon felt that it would be nice to go alone. When
+a bird first leaves the nest it goes about very
+gingerly, but this little fellow now began to feel
+his strength and the excitement of his freedom.
+He wiped his tongue on a branch, and then, to
+my astonishment, his wings began to whirl as if
+he were getting up steam, and presently they
+lifted him from his twig, and he went whirring off
+as softly as a hummingbird moth, among the oak
+sprays. His nerves were evidently on edge, for
+he looked around at the sound of falling leaves,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>
+started when Billy sneezed, and turned from side
+to side very apprehensively, in spite of his out-in-the-world,
+big-boy airs. He may have felt
+hampered by his unused wings, for, as he sat
+there waiting for his mother to come, he stroked
+them out with his bill to get them in better working
+order. That done, he leaned over, rounded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>
+his shoulders, and pecked at a leaf as if he were
+as much grown up as anybody.</p>
+
+<p>Of all the beautiful hummingbirds' nests I saw
+in California, three are particularly noteworthy
+because of their positions. One cup was set down
+on what looked like an inverted saucer, in the
+form of a dark green oak leaf wound with cobweb.
+That was in the oak beside the ranch-house. Another
+one was on a branch of eucalyptus, set
+between two leaves like the knot in a bow of stiff
+ribbon. To my great satisfaction, the photographer
+was able to induce the bird to have a
+sitting while she brooded her eggs. The third
+nest I imagined belonged to the bird who took up
+her floor because Billy and I looked at her. If
+she were, her fate was certainly hard, for her eggs
+were taken by some one, boy or beast. Her nest
+was most skillfully supported. It was fastened
+like the seat of a swing between two twigs no
+larger than knitting-needles, at the end of a long
+drooping branch. It was a unique pleasure to
+see the tiny bird sit in her swing and be blown
+by the wind. Sometimes she went circling about
+as though riding in a merry-go-round; and at
+others the wind blew so hard her round boat rose
+and fell like a little ship at sea.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XIII.</h2>
+
+<div class='chaptertitle'>IN THE SHADE OF THE OAKS.</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">There</span> were half a dozen places in the valley,
+irrigated by the spring rains, where I was always
+sure of finding birds. Among them, on the west
+side, was the big sycamore, standing at the lower
+end of the valley; while above, in the northwest
+corner, was the mouth of Twin Oaks canyon
+where the migrants flocked in the brush
+around the large twin oak that overlooked the
+little old schoolhouse. On the east side was the
+Ughland canyon, at the mouth of which the little
+lover and his neighbors nested; while below it
+straggled the line of sycamores that followed
+the Ughland stream down through my ranch.
+But up at the head of the valley beyond the
+ranch-house was the most delightful place of all.
+There I was always sure of finding interesting
+nests to study.</p>
+
+<p>Surrounded by a waste of chaparral, it was a
+little oasis of great blooming live-oaks, and in
+their shade I used often to spend the hot afternoon
+hours. In the spring the water that flowed
+down the hills at the head of the valley formed
+a fresh mountain stream that ran down the Oden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>
+canyon and so on through the centre of this
+grove, feeding the oaks and spreading out to
+enrich the valley below. In summer, like the
+rest of the canyon streams, only its dry sandy
+bed remained. Then, when the meadows were
+oppressively hot, my leafy garden was a shady
+bower to linger in. Its long drooping branches
+hung to the ground, dainty yellow warblers flitted
+about the golden tassels of the blossoming
+trees, and the air was full of the happy songs
+of mated birds.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/i185.jpg" width="550" height="404" alt="A SHADY BOWER" title="" />
+<span class="caption">A SHADY BOWER</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The trail from the ranch-house to the oaks
+was a line through the low grass in which grew
+yellow fly flowers and orange poppies; and over
+them every spring, day after day, processions
+of migrating butterflies drifted slowly up the
+canyon. At the entrance of the garden was a
+sentinel oak whose dark green foliage contrasted
+well with the yellow flowers in the grass outside.
+It was the chosen hunting-ground of many birds.
+Its dead upper branches offered the bee-birds
+and woodpeckers an unobstructed view of passing
+insects, and gave the jays and flickers a
+chance to overlook the brush, and take their
+bearings. The lower limbs offered perches
+where doves might come to rest, finches to chatter,
+and chewinks to sing; while its hanging
+boughs and elm-like feathered sides attracted
+wandering warblers and songful wrens.</p>
+
+<p>The happy days spent among these beautiful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>
+California oaks are now far in the past, but as
+I sit in my study in the East and dream back
+over those hours my mind is filled with memory
+pictures. Sauntering through this oaken gallery,
+each tree recalls some pleasant hour&mdash;the sight
+of a new bird, the sound of a new song, the prolonged
+delight of some cozy home that I watched
+till accepted as a friend, when the little family's
+fears and joys were my own.</p>
+
+<p>That big double oak, spreading across the
+middle of the garden, was the haunted tree
+whose blue ghost drove away the pewees and
+gnatcatchers after they had begun to build;
+though the vireos and bush-tits braved it out,
+and the tiny hummer and gentle dove were not
+afraid to perch there. This was hummingbird
+lane&mdash;that small oak held the nest in which
+the two wee nestlings sat up like Jacks-in-the-box;
+these blue sage bushes growing in the sand
+were the ones the honey bees and hummers used
+to haunt, the hummers probing each lavender
+lip as they circled round the whorls; in front of
+this bush I saw a fairy dancer perform his airy
+minuet,&mdash;swing back and forth, and then sweep
+up in the air to dive whirring down with gorget
+puffed out and tail spread wide; and here, when
+watching a procession of ants, I discovered a
+tiny hummingbird building in a drooping branch
+that overhung the trail. That dead limb was
+the perch of a wood pewee, a silent grave bird<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>
+with a sad call, who flew on when he was still
+only a lonely stranger. That oak top was made
+memorable by the sight of a flaming oriole,
+though he came on a cold foggy morning and
+answered my calls with a broken song and a
+half-hearted scold as he sat with his feathers
+ruffled up about him. Under the low spreading
+branches of that tree the chewinks used to
+scratch&mdash;I can hear the brown leaves rustle
+now&mdash;the branches were so low that, if the shy
+birds flew up to rest from their labors, they could
+quickly drop down and disappear in the brush.</p>
+
+<p>On ahead, where the garden narrows to the
+trail between the walls of brush, when I was
+hidden behind a screen of branches, the timid
+white-crowned sparrows used to venture out,
+hopping along quietly or stopping to sing and
+pick up seeds on the path. Back a few steps
+was the tree where the bush-tits came to build
+their second nest after the roof of the first one
+fell in; the nest which hung on such a low
+limb that I watched it from the sand beneath,
+looking up through the branches at the blue
+sky, the canyon walls covered with sun-whitened
+bowlders, and the turkey buzzards circling over
+the mountains.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 162px;">
+<img src="images/chewink.png" width="162" height="135" alt="Green-tailed Chewink. (One half natural size.)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Green-tailed Chewink.<br />
+(One half natural size.)</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Just there, in that small open place between
+the trees,&mdash;how well I remember the afternoon,&mdash;I
+saw a new bird come out of the bushes;
+the green-tailed chewink he proved to be, on his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>
+way back to the Rocky Mountains. He was a
+beautiful stranger with a soft glossy coat touched
+off with yellowish green, while his high-bred
+gentle manners have made me remember him
+with affectionate interest all
+these years. Across the garden
+I heard my first song
+from that unique rhapsodist,
+the yellow-breasted chat.
+The same place marks another
+interesting experience.
+While I was sitting in the
+crotch of an oak a thrasher came out of the
+brush into an open space in front of me. Her
+feathers were disordered and apparently she
+had come from her nest. She walked with
+wings tight at her sides and her tail up at an
+angle well out of the way of the rustling
+leaves; altogether a neat alert figure that
+contrasted sharply with the lazy brown chippie
+which appeared just then in characteristic
+neglig&eacute;e, its wings hanging and tail dragging
+on the ground. The thrashers of Twin
+Oaks have bills that are curved like a sickle,
+and this bird used her tool most skillfully. Instead
+of scratching up the leaves and earth with
+her feet as chewinks and sparrows do, the
+thrasher used her bill almost exclusively. First
+she cleared a space by scraping the leaves away,
+moving her bill through them rapidly from side<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>
+to side. Then she made two holes in the ground,
+probing deep with her long bill. After taking
+what she could get from the second hole, she
+went back to the first again, as if to see if anything
+had come to the surface there. Then she
+lay down on the sand to sun herself and acted
+as though going to take a sun bath, when suddenly
+she discovered me and fled.</p>
+
+<p>When watching the bird at work I got a
+pretty picture in the round disk of my opera-glass.
+The glass was focused on the digging
+thrasher, but a goldfinch came into the picture
+and pulled at some stems for its nest and a cottontail
+ran rapidly across from rim to rim. I
+lifted the glass to follow him and saw him go
+trotting down the path between the bushes.</p>
+
+<p>The thrasher's curved bill gives a most ludicrous
+look to the bird when singing. He looks
+as if he were trying to turn himself inside out.
+I once saw an adult thrasher tease its mate for
+food, and wondered how it would be possible
+for one curved bill to feed another curved bill;
+but a few days later I came on a family of young,
+and discovered for myself that <i>they</i> have straight
+bills; a most curious and interesting instance of
+adaptation.</p>
+
+<p>At the head of the garden stands a tree that
+always reminds me of the horses I rode in California.
+I watched my first bush-tit's nest under
+it, with Canello grazing near; and five years later<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>
+watched another bush-tit's nest there, sitting in
+the crotch of the oak with Mountain Billy looking
+over my shoulder. Although Billy was, in his
+prime, a bucking mustang, he became more of a
+petted companion than Canello had been; and
+when we were out alone together, we were a great
+deal of company for each other. As soon as I
+dismounted he would put his head down to have
+me slip the reins off over his ears, so that he
+could graze by himself. Sometimes, when he
+stood behind me he rested his bridle on my sun-hat,
+and once went so far as to take a bite out
+of the brim&mdash;in consideration of its being straw.
+If I were sitting on the ground and he was grazing
+near, he would at times walk up and gravely raise
+his face to look into mine. When he got tired,
+he would rub up against my arm and yawn, looking
+down at me with a friendly smile in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Birding was rather dull for Billy&mdash;when there
+was neither grass nor poison ivy at hand, but he
+had one never-failing source of enjoyment&mdash;rolling.
+He tried it in the sand under the oak,
+one day, with the saddle on. Before I knew what
+he was about he was down on his knees, sitting
+still, with a comical, helpless look in his eyes, as
+if quite at a loss to know what to do next, having
+become conscious of the saddle. When I had
+gotten him on his feet and finished lecturing him
+I uncinched the saddle, laid it one side on the
+ground, took hold of the end of the long bridle,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>
+and told him to roll. A droll abstracted look
+came into his eyes, he dropped on his knees and,
+with a sudden convulsion, threw his heels into the
+air and rolled back and forth, rubbing his backbone
+vigorously on the sand. After that, the first
+thing every morning when we got to the oaks, I
+unsaddled him and let him roll, and then he would
+stand with bare back keeping cool in the shade of
+the trees.</p>
+
+<p>One morning as we stood under the bush-tit's
+tree, I discovered a pair of turtle doves looking
+out at me from the leaves of the small oak opposite,
+craning their necks and moving their heads
+uneasily. One of them seemed to be shaping a
+nest of twigs. I drew Billy around between us,
+so that my staring would seem less pointed, and
+when one of the pair flew to the ground to spy at
+me, hurriedly looked the other way to remove his
+anxiety. His mate soon joined him, and the two
+doves walked away together, fixed their feathers
+in the sun, stretched their wings, and lazily picked
+at the ground. When one whirred back to the
+nest, the other soon followed. The gentle lovers
+put their bills together, while, unnoticed, I stood
+behind Billy, looking on and thinking that it was
+little wonder such birds should rise from the
+ground with a musical whirr.</p>
+
+<p>Billy's oak was the last of the high trees in the
+garden. Above it was a grassy space where
+bright wild flowers bloomed, and pretty cottontail<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>
+rabbits often went ambling over the soft turf.
+On one side of the opening was a low stocky oak,
+full of balls of mistletoe, and on the other a great
+blossoming bush buzzing with hummingbirds.
+The mistletoe had begun to sap the little oak, and
+on one of its dead twigs a hummingbird had taken
+to perching. I wondered if he were the idle mate
+of one of my small garden builders, but he sat
+and sunned himself as if his conscience were quite
+clear.</p>
+
+<p>My first experience with gnatcatchers had been
+here. I suspected a nest, and the ranchman's
+daughter went with me to hunt through the brush.
+She cautioned me to look out for rattlesnakes,
+but the brush was so dense and the ground so
+covered with crooked snake-like sticks that it
+was not an easy matter to tell what you were
+stepping on. Then, the poison oak was so thick
+that I felt like holding up my hands to avoid it.
+We pushed our way through the dense chaparral,
+and my fearless companion got down on her hands
+and knees to look through the tangle for the nest.
+It was hard disagreeable work, even if one did
+not object to snakes, and we were soon so tired
+that we were ready to sit down and let the birds
+show us to their house. We might have saved
+ourselves all the trouble if we had done this to
+begin with, for it was only a few moments before
+the little pair went to the mistletoe oak, out in
+plain sight and within easy reach&mdash;how they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>
+would have laughed in their sleeves had they
+known what we were hunting for back in the
+brush! The nest was about the size of a chilicothe
+pod, and so covered with lichen that it looked just
+like a knot on the tree.</p>
+
+<p>Around the blossoming bush the air fairly vibrated
+with hummers, darting up into the sky,
+shooting down and chasing each other pell mell&mdash;sometimes
+almost into my face. As I sat by
+the bush one day, a handsome male went around
+with upraised throat, poking his bill up the red
+fuchsia-like tubes. Another one was flying around
+inside the bush, and I edged nearer to see. The
+sun shone in, whitening the twigs, and as the bird
+whirred about with a soft burring sound, I caught
+gleams of red, gold, and green from his gorget,
+and could see the tiny bird rest his wee feet on a
+twig to reach up to a blossom. Then he hummed
+what sounded more like a love song than anything
+I had ever heard from a hummingbird. He
+seemed so much more like a real bird than any of
+his brothers that I felt attracted to him.</p>
+
+<p>One morning a little German girl, in a red
+pinafore, and with hair flying, came riding down
+the sand stream toward my bush. Her colt reared
+and pranced, but she sat as firmly as if she had
+been a small centaur. It was a holiday, and she
+was staking out her horses to graze, making gala-day
+work of it. She had one horse down by the
+little oak already, and springing off the one she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>
+had brought, changed about, jumped as lightly as
+a bird upon the other's back and raced home.
+Soon she came galloping back again, and so she
+went and came until tired out, for pure fun on
+her free holiday.</p>
+
+<p>In looking over the bright memory pictures of
+my beautiful oak garden, there is one to which I
+always return. The spreading trunks of a great
+five-stemmed tree on one side of the grove made
+a dark oaken couch, screened by the leafy willow-like
+branches that hung to the ground. Here&mdash;after
+looking to see that there were no rattlesnakes
+coiled in the dead leaves&mdash;I spent many a dreamy
+hour, reclining idly as I listened to the free songs
+of the birds that could not see me behind my
+curtain. It was interesting to note the way certain
+sounds predominated; certain songs would
+absorb one's attention, and then pass and be replaced
+by others. At one time a jay's scream
+would jar on the ear and drown all other voices;
+when that had passed, the chewinks would fly up
+from the leaves and sing and answer each other
+till the air was quivering with their trills. Then
+came the thrashers, with their loud rollicking
+songs; and when they had pitched down into the
+brush, out rang the clear bell-like tones of the
+wren-tit, filling the air with sound. Afterwards
+the impatient whipped-out notes of the chaparral
+vireo were followed by the soft cooing of doves;
+and then, as the wind stirred the trees and sent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span>
+the loosened oak blossoms drifting to the ground,
+from high out of an oak top came a most exquisite
+song. At the first note of this grosbeak all other
+songs were forgotten&mdash;they were noise and
+chatter&mdash;this was pure music. It was like passing
+from the cries of the street into the hall of a
+symphony concert. The black-headed grosbeak
+has not the spirituality of the hermit thrush, and
+his ordinary song is not so remarkable, but his
+love song excels that of any bird I have ever heard
+in finish, rich melody, and music. As I listened,
+my surroundings harmonized so perfectly with the
+wonderful song echoing through the great trees
+that the old oak garden seemed an enchanted
+bower. The drooping branches were a leafy lattice
+through which the afternoon sun filtered,
+steeping the oaks in thick still sunshine. Last
+year's leaves drifted slowly to the ground, while
+the bees droned about the yellow tassels of the
+blooming trees. As a violinist, lingering to perfect
+a note, draws his bow again and again over
+the strings, so this rapt musician dwelt tenderly
+on his highest notes, trolling them over till each
+was more exquisite and tender than the last, and
+the ear was charmed with his love song&mdash;a song
+of ideal love fit to be dreamed of in this stately
+green oak garden filled with golden sunlight.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XIV.</h2>
+
+<div class='chaptertitle'>A MYSTERIOUS TRAGEDY.</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">On</span> a peg just inside the door of the ranchman's
+old wine shed hung one of the horses' unused
+nosebags. A lad on the place told me that
+a wren had a nest in it, and added that he had
+seen a fight between the wren and a pair of
+linnets who seemed to be trying to steal her
+material.</p>
+
+<p>The first time I went to the wine shed both
+wrens and linnets were there, but nothing happened
+and I forgot about the original quarrel.
+By peering through a crack in the boarding I
+could look down on the wren in the nosebag inside.
+I could see her dark eyes, the white line
+over them, and her black barred tail. She was
+Vigor's wren. She got so tame that she would
+not stir when the creaking door was opened close
+by her, or when people were talking in the shed;
+and I used to go often to see how her affairs were
+progressing.</p>
+
+<p>All her eggs hatched in time, and the small
+birds, from being at first all eyeball, soon got to
+be all bill. When I opened the bag to look at
+them, the light woke them up and they opened
+their mouths, showing chasms of yellow throat.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The mother bird fed them several times when
+I was watching only a few feet away. She would
+come ambling along in the pretty wren fashion,
+with her tail over her back; creeping down the
+side of a lath, running behind a rafter, scolding
+as though to make conversation, and then winding
+down to the nest through a crack. One day
+she hesitated, and waited to spy at me, since I
+had thought it polite to stare at her! When satisfied,
+she hopped along from beam to beam, her
+bright eyes still upon me. Then her mate joined
+her. He had been suspicious of me at our first
+meeting, but apparently had changed his mind,
+for, seeing his spouse hesitate, he glanced at me
+unconcernedly, as much as to say, "Is she all
+you're waiting for?" and flew out, leaving her to
+my tender mercies. She hopped meekly into the
+bag after that rebuke, but stretched up to peer at
+me once more before settling down inside.</p>
+
+<p>One day when I looked in to see how wren
+matters were progressing, to my amazement and
+horror, instead of my wren's nest I found another,
+high in the mouth of the bag with one fresh egg
+in it! The egg was a linnet's, and the nest had
+been built right on top of the wren's. Such a
+stench came from the bag that I took out the
+upper nest and found the four little wrens dead
+in their crib.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 382px;"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173"></a>
+<img src="images/i199.png" width="382" height="600" alt="The Nosebag Nest. (Vigors&#39;s Wren.)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">The Nosebag Nest.<br />
+
+(Vigors&#39;s Wren.)</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>I had become very fond of the winsome mother
+bird, and so much interested in her brood that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>
+this horrid discovery came like a tragedy in the
+family of a friend.</p>
+
+<p>And what did it all mean? Unless the old
+wrens had been dead, could the linnets have
+gotten possession? The wrens were usually able
+to hold their own in a discussion. If the nestlings
+had been alive, would the linnets&mdash;would any
+bird&mdash;have built upon them, deliberately burying
+them alive? It seemed too diabolical. On
+the other hand, what could have killed the little
+wrens and left them in the nest? If they had
+been dead when the linnets came to build, how
+could the birds have chosen such a sepulchre for
+a building site?</p>
+
+<p>Grieving over my little friends, I cleaned out
+the nosebag and hung it up on its peg. Three
+weeks later I discovered, to my great perplexity,
+that a pair of wrens had built in the bottom of
+the bag and had one egg in the nest. Now, was
+this the same pair of birds that had built there
+before, and if so, what did it all mean?</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XV.</h2>
+
+<div class='chaptertitle'>HOW I HELPED BUILD A NEST.</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">They</span> picked out their crack in the oak and
+began to build without any advice from me, winning
+little gray-crested titmice that they were.
+Their oak was right behind the ranch-house barn;
+I found it by hearing the bird sing there. The
+little fellow, warmed by his song, flitted up the
+tree a branch higher after each repetition of his
+loud cheery <i>tu-whit', tu-whit', tu-whit', tu-whit'</i>.
+Meanwhile his pretty mate, with bits of stick in
+her bill, walked down a crack in the oak trunk.</p>
+
+<p>Thinking she had gone, I went to examine the
+place. I poked about with a twig but couldn't
+find the nest till, down in the bottom of the crack,
+I spied a little gray head and a pair of bright
+eyes looking up at me. The bird started forward
+as if to dart out, but changed her mind and stayed
+in while I took a hasty look and fled, more frightened
+than she by the intrusion.</p>
+
+<p>The titmice had been flying back and forth
+from the hen-yard with chicken's feathers, and it
+seemed such slow work for them I thought I
+would help them. So the next day, when the
+pair were away, I stuffed a few white feathers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>
+into the mouth of the nest and withdrew under
+the shadow of the barn to watch through my
+glass without being observed. Then my conscience
+began to trouble me. What if this interference
+should drive the gentle bird to desert her
+nest?</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 407px;">
+<img src="images/i202.png" width="407" height="408" alt="The Plain Titmouse in her Doorway." title="" />
+<span class="caption">The Plain Titmouse in her Doorway.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>When I heard the familiar chickadee call&mdash;the
+titmouse often chirrups like his cousin&mdash;it
+made me quake guiltily. What would the birds
+do? The gray pair came flying in with crests<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>
+raised, and my small friend hopped down to her
+doorway. She gave a start of surprise at sight of
+the feathers, but after a moment's hesitation went
+bravely in! While she was inside, her mate
+waited in the tree, singing for her; and when she
+came out, he flew away with her. Then I crept
+up to the oak, and to my delight found that all
+the feathers had disappeared. She evidently
+believed in taking what the gods provide. In
+fact, she seemed only to wish that they would provide
+more, for, after taking a second supply from
+me, she stood in the vestibule, cocked her crested
+head, and looked about as if expecting to see new
+treasures.</p>
+
+<p>She had common-sense enough to take what
+she found at hand, but if she had not been such
+a plucky little builder she would have been scared
+away by the strange sights that afterwards met
+her at her nest. Once when she came, feathers
+were sticking in the bark all around the crack.
+She hesitated&mdash;the rush of her flight probably
+fanned the air so the white plumes waved in her
+face&mdash;she hesitated and looked around timidly
+before getting courage to go in; and on leaving
+the nest flew away in nervous haste; but she was
+soon back again, and ready to take the feathers
+down inside the oak. She caught hold of the tip
+of one that was wedged into a crack, and tugged
+and tugged till I was afraid she would get discouraged
+and go off without it. She got it, however,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>
+and drew it in backwards. Then she attacked
+another feather, but finding that it came harder
+than the first, let go her hold and took an easier
+one. She was not to be daunted, though, and
+after stowing away the loose one came back for
+the tight one again, and persevered till she bent
+it in several places, besides breaking off the tip.</p>
+
+<p>When she had flown off, I jumped up, ran to
+the oak, and stuffed the doorway full of feathers.
+Before I had finished, the family sentinel caught
+me&mdash;I had been in too much of a hurry and he
+had heard me walking over the cornstalks. He
+eyed me suspiciously and gave vent to his disapproval,
+but I addressed him in such friendly terms
+that he soon flew off and talked to his mate reassuringly,
+as if he had decided that it was all right
+after all. After their conversation she came back
+and made the best of her way right down through
+the feather-bed! I went away delighted with
+her perseverance, and charmed by her confidence
+and pretty performances.</p>
+
+<p>The next day I heard the titmouse singing in
+an elder by the kitchen, and went out to see how
+the birds acted when gathering their own material.
+The songster was idly hunting through the
+branches, singing, while his mate&mdash;busy little
+housewife&mdash;was hard at work getting her building
+stuff. She had something in her beak when I
+caught sight of her, but in an instant was down on
+the ground after another bit. Then she flew up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>
+in the tree looking among the leaves; in passing
+she swung a moment on a strap hanging from a
+branch; then flew down among the weeds, back
+up in the tree again; and so back and forth, over
+and over, her bill getting fuller and fuller.</p>
+
+<p>I was glad to save her work, and interested to
+see how far she would accept my help. Once
+when I blocked the entrance with feathers and
+horsehair she stopped, and, though her bill was
+full, picked up the packet and flew out on a
+branch with it. Was she going to throw away my
+present? For a moment my faith in her was
+shaken. Perhaps her mate had been warning her
+to beware of me. She did drop the mat of horsehair&mdash;what
+did such a dainty Quaker lady as
+she want of horsehair?&mdash;but she kept tight hold
+of one of the feathers, although it was almost as
+big as she was; and flew back quickly to the nest
+with it.</p>
+
+<p>This performance proved one point. She would
+not take everything that was brought to her. She
+preferred to hunt for her own materials rather
+than use what she did not like. Now the question
+was, what did she like?</p>
+
+<p>My next experiment was with some lamp wick
+to which I had tied bits of cotton. The titmouse
+took the cotton and would have taken the wicking,
+I think, if it had not been fastened in too tight
+for her. After that I tried tying bits of cotton
+to strings, and letting them dangle before the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>
+mouth of the nest. Though I moved up to within
+twenty feet of the nest, she paid no attention to
+me but hurried in. She liked the cotton so well
+she stopped in her hallway, reached up to pull at
+the white bundles, and tweaked and tugged till,
+finally, she backed triumphantly down the hole
+with one.</p>
+
+<p>Her mate, less familiar with my experiments,
+started to go to the nest after her, but the sight of
+the cotton scared him so he fled ignominiously
+back into the treetop. He stayed there singing
+till she came out, when he flew up to her with a
+dainty he had discovered&mdash;at least the two put
+their bills together; perhaps it was just a caress,
+for they were a tender, gentle little pair.</p>
+
+<p>Having proved that my bird liked feathers and
+cotton, I wanted to see what she thought of straws.
+Apparently she did not think much of them. She
+looked very much dashed when she came home
+and found the yellow sticks protruding from the
+nest hole. She hesitated, turned her head over,
+flew to a twig on one side of the oak and then
+back to one on the other side. Finally she
+mustered courage, and with her crest flattened as
+if she did not like it, darted down into the hole.
+When she flew out, however, she went right to
+her mate, and forgetting all her troubles at sight
+of him, fluttered her wings and lisped like a young
+bird as she put up her bill to have him feed her.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps it was unkind to bother the poor bird<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>
+any more, but I meant her no harm and the fever
+for experiment possessed my blood. I tied some
+of the straws to a piece of wicking and baited it
+with feathers, thinking that perhaps she would
+take the straws for the sake of the feathers and
+wicking. I also stuffed the hole with horsehair.
+She did pull at the feather end of the line; I saw
+the straw jerk, and, when she had left, found a
+round hole the brave little bird had made right
+through the middle of the mat of horsehair I had
+stopped the nest with.</p>
+
+<p>Straws and horsehair the titmouse evidently
+classed together. They were not on her list of
+building materials. On reflection she decided
+that the horsehair would make a good hall carpet,
+so left it in the vestibule, though she would
+have none of it down in her nest; but she calmly
+threw my straws down on the ground at the foot
+of the oak.</p>
+
+<p>I don't know what experiments I might have
+been tempted to try next had I not suddenly found
+myself dismissed&mdash;the house was complete. My
+pretty Quaker lady sat in the shade of the oak
+leaves with crest raised and the flickering sunlight
+flecking her gray breast. She pecked softly at
+one of the white feathers that blew up against
+her as she listened to the song of her mate; and
+then flew away to him without once going to the
+nest. Evidently her work was done, and she was
+waiting till it should be time to begin brooding.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Ten days later I saw her mate come with his
+bill full of worms and lean down by the hole to
+call her. She answered with a sweet pleading
+twitter, and reached up to be fed. When he had
+gone, perhaps she thought she would like a second
+bite. At any rate, she hopped out in the doorway
+and flew off to another tree, calling out <i>tsch&eacute;-de-de</i>
+so sweetly he would surely have come back
+to her had he been within hearing.</p>
+
+<p>A few days later I saw him feed her at the nest
+five or six times in half an hour. He would come
+to the next oak, light and call to her, when she
+would answer from inside the tree trunk and he
+would go to her. I was near enough to see her
+pretty gray head and black eyes coming up out of
+the crack in the oak. Sometimes when he had
+fed her he would call out and she would answer
+as if saying good-by from down in the nest. One
+morning I found the devoted little mate bringing
+her breakfast to her at half past six.</p>
+
+<p>Nearly a month later they were feeding their
+young. The winsome mother bird, who had looked
+so tired and nest-worn the last time I saw her,
+was now as plump and happy as her spouse. When
+I thought the pair were away, I went to try to
+get sight of the nestlings down the hole. The
+old birds appeared as soon as I set foot by the
+oak and took upon themselves to scold me. They
+chattered softly in a way they had never done
+before. They quickly got used to me again, however,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span>
+and fed the little ones without hesitation
+right before me, knowing full well that a person
+who had helped them build their nest would never
+harm their little brood; and it was a disappointment
+when I had to go away and leave the
+winning family.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XVI.</h2>
+
+<div class='chaptertitle'>IN OUR NEIGHBOR'S DOOR-YARD.</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> little German girl with the scarlet pinafore
+was a near neighbor, living at the head
+of the valley in a cottage surrounded by great
+live-oaks. These trees were alive with birds.
+Bush-tits flew back and forth, busily hanging
+their gray pockets among the leafy folds of
+the drooping branches; blue jays flew through,
+squawking on their way to the brush; goldfinches,
+building in the orchard, lisped sweetly as
+they rested in the oaks; and a handsome oriole
+who was building in the grove flew overhead so
+slowly he seemed to be retarded by the fullness
+of his own sweet song. But I had become so
+fond of the gentle gray titmouse whose nest I
+had helped to build, that of all the bird songs in
+the trees, its cheery <i>tu-whit', tu-whit', tu-whit'</i> was
+most enticing to me. How delightful it would be
+to watch another pair of the winning workers!
+I did see one of the birds enter a hollow branch,
+one day, and not long after saw it go down a
+hole in an oak trunk; but never saw it afterwards
+in either place. Back and forth I followed
+that elusive voice, hoping to discover the nest,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>
+but I suspect the bird was only prospecting, and
+had not even begun to work.</p>
+
+<p>The little German Gretchen became interested
+in the search for the titmouse's nest, and told me
+that a gray bird had built in an oak in front of
+her house. I rode right over to see it, but found
+the gray bird a female Mexican bluebird, whose
+brilliant ultramarine mate sat on the fence of the
+vegetable garden in plain sight. The children
+kept better watch of the nest after that, and a
+few days later, when in my attic study, I heard
+the tramp of a horse, and, looking out, found my
+little friend under the window, come to tell me
+that the eggs had hatched. When her older sister
+came for the washing I asked her if she had
+seen the old birds go to the nest, and she said,
+"Yes; one was blue and the other gray."</p>
+
+<p>When I rode up again, the young had grown
+so that from the saddle I could look down the
+hole and see their big mouths and bristling pin-feathers.
+The mother bird was about the tree,
+and her soft dull coloring toned in well with the
+gray bark. The bluebirds had a double front
+door, and went in one side to come out the other.
+I saw both of them feed the young, the male flying
+into the hole straight from the fence post.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed such hard work finding worms out
+in the hot sun that I wondered if birds' eyes ever
+ached from the intentness of their search, and if
+there were near-sighted birds. Perhaps the intervals<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span>
+of feeding depend on the worm supply
+rather than the dietary principles of the parents.</p>
+
+<p>Gretchen's mother was bending over her wash-tubs
+out under the oaks, and I called her attention
+to the pretty birds brooding in her door-yard,
+telling her that they were good friends of hers,
+eating up the worms that destroyed her flowers
+and vegetables. "So?" she asked, but seemed
+ready to let the subject drop there, and hurried
+back to her work. A poor widow with a large
+family of children and a ranch to look after can
+find little time, even in beautiful California, to
+enjoy what Nature places in her door-yard.</p>
+
+<p>Three weeks later Gretchen came riding down
+to tell me that there were eggs in the tree again.
+The bluebird bid fair to be as hardworked as the
+widow, at that rate, I thought, when I went up to
+look at them. The children showed me the nest
+of a goldfinch, near the ground, in one of the
+little orange-trees in front of the house. They
+also pointed out linnets' nests in the vines by the
+door, and the oldest child said eagerly, "When
+we came home from school there was a hummingbird
+in the window, and we caught it," adding, "I
+think it must have been a father hummingbird."
+"Why?" I asked, "was it pretty?" "Yes, it
+just shined," she exclaimed enthusiastically.</p>
+
+<p>When the family were at home, their puppy
+would bark at us furiously, and follow us about
+suspiciously, but when he had been left on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>
+ranch alone he was glad of our society. Then
+when I watched the bluebirds, he came and curled
+down by my side, becoming so friendly that he
+actually grew jealous of Billy, and turned to have
+me caress him each time that the little horse
+walked up to have the flies brushed off his nose,
+or having pulled up a bunch of grass by the roots,
+brought it for me to hold so that he could eat it
+without getting the dirt in his mouth.</p>
+
+<p>Going home one day, Billy came upon a gopher
+snake. Now Canello had been brought up in a
+rattlesnake country, and was always on his guard,
+but Billy was 'raised' in the mountains, where
+snakes are scarce, and did not seem to know what
+they were. He had given me a good deal of anxiety
+by this indifference&mdash;he had stepped over a
+big one once without seeing any need for haste&mdash;and
+I had been expecting that he would get
+bitten. Here, then, was my chance to give him a
+scare. The gopher snake was harmless; perhaps,
+if I could get him so close to it that he would see
+it wriggle away from under his feet, he might be
+less indifferent to rattlers.</p>
+
+<p>The gopher snake was three or four feet long,
+and lay as straight as a stick across our path.
+As I urged Billy up beside it, he actually stepped
+on the tip of its tail. The poor snake writhed a
+little, but gave no other sign of pain; its r&ocirc;le was
+to remain a stick. And Billy certainly acted as
+if it were. I threw the reins on his neck, thinking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>
+that if he put his head down to graze he
+might make a discovery. Then a horrid thought
+came to me. The people said the rattlers sometimes
+lost their rattles. In a general way, rattlers
+and gopher snakes look alike; what if this
+were a rattlesnake, and at my bidding my little
+horse should be struck! But no. There was
+no mistaking the long tapering body of the gopher,
+and it lacked the wide flat head of the
+rattler. But I might have spared myself my
+fears. Billy would not even put his head down,
+and when I tried to force him upon the snake he
+quietly turned aside. To make the snake move,
+I threw a stick at it, but it was as obstinate as
+Billy himself. Then I slipped to the ground, and
+picking up a long pole gave it a gingerly little
+poke. Still motionless! I tried another plan,
+taking Billy away a few yards. Then at last
+the snake slowly pulled itself along. But the
+moment we came back it turned into a stick
+again, and Billy relapsed into indifference. It
+was no use. I could do nothing with either of
+them. I would see the snake go off, anyway, I
+thought, so withdrew and waited till it felt reassured,
+when it started. Its silken skin shone
+as it wormed silently through the grass and disappeared
+down a hole without a sound, and I
+reflected that it might also come <i>up</i> without a
+sound, very likely beside me as I sat on the dead
+leaves!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 421px;">
+<img src="images/i215.png" width="421" height="230" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<h2>XVII.</h2>
+
+<div class='chaptertitle'>WHICH WAS THE MOTHER BIRD?</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> second time I went to California the little
+whitewashed adobe opposite my ranch was still
+standing, but an acacia-tree had grown over the
+well where the black ph&oelig;be had nested, and the
+shaft was so overrun with bushes and vines that
+it was hard to find a trace of it. Drawn by
+pleasant memories, I rode in one morning, sure
+of finding something interesting about the old
+place.</p>
+
+<p>I had not waited long before the chip of a
+young bird came from the vines over the well.
+It proved a callow nestling, with no tail, and little
+to mark its parentage. Presently a brown long-tailed
+wren-tit came with food in its bill and
+peered down through the leaves at it; and then
+a California towhee came and sat around till satisfied
+as to whose child was crying. A moment
+later a lazuli bunting flew over with food in her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>
+bill, and I at once bethought me of the lazuli-like
+markings, the brownish wing-bars and the
+sharp cry of "quit," which none but a lazuli could
+give. That surely was my bird.</p>
+
+<p>But if so, what did this interest on the part of
+the wren-tit mean? She hopped about the nestling
+with tail up and crest raised, chattering to it
+in low mysterious tones; and when I suspected
+her of giving her worm to it, suddenly turned
+her head and looked away with a suspiciously
+non-<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'commital'">committal</ins> air. The lazuli, however, sat indifferently
+on a branch and plumed her feathers,
+though when she did fly down toward the young
+one, the wren-tit gave way. But even then the
+lazuli did not feed the small bird. When she
+had gone, the wren-tit came back. She spoke low
+to the nestling, and drew it down into the thick
+part of the tangle where I could not see them,
+though there was a hint of tiny quivering wings,
+and I was morally certain that the old bird was
+<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'eeding'">feeding</ins> it, especially when she flew up in sight
+with the smart air of having outwitted me.</p>
+
+<p>I was getting more and more bewildered.
+What did it all mean? Were there two families
+of young down in the tangle? If not, why were
+two old birds feeding one little one, and to which
+mother did the child belong? The wisdom of
+Solomon was needed to solve the riddle.</p>
+
+<p>The wren-tit simply devoted herself to the little
+bird, going and coming for it constantly; while<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>
+the lazuli, ordinarily the most nervous noisy bird
+when her young are disturbed, sat around silently,
+or flew away without remark. I became so impressed
+by the wren-tit side of the case that I
+quite forgot the lazuli note and markings.</p>
+
+<p>Just as I thought I had come to a decision in
+the case, a male lazuli flew in, lighting atilt of
+an acacia stalk opposite the wren-tit. But when
+he saw me he craned his neck and flew off in a
+hurry&mdash;no father, surely, scared away at the first
+glimpse of me! However, I was not clear in my
+mind, and sat down to puzzle the matter out.</p>
+
+<p>At this juncture Madame Lazuli came with
+food; the young bird turned toward her for it,
+and behold! she took to her wings with all she
+had brought. I had hardly time to congratulate
+myself on this new piece of testimony, when back
+came the lazuli with her bill full!</p>
+
+<p>In my perplexity I moved so near the little one
+that, without meaning to, I forced the old birds
+to show their true colors. The situation was too
+dangerous to admit of further subterfuge. Both
+Madame Lazuli and her handsome blue mate&mdash;whom
+I discovered at a safe distance up on a high
+branch out of reach&mdash;flew down and dashed
+about, twitching their tails from side to side as
+they cried "quit," in nervous tones; altogether
+acting so much like anxious parents that I had to
+relinquish my theory that the little bird belonged
+to the wren-tit. Like the mother whom Solomon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>
+judged, she forgot all else when real danger
+threatened the child. Having come to my decision
+from circumstantial evidence, I remembered
+with a start that I had known it all the time,
+from the wing-bars and the call note! Nevertheless,
+my riddle was only half solved, for how
+about the wren-tit?</p>
+
+<p>A young bird called from the sycamore at the
+corner of the adobe, and when both old birds flew
+over to it, I thought I'd better follow. I got
+there just in time to see a little bird light in the
+elbow of a limb, totter as if going to fall, and save
+itself by snuggling up in the elbow, where it sat
+in the sun looking very cozy and comfortable&mdash;winning
+little tot. The mother lazuli started to
+come to it, but seeing me flew away to another
+branch, where, well screened, she stretched up on
+her toes to look at me over the top of a big sycamore
+leaf. Though the fledgling called, the
+mother left without going to it.</p>
+
+<p>The wren-tit had stayed behind at the well; but
+while the lazuli was gone, who should come flying
+in but the foster mother! I was astonished.
+Moreover, the instant the youngster set eyes on
+her, it started up and flew to her&mdash;actually flew
+into her in its hurry. She admonished it gently,
+in a soft chattering voice, for she could not scold it.</p>
+
+<p>When the lazuli came back with food, it was
+only to see her little bird flying off to the other
+side of the tree after the wren-tit! I thought she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>
+seemed bewildered, but she followed in their wake&mdash;we
+all followed. Here came a closer test.
+Both lazuli and wren-tit stood before the small
+bird. Which would it go to? The lazuli kept
+silent, but the wren-tit called softly and the little
+one raised its wings and flew toward her, leaving
+its mother behind.</p>
+
+<p>I watched and waited, but the wren-tit did not
+give over her kind offices, and the last I saw of
+the birds, on riding away, the three were flying
+in procession across the brush, the lazuli following
+its mother and the wren-tit bringing up the rear.</p>
+
+<p>I went home very much puzzled. Was the
+wren-tit a lonely mother bird who had lost her
+own little ones, or was she merely an old maid
+with a warm spot in her heart for other peoples'
+little folks?</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XVIII.</h2>
+
+<div class='chaptertitle'>A RARE BIRD.</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">We</span> may say that we care naught for the world
+and its ways, but most of us are more or less
+tricked by the high-sounding titles of the mighty.
+Even plain-thinking observers come under the
+same curse of Adam, and, like the snobs who turn
+scornfully from Mr. Jones to hang upon the words
+of Lord Higginbottom, will pass by a plain <i>brown
+chippie</i> to study with enthusiasm the ways of a
+<i>phainopepla!</i> Sometimes, however, in ornithology
+as in the world, a name does cover more
+than its letters, and we are duped into making
+some interesting discoveries as well as learning
+some of the important lessons in life. In the case
+of the phainopepla, no hopes that could be raised
+by his cognomen would equal the rare pleasure
+afforded by a study of his unusual ways.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 404px;">
+<img src="images/i221.png" width="404" height="508" alt="THE PHAINOPEPLAS ON THE PEPPER-TREE" title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE PHAINOPEPLAS ON THE PEPPER-TREE</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>On my first visit to Twin Oaks I caught but
+brief glimpses of this distinguished bird. Sometimes
+for a moment he lit on a bare limb and
+I had a chance to admire his high black crest
+and glossy blue-black coat, which with one more
+touch of color would become iridescent. He was
+so slenderly formed, and his shining coat was so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>
+smooth and trim, he made me think of a bird of
+glass perched on a tree. But while I gazed at
+him he would launch into the air and wing his
+way high over the valley to the hillsides beyond,
+leaving me to marvel at the white disks on his
+wings, hidden when perching, but in air making
+him suggest a black ship with white sails.</p>
+
+<p>His appearance was so elegant and his ways so
+unusual that I went back East regretting I had
+not given more time to a bird who was so individual,
+and resolved that if I ever returned to
+California my first pleasure should be to study
+him. When the time finally came, an ornithologist
+friend who knew my plans wrote, exclaiming,
+"Do study the phainopeplas!" and added
+that she felt like making a journey to California
+to see that one bird.</p>
+
+<p>From the middle of March till the middle of
+May I watched and waited for the phainopeplas.
+There had been only a few of the birds before,
+and I began to fear they had left the valley.
+When despairing of them, suddenly one day I
+saw a black speck cross over to the hills. I
+wanted to drop my work and follow, but went on
+with my rounds, and one bright morning on my
+way home after a discouraging hunt for nests, a
+pair of phainopeplas flew up right before my eyes
+almost within sight of the house. I dropped down
+behind a bush, and in a moment more the birds
+flew to a little oak by the road&mdash;a tree I had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>
+been sitting under that very morning! The
+female seated herself on top of the oak, watching
+me with raised crest, while her mate disappeared
+in a dark mat of leaves, probably mistletoe, where
+he stayed so long that the possibility of a nest
+waxed to a probability, and I made a rapid but
+ecstatic ascent to the observer's seventh heaven. A
+phainopepla's nest right on my own doorsill! I
+could hardly restrain my impatience, and was
+tempted to shoo the birds away so I could go to
+the nest; when suddenly they opened their wings
+and, crossing the valley, disappeared up a side
+canyon! Pulling myself together and reflecting
+that I might have known better than to imagine
+there would be a nest so near home, I took up my
+camp-stool and trudged back to the house.</p>
+
+<p>After that came a number of tantalizing hints.
+When watching the third gnatcatcher's nest I
+had seen a pair of phainopeplas flying suggestively
+back and forth from the brush to the various
+oaks, and thought the handsome lover fed
+his mate as his relative the gentle high-bred waxwing
+does. Surely the wooing of these beautiful
+birds should be carried on with no less fine feeling,
+courtesy, and tenderness; and so it seems to
+be. The black knight flew low over my head
+slowly, as if inspecting me, and then came again
+with his lady, as if having said, "Dear one, I
+would consult you upon this impending danger."</p>
+
+<p>After that, something really delightful came<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>
+about. Day by day, on riding back to our ranch-house,
+I found phainopeplas there eating the berries
+of the pepper-trees in our front yard. Before
+long the birds began coming early in the morning;
+their voices were the first sounds we heard
+on awakening and almost the last at night, and
+soon we realized the delightful fact that our trees
+had become the feeding ground for all the phainopeplas
+of the valley. Altogether there were five
+or six pairs. It was a pretty sight to see the
+black satiny birds perched on one of the delicate
+sprays of the willowy pepper-trees, hanging over
+the grape-like clusters, to pluck the small pink
+berries. The birds soon grew very friendly, and,
+though they gave a cry of warning when the cats
+appeared, became so tame they would answer
+my calls and let me watch them from the piazza
+steps, not a rod away.</p>
+
+<p>When they first began to linger about the house
+we thought they were building near, and when
+one flew into an oak across the road, almost gave
+me palpitation of the heart by the suggestion.
+But no nest was there, and when the bird flew
+away it rose obliquely into the air perhaps a
+hundred feet, and then flew on evenly straight
+across to the small oaks on the farther side of a
+patch of brush that remained in the centre of the
+valley, known to the ranchmen as the 'Island.'
+The flight looked so premeditated that the first
+thing the next morning, although the phainopeplas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>
+were at the peppers, I rode on ahead to
+wait for them at their nest. We had not been
+there long before hearing the familiar warning
+call. Turning Billy in the direction of the sound,
+I threw his reins on his neck to induce him to
+graze along the way and give our presence a more
+casual air, while I looked up indifferently as if to
+survey the landscape. To my delight the phainopepla
+did not seem greatly alarmed, and, throwing
+off the assumed indifference that always
+makes an observer feel like a wretched hypocrite,
+I called and whistled to him as I had done at the
+house, to let him know that it was a familiar
+friend and he had nothing to fear. The beautiful
+bird started toward me, but on second thought
+retreated. I turned my back, but, to my chagrin,
+after giving a few low warning calls, my bird
+vanished. Alas, for the generations of murderers
+that have made birds distrust their best friends&mdash;that
+make honest observers tremble for what
+may befall the birds if they put trust in but one
+of the human species!</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/i227.jpg" width="550" height="396" alt="THE PHAINOPEPLA&#39;S NEST IN THE OAK BRUSH ISLAND" title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE PHAINOPEPLA&#39;S NEST IN THE OAK BRUSH ISLAND</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>It was plain that if I would get a study of
+these rare birds I must make a business of it.
+Slipping from the saddle, I sat down behind a
+bush and waited. When the bird came back and
+found the place apparently deserted, to my relief
+he seated himself on a twig and sang away as if
+nothing had disturbed his serenity of spirit. But
+presently the warning call sounded again. This<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>
+time it was for a schoolgirl who had staked out
+her horse on the edge of the island and was crossing
+over to the schoolhouse. A few moments
+later the bell rang out so loudly that Billy stepped
+around his oak with animation, but the phainopeplas
+were used to it and showed no uneasiness.</p>
+
+<p>Before long a flash of white announced a second
+bird, and then, after a long interval in which
+nothing happened, the male pitched into a bush
+with beak bristling with building material! My
+delight knew no bounds. Instead of nesting in
+the top of an oak in a remote canyon, as I had
+been assured the shy birds would do, here they
+were building in a low oak not more than an
+eighth of a mile from the house, and in plain
+sight. Moreover, they were birds who knew me
+at home, and so would really be much less afraid
+than strangers, whatever airs they assumed. In
+the photograph, the bare twigs of the perch tree
+show above the line of the horizon; the nest tree
+is the low oak beside it on the right. One thing
+puzzled me from the outset. While the male
+worked on the nest, the female sat on the outside
+circle of brush as if having nothing to do, in spite
+of the fact that her gray dress toned in so well
+with the brush that she was quite inconspicuous,
+while his shining black coat made him a clear
+mark from a distance. What did it mean? I
+invented all sorts of fancies to account for it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>
+Had she been to the pepper-trees so much less
+than he that she was over-troubled by my presence,
+and therefore the gallant black knight who
+sang to her so sweetly and was so tender of her,
+seeing her fears, took the work upon himself?
+Perchance he had said, "If you are timid, my
+love, I will build for you while she is by, for I
+would not have you come near if it would disquiet
+you."</p>
+
+<p>In any event, he built away quite unconcernedly
+not three rods from where I sat on the
+ground staring at him. He would fly to the
+earth for material, but return to the nest from
+above, pitching down to it as if having nothing
+to hide. Once, when resting, he perched on the
+tree, and I talked to him quite freely. That noon
+the phainopeplas were at the house before me,
+and I went out to talk to them while they lunched
+to let them know it was only I who had visited
+their nest, so they would have new confidence on
+the morrow.</p>
+
+<p>But on the morrow they flew to another part
+of the island, and when we followed, although I
+hitched Billy farther away from the nest tree and
+sat quietly behind a brush screen, they did not
+come back. A brown chippie plumed his feathers
+unrebuked in their oak, making the place seem
+more deserted than before. A lizard ran out
+from the grape cuttings at my feet, and a little
+black and white mephitis cantered along over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>
+the ground with his back arched and his head
+down. He nosed around under the bushes, showing
+the white V on his back, exactly like that of
+our eastern species. As I rode home, five turkey
+buzzards were flying low over the edge of the
+island, and one vulture rose from a meal of one
+of the little black and white animal's relatives,
+but I saw nothing more of my birds that day.</p>
+
+<p>The next day the phainopeplas came again
+to the pepper-trees and ate their fill while I sat
+on the steps watching. The male was quite unconcerned,
+but when his mate flew near me, he
+called out sharply; he could risk his own life, but
+not that of his love. Again the pair flew back to
+the high oaks on the far side of the island. All
+my hopes of the first low inaccessible nest vanished.
+I had driven the birds away. My intrusiveness
+had made me lose the best chance of the
+whole nesting season. But I would try to follow
+them. It did not seem necessary to take Billy.
+There were only a few trees on that side of the
+island, and it would be a simple matter to locate
+the birds. I would walk over, find in which tree
+they were building, and spend the morning with
+them. I went. Each oak was encircled by a
+thick wall of brush, over which it was almost impossible
+to see more than a fraction of the tree,
+and the high oak tops were impenetrable to eye
+and glass. After chasing phantoms all the afternoon
+I went home with renewed respect for Billy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>
+as an adjunct to field work. In order to locate
+anything in chaparral, one must be high enough
+to overlook the mass.</p>
+
+<p>That afternoon I saw a pair of phainopeplas
+fly up a canyon on the east, and another pair
+fly up another on the west. If I were to know
+anything of these birds, I must not be balked
+by faulty observing; I must at least do intelligent
+work. Riding in from the back and tying
+Billy out of sight away from the old nest, I
+swung myself up into a crotch of a low oak from
+which I could overlook the whole island. The
+phainopeplas soon flew in, but to the opposite
+side, and I was condemning myself for having
+driven them away when, to my amazement, the
+male flew over and shot down into the little oak
+where he had been building before! My self-reproach
+took a different form&mdash;I had not been
+patient enough. Surely if I could wait an hour
+for an ordinary hummingbird, I could wait a
+morning for an absent phainopepla.</p>
+
+<p>From the nest the beautiful bird flew to the
+bare oak top behind it which he used for a
+perch, and&mdash;alas! gave his warning call. I was
+discovered. He dashed his tail, turned his head
+to look at me first from one side and then from
+the other, and then flew to the top of the highest
+tree in sight to verify his observations. Whether
+he recognized the object as his pepper-tree acquaintance,
+I do not know; but to my great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>
+relief he went back to his work. By this time
+the little tree which had seemed such a comfortable
+chair had undergone a change&mdash;I felt as
+if stretched upon the gridiron of St. Anthony.
+Climbing down stiffly, I kneeled behind the
+brush and practiced focusing my glass on the
+nest so that it would not catch the light and
+frighten the bird, when out he flew from the
+nest and sat down facing me in broad daylight!
+He did not say a word, but looked around abstractedly,
+as if hunting for material.</p>
+
+<p>If he were so indifferent, perhaps it would be
+safe to creep nearer. Following the paths trodden
+by the bare feet of the school children, and
+spying and skulking, I crept into a good hiding-place
+about a rod from the nest. The ground
+was covered with dead leaves, and I saw a suggestive
+round hole&mdash;a very large rattlesnake
+had been killed a few rods away the week before.
+I covered the hole with my cloak and then sat
+down on the lid&mdash;nothing could come up while
+I was there, at all events.</p>
+
+<p>The phainopepla worked busily for some time,
+flying rapidly back and forth with material.
+Then came the warning cry. I drew in my note-book
+from the sun so that it should not catch
+his eye, and waited. The hot air grew hotter,
+beating down on my head. A big lizard wriggled
+over the leaves, and I thought of my rattlesnake.
+Then Billy sneezed in a forced way, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span>
+though to remind me not to go off without him.
+Growing restless, I moved the bushes a little&mdash;they
+were so stiff they made a very good chair-back
+if one got into the right position&mdash;when
+suddenly, looking up I saw my phainopepla
+friend vault into the air from a bush behind me,
+where, apparently, he had been sitting taking
+notes of his own! What observers birds are, to
+be sure! The best of us have much to learn
+from them.</p>
+
+<p>But though the phainopepla was most watchful,
+he was open to conviction, and he and his mate
+at last concluded that I meant them no harm.
+Afterwards, when I moved, they both came and
+looked at me, but went about their business
+quite unmindful of me.</p>
+
+<p>As I had seen from the outset, the male did
+almost all the building. When his spouse came
+in sight he burst out into a tender joyous love
+song. She went to the nest now and again, but
+generally when she came it was to sun herself
+on the bare perch tree, where she dressed her
+plumes or merely sat with crest raised and her
+soft gray feathers fluffed about her feet, while
+waiting for her mate to get leisure to take a run
+with her.</p>
+
+<p>When he had finished his stint and she was
+not about, he would take his turn on the perch
+tree, his handsome glossy black coat shining in
+the sun. If an unwitting neighbor lit on his tree<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>
+he would flatten his crest and dash down indignantly,
+but for the most part he perched quietly
+except to make short sallies into the air for insects,
+sometimes singing as he went; or he just
+warbled to himself contentedly, what sounded
+like the chattering run of a swallow on the wing.
+One day we had quite a conversation. His
+simplest call note was like the call of a young
+robin, and while I answered him he gave his
+note seventeen times in one minute, and eleven
+times in the next half minute.</p>
+
+<p>The birds had a great variety of calls and
+songs, most of which were vivacious and cheering
+and seemed attuned to the warmth and brightness
+of the California sunshine. The quality
+of the love song was rich and flute-like.</p>
+
+<p>The male phainopepla seemed to enjoy life
+in general and his work in particular. He frequently
+sang to himself when going for material;
+and once, apparently, when on the nest. When
+he was building I could see his black head move
+about between the leaves. Like the gnatcatchers,
+he used only fine bits of material, but he did
+not drill them in as they did. He merely laid
+them in, or at most wove them in gently. Now
+and then, as the black head moved in front, the
+black tail would tilt up behind at the back of
+the nest as if the bird were moulding; but there
+was comparatively little of that. When completed,
+the nest was a soft felty structure.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>When working, the male would fly back and
+forth from the ground to the nest, carrying his
+bits of plant stem, oak blossom, and other fine
+stuff. He worked so rapidly that it kept me
+busy recording his visits. He once went to the
+nest four times in four minutes; at another time,
+seventeen times in a little over an hour. Sometimes
+he stayed only half a minute; when he
+stayed three minutes, it was so unusual that I
+recorded it. He worked spasmodically, however.
+One day he came seventeen times in one
+hour, but during the next half hour came only
+five times. The birds seemed to divide their
+mornings into quite regular periods. When I
+awoke at half past five I would hear them at
+the pepper-trees breakfasting; and some of them
+were generally there as late as eight o'clock.
+From eight to ten they worked with a will,
+though the visits usually fell off after half past
+nine. It was when working in this more deliberate
+way that the male would go to his perch
+on an adjoining tree and preen himself, catch
+flies, or sing between his visits. Once he sat on
+the limb in front of the nest for nearly ten
+minutes. By ten o'clock I found that I might
+as well go to watch other birds, as little would
+be going on with the phainopeplas; and they
+often flew off for a lunch of peppers.</p>
+
+<p>Just as the island nest was about done&mdash;it
+was destroyed! I found it on the ground under<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>
+the tree. For a time I felt as if no nests could
+come to anything; the number that had been
+destroyed during the season was disheartening.
+It seemed as though I no sooner got interested
+in a little family than its home was broken up.
+Sometimes I wondered how a bird ever had courage
+to start a nest.</p>
+
+<p>But though it was hard to reconcile myself to
+the destruction of the phainopeplas' nest, I found
+others later. Altogether, I saw three pairs of
+birds building, and in each case the male was
+doing most of the work. Two of the nests I
+watched closely, watch and note-book in hand, in
+order to determine the exact proportion of work
+done by each bird. One nest was watched two
+hours and a half, during a period of five days, in
+which time the male went to the nest twenty-seven
+times, the female, only three. The other
+nest was watched seven hours and thirty-five minutes,
+during a period of ten days, in which time
+the male was at the nest fifty-seven times; the
+female, only eight. Taking the total for the two
+nests: in ten hours and five minutes the male went
+to the nest eighty-four times; the female, eleven.
+That is to say, the females made only thirteen per
+cent of the visits. In reality, although they went
+to the nest eleven times, the ratio of work might
+safely be reduced still further; for in watching
+them I was convinced that, as a rule, they came
+to the nest, not to build, but to inspect the building<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>
+done by their mates. Indeed, at one nest, I
+saw nothing to make me suspect that the female
+did any of the work. Her coming was usually
+welcomed by a joyous song, but once the evidence
+seemed to prove that she was driven away; perhaps
+she was too free with her criticisms! In
+another case the work was sadly interrupted by
+the presence of the visitor, for while she sat in
+the nest her excited mate flew back and forth as
+if he had quite forgotten the business in hand.
+Perhaps he was nervous, and wanted to make sure
+what she was doing in the new house!</p>
+
+<p>In several instances I found that while the
+males were at work building, the females went
+off by themselves. Once I saw Madame Phainopepla
+bring her friend home with her. No sooner
+had the visitor lit than&mdash;shocking to relate&mdash;the
+lord of the house left his work and drove her
+off with bill and claw&mdash;a polite way to treat his
+lady's friends, surely! On one occasion, when
+I looked up I saw a procession passing overhead&mdash;two
+females followed by a male. The male
+flew hesitatingly, as if troubled by his conscience,
+and then, deciding that if the nest was ever going
+to be built he had better keep at it, turned around
+and came back to work. One day when I rode
+over to the chaparral island, I found two of the
+males sitting around in the brush. They played
+tag until tired, and then perched on a branch in
+the sun, side by side, evidently enjoying themselves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>
+like light-hearted, care-free bachelors.
+Their mates were not in sight. But suddenly
+I glanced up and saw two females flying in to
+the island high overhead, as if coming from a
+distance. Instantly the indifferent holiday air
+of their mates vanished. They gave their low
+warning calls, for I was on the ground and they
+must not show me their nests. In answer to the
+warning the females wavered, and then, when
+their mates joined them, all four flew away together.</p>
+
+<p>At other times when I rode in the males would
+make large circles, seventy-five feet above me, as
+if to get a clear understanding of the impending
+danger. This was when small nest hunters were
+about, and the birds were some whose nests I did
+not find, and who had no opportunity to become
+convinced of my good intentions.</p>
+
+<p>After finding that the males did most of the
+building, I was anxious to see how it would be
+when the brooding began. Three of my nests
+were broken up beforehand, however, and the
+fourth was despoiled after I had watched the birds
+on the nest one day. Nevertheless, the evidence
+of that day was most interesting as far as it went.
+It proved that while the female lacked the architect's
+instinct, she was not without the maternal
+instinct. There were two eggs in the nest, and in
+the one hour that I watched, each bird brooded
+the eggs six times. Before this, the female had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>
+been to the nest so much less than the male that
+now she was much shyer; but although Billy
+frightened her by tramping down the brush near
+by, it was she who first overcame her fears and
+went to cover the eggs.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XIX.</h2>
+
+<div class='chaptertitle'>MY BLUE GUM GROVE.</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">One</span> of the first things I did on getting settled
+on my ranch, the second time I was in California,
+was to get a wagon and go down to my eucalyptus
+grove for a load of the pale green aromatic
+boughs with which to trim my attic study;
+for their fragrance is delightful and their delicate
+blue-green tone lends itself readily to decorative
+purposes. When the supply needed replenishing,
+I rode down on Mountain Billy and carried
+home the sweet-smelling branches on the saddle.</p>
+
+<p>The grove served a more utilitarian purpose,
+however. The eucalyptus is an Australian tree,
+with narrow straight-hanging leaves, and its
+rapid growth makes it useful for firewood. A
+tree will grow forty feet in four years, and when
+cut off a few feet above the ground will spring
+up again and soon be ready to yield another
+crop. My grove had never been cut, but would
+soon be old enough. In the photograph of a
+eucalyptus avenue near Los Angeles, the row
+of trees on the right have been cut near the
+ground and the branching trunks are the consequence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 408px;">
+<img src="images/i243.jpg" width="408" height="550" alt="EUCALYPTUS AVENUE, SHOWING POLLARDED TREES ON THE RIGHT, NEAR LOS ANGELES" title="" />
+<span class="caption">EUCALYPTUS AVENUE, SHOWING POLLARDED TREES ON THE RIGHT, NEAR LOS ANGELES</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>My eucalyptus or blue gum grove was down
+near the big sycamore, and opposite the bare
+knoll where Romulus and the burrowing owls
+had their nightly battles. On one side of it
+was a rustling cornfield always pleasant to look
+at. After the bare yellow stubble and all the
+reds and browns of a California summer landscape,
+its rich dark green color and its stanch,
+strong stalks made it seem a very plain honest
+sort of field, and its greenness was most grateful
+to eyes unused to the bright colors and strong
+lights of California.</p>
+
+<p>Opposite the little grove, in a small house
+perched on a hill, an old sea-captain lived alone.
+As I rode by one day, he sat with his feet hanging
+over the edge of the high piazza, looking
+off; as if on the prow of his vessel, gazing out
+to sea. When I stopped to ask if he had seen
+anything noteworthy happen at the grove, he
+complained that it shut off his view and kept
+away the breeze from the ocean! I was too
+much taken by surprise to apologize for my
+trees, but felt reproached; unwittingly I had
+destroyed the old captain's choicest pleasure.
+He had spoken in an impersonal way that I
+quite understood,&mdash;he had been taken unawares,&mdash;but
+the next time I rode past, as if to make
+up for any apparent rudeness, he came hurrying
+down the walk to tell me of a crow's nest he
+had seen in the grove. To mark it he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>
+fastened a piece of paper to the wire fence by
+the road, and another paper to the nest tree,
+binding it on with a eucalyptus twig in true
+sailor fashion.</p>
+
+<p>It was always a relief to leave the hot beating
+sun and the glare of the yellow fields and enter
+the cool shade of the quiet grove. I could let
+down the fence and put it up behind me; thus
+having my small forest all to myself; and used
+to enjoy riding up and down the fragrant blue
+avenues. The eucalyptus-trees, although thirty
+or forty feet high, were lithe and slender; some
+of them could be spanned by the hands. The
+rows were planted ten feet apart, but the long
+branches interlaced, so one had to be on the
+alert, in riding down the lines, to bend low on
+the saddle or push aside the branches that obstructed
+the way. The limbs were so slender
+and flexible that a touch was enough to bend
+back a green gate fifteen to twenty feet long,
+and Billy often pushed a branch aside with his
+nose. In places, fallen trees barred our path,
+but Billy used to step carefully over them.</p>
+
+<p>The eucalyptus-trees change very curiously
+as they grow old. When young they are covered
+with branches low to the ground, and their
+aromatic tender leaves are light bluish green;
+afterwards they lose their lower branches, while
+their leaves become stiff and sickle-shaped, dull
+green and almost odorless. The same changes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>
+are seen in the bark: first the trunks are smooth
+and green; then they are hung with shaggy
+shreds of bark; this in turn drops off so that
+the old trees are smooth again. Some of the
+young shoots have almost white stems, and their
+leaves have a pinkish tinge. Indeed, a young
+blue gum is as pretty a sight as one often sees;
+it is a tree of exquisite delicacy of coloring.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/i247.jpg" width="550" height="415" alt="EUCALYPTUS WOOD STORED FOR MARKET, IN A EUCALYPTUS GROVE NEAR LOS ANGELES" title="" />
+<span class="caption">EUCALYPTUS WOOD STORED FOR MARKET, IN A EUCALYPTUS GROVE NEAR LOS ANGELES</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Mountain Billy and I both liked to wander
+among the blue gums. Billy liked it, perhaps,
+for association's sake, for we had ridden through
+the eucalyptus at his home in northern California.
+I too had pleasant memories of the
+northern gums, but my first interest was in
+finding out who lived in my little woods. A
+dog had once been seen driving a coyote wolf
+out of it, but that was merely in passing. I
+did not expect to meet wolves there. It was
+said, however, to be a good place for tarantulas,
+so at first I stepped over the dead leaf carpet
+with great caution; but never seeing any of
+the big spiders, grew brave and sat indifferently
+right on the ground before the nests, or leaning
+up against the trees. The ground was almost
+as hard as a rock, for the eucalyptus absorbed
+all the moisture, and that may have had something
+to do with its freedom from snakes and
+scorpions, though it would not explain the
+absence of caterpillars and spiders, which just
+then were so common outside. Though in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>
+grove a great deal, I never ran into but one
+cobweb, and was conscious of the pleasant freedom
+from falling caterpillars. Moreover, I
+never saw a lizard in the blue gums, though
+dozens of them were to be seen about the oaks
+and in the brush.</p>
+
+<p>It was a surprise to find so many feathered
+folks living in the eucalyptus, and I took a
+personal interest in each one of the inhabitants.
+The first time we started to go up and down
+the avenues we scared up a pair of turtle doves,
+beautiful, delicately tinted gentle creatures, fit
+tenants of the lovely grove. They did not know
+my friendly interest in them, and flew to the
+ground trailing and trying to decoy me away
+in such a marked manner that when we passed
+a young dove a few yards farther on, it was easy
+to put two and two together.</p>
+
+<p>Yellow-birds called <i>cheet'-tee, ca-cheet'-ta-tee</i>,
+and the grove became musical with the sweet
+calls of the young brood. There was one nest
+with a roof of shaggy bark, and I wondered if
+the birds thought it would be pleasant to live
+under a roof, or whether the bark had fallen
+down on them after they built. I could get no
+trace of the owners of the nest, and it troubled
+me, not liking to have any little homes in my
+wood that I did not know all about. As we went
+down one aisle, a big bird went blundering out
+ahead of us, probably an owl, for afterwards we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>
+stumbled on a skeleton and feathers of one of the
+family.</p>
+
+<p>In one of the trees we came to an enormous
+nest made of the unusual materials that are
+sometimes chosen by that strange bird, the road-runner.
+It was an exciting discovery, for that
+was before the road-runner had come to the ranch-house,
+and I had been pursuing phantom runners
+over the hills in the vain attempt to learn something
+about them; while here, it seemed, one had
+been living under my very vine and fig-tree! To
+make sure about the nest, I spoke to my neighbor
+ranchman, and he told me that when he had
+been milking during the spring he had often seen
+the birds come out of the blue gums, and had
+also seen them perching there on the trees. How
+exasperating! If I had only come earlier! Now
+they had gone, and my chance of a nest study
+was lost.</p>
+
+<p>But my doll was not stuffed with sawdust, for
+all of that. There was still much to enjoy, for a
+mourning dove flew from her nest of twigs almost
+over Billy's head, and it made me quite happy to
+know that the gentle bird was brooding her eggs
+in my woods. Then it was delightful to see a
+lazuli bunting on her nest down another aisle.
+It seemed odd, for there was her little cousin
+nesting out in the weeds in the bright sun, while
+she was raising her brood in the shady forest.
+The two nests were as unlike as the sites. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>
+bird outside had used dull green weeds, while
+this one used beautiful shining oak stems. I
+thought the pretty bird would surely be safe here,
+but one day when I called, expecting to see a
+growing family, I was shocked to find a pathetic
+little skeleton in the nest.</p>
+
+<p>One afternoon in riding down the rows, I came
+face to face with two mites of hummingbirds
+seated on a branch. Their grayish green suits
+toned in with the color of the blue gums. It
+was a surprise when one of them turned to the
+other and fed it&mdash;the mother hummer was small
+enough to be taken for a nestling! She sat beside
+her son and fed him in the conventional
+way, by plunging her bill down his open mouth.
+When she had flown off, he stretched his wings,
+whirred them as if for practice, and then moved
+his bill as if still tasting the dainty he had had
+for supper. He sat very unconcernedly on a low
+branch right out in the middle of the road, but
+Billy did not run over him.</p>
+
+<p>I found two hummers' nests in the eucalyptus
+during the summer. One builder was the one
+the photographer was fortunate enough to catch
+brooding; her nest, the one so charmingly placed
+on a light blue branch between two straight
+spreading leaves, like the knot between two bows
+of stiff ribbon.</p>
+
+<p>The second nest was on a drooping branch, and,
+to make it stand level, was deepened on the down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>
+side of the limb, making it the highest hummingbird's
+nest I had ever seen. It was attached to a
+red leaf&mdash;to mark the spot, perhaps&mdash;one often
+wonders how a bird can come back twice to the
+same leaf in a forest. How one little home does
+make a place habitable! From a bare silent
+woods it becomes a dwelling-place. Everything
+seemed to centre around this little nest, then the
+only one in the grove; the tiny pinch of down
+became the most important thing in the woods.
+It was the castle which the trees surrounded.</p>
+
+<p>When I first found the nest it held two white
+warm eggs about as large as peas, and I became
+much interested in watching their progress, often
+riding down to see how they were getting on.
+The hummer did not return my interest. She
+was nervous, darting off when Billy shook himself
+or when the shadow of a soaring turkey buzzard
+fell over the nest; but in spite of that we
+made ourselves quite at home before her door. I
+would dismount and sit on the ground, leaning
+against a blue gum, while Billy stood by, in a
+bower of green leaves, with ears pricked forward
+thoughtfully, and a dreamy look of satisfaction in
+his eyes. Hummingbirds are such dainty things.
+Once when this one alighted on the rim of her
+nest she whirred herself right down inside. Soon
+she began to act so strangely for a brooding bird
+that, when she flew, I went to feel in the nest.
+The tips of my fingers touched what felt like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>
+round balls, but, not satisfied, I pulled down the
+bough and found one round ball and one mite of
+a gray back with microscopic yellow hairs on each
+side of the spine. The whole tiny body seemed
+to throb with its heart beats. I wondered how
+such a midget could ever be fed, but found, as in
+the case of the hummer under the little lover's
+tree, that the mother gave its food most gently,
+reserving her violent pumping for a more suitable
+age; though one would as soon think of poking a
+needle down a baby's throat as that bill.</p>
+
+<p>Often, while watching the nest, my thoughts
+wandered away to the grove itself. The brown
+earth between the rows was barred by alternate
+lines of sunlight and shadow, and the vista of each
+avenue ended in blue sky. Sometimes cool ocean
+breezes would penetrate the forest. The rows of
+trees, with their gently swaying, interlacing
+branches, cast moving shadows over the sun-touched
+leafy floor, giving a white light to the
+grove; for the undersides of the young eucalyptus
+leaves are like snow. From the stiff, sickle-shaped
+upper leaves the sun glanced, dazzling
+the eyes. Mourning doves cooed, and the sweet
+notes of yellow-birds filled the sunny grove with
+suggestions of happiness. A yellow butterfly
+wandered down the blue aisles. Such a secure
+retreat! I returned to it again and again, coming
+in out of the hot yellow world and closing behind
+me the doors of my 'rest-house,' for the little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>
+wood had come to seem like a cool wayside chapel,
+a place of peace.</p>
+
+<p>And when I finally left California, deserting
+Mountain Billy to return to the East, of all my
+haunts the one left the most unwillingly was the
+little blue gum grove, the peaceful wayside rest-house,
+in whose whitened shade we had spent so
+many quiet hours together.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 328px;">
+<img src="images/i254.jpg" width="328" height="221" alt="bronco" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span></p>
+<h2>INDEX</h2>
+
+
+<div>
+<br />
+<a name="Bee-bird" id="Bee-bird"></a>Bee-bird, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>-<a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">catching bees, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">caught in cobweb rope, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">defending nest with life, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>-<a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">domesticity, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">flycatching, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">making living off blackbirds, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nest, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nesting site, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">noisy, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">notes, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">quarrelsome, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Bird Psychology,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">association of ideas, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">caution, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">courage, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>-<a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">curiosity, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">dissimulation, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">emotion,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">fear, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">grief, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">joy, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">unusual action under excitement, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">expression of emotion and ideas,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">by use of crests, attitudes, and movements, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">By voice,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">calls of warning, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">conversation, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">cries of anger, anxiety, distress, fear, pain, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">exclamations, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">scoldings, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">songs of happiness, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">songs of love, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">humor, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">individuality, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>-<a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>,126, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>-<a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">inherited instincts, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">intelligence shown in,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">building, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>-<a href="#Page_218">218</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">disciplining young, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">getting food by others' work, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">profiting by mistakes, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>-<a href="#Page_154">154</a> (?);</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">protecting young, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">removing nest from danger, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">selecting materials for nest, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">selecting nesting site, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">silence of young in danger, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">keen senses, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">local attachment, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">special perches, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">play impulse, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a> (?), <a href="#Page_208">208</a>-<a href="#Page_209">209</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">pride of possession, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>-<a href="#Page_205">205</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">self-denial, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Birds,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">adaptation, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">protective coloration, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">domestic life,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">accept help in building, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>-<a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>-<a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>-<a href="#Page_180">180</a>;</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">affection, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">as parents, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>-<a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>-<a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>-<a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>-<a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">companionship of mates, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">coquettish airs, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">courtship, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">defense of nest, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>-<a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>-<a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">excitement when young hatch, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">family government, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">friendly birds shy at nest, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">&mdash;habits of male at nest:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">absent, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>-<a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">brings mate food for young, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">brings material to mate, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">broods, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">builds while female looks on or goes off with other females, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>-<a href="#Page_208">208</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">feeds mate, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">feeds young, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">guards mate, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">helps mate build, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">sings while mate builds and broods, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">interval between building and brooding, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">looking for nesting sites, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>-<a href="#Page_185">185</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">lordly airs of male, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">paternal instinct, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>-<a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">persistence in work, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">reluctance to brood, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">tenderness to young, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">food,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">ants, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">bees, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">carrion, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">cocoons, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">gophers, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">grubs, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">insects, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">lizards and toads, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">pepper berries, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">rats and mice, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">scale, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">seeds, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">snakes, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">spiders, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">worms, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">flight, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">friendliness when not disturbed, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>-<a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>-<a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">legends about, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">local names,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">blue jay, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">burrowing owl, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">bush-tit, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">California towhee, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">neighborly relations, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>-<a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>-<a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>-<a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>-<a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>-<a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>-<a href="#Page_209">209</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nervousness, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Blackbird, Brewer's, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>-<a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">afraid of a bath, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attacking hawks and owls, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a jolly colony, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">building, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">common in valley, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">curiosity about road-runner, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">following plow for grubs, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nervousness at nest, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>-<a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nesting sites, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">pranks, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">repulsing shrike, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ruling dooryard, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Blackbird, Red-winged, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">eating grubs in vineyard, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>-<a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">following plow, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nesting in marsh, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Blackbird, Rusty, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Blackbird, Yellow-headed,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in vineyard, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>-<a href="#Page_14">14</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on mustard, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Blackbirds, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">flocks riding cattle, hogs, and horses, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Bluebird, Mexican, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nesting site, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">second nest, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Blue Jay. See <a href="#Jay">Jay</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Blue Squawker. See <a href="#Jay">Jay</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Brown Chippie. See <a href="#Towhee_California">Towhee, California</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Bunting, Indigo, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Bunting, Lazuli, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>-<a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>-<a href="#Page_193">193</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">call, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">keeping out of quarrel, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>-<a href="#Page_46">46</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nest, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>-<a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nesting site, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">song, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">taking insects to nest, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">young fed by wren-tit, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+<a name="Bush-tit" id="Bush-tit"></a>Bush-tit, California, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>-<a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">building, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>-<a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">call notes, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">common bird, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">destroys olive scale, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">legend of firefly lamps, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">local name, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nest, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nesting site, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nest roof falls in, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">second nest better built, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">snake in nest, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Butcherbird. See <a href="#Shrike">Shrike</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Butterflies, migrating, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+California, southern, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">colors, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">marsh in, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">natural irrigation, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sky, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Canello, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">afraid of boggy land, Mexicans, and rattlesnakes, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>-<a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>-<a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">indifferent to water snakes, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">made nervous by hummingbird, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">miring, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>-<a href="#Page_19">19</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visiting feathered tenants with, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>-<a href="#Page_139">139</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Chaparral, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>-<a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Chaparral cock. See <a href="#Road-runner">Road-runner</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Chat, long-tailed, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Chewink. See <a href="#Towhee">Towhee</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Chickadee, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Coast Mountains, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">valley in, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at morning, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in evening, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">under moonlight, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Coyote wolves,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">barking, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">chasing a dog, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in eucalyptus, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Crow,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">killed bee-bird, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nest, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="Dove" id="Dove"></a>Dove, Mourning, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a gentle pair, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">brooding, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">friendliness, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nest, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nesting site, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_216"><ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads '2'">216</ins></a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">perches, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">superior airs of male, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">timidity, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">trailing, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Eagle, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Egret, White, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="Finch" id="Finch"></a>Finch, Western House, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">avoids shrike neighborhood, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">bathing, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">courtship, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">common birds, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">discussions, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">examining wren's nest, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">implicated in tragedy, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>-<a href="#Page_174">174</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nesting sites, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">songs, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">stealing wren's material, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">using swallow's nest, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Flicker, Red-shafted, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>-<a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">building, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nesting site, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">notes, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">works as if wound up, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Flowers and Plants,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">blue sage, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">chilicothe, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">dodder, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>-<a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'fly flower,' <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">forget-me-not, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">mallow, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">mustard, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on border of pond, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">poison oak, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'poppy,' <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">primrose, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">wild celery, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">wild gooseberry, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Flycatcher, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in chaparral, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Fog, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="Goldfinch" id="Goldfinch"></a>Goldfinch, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">feeding, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nest, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nest destroyed, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nesting site, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">note, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Gnatcatcher, Western, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>-<a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">building, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>-<a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">calls, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">comical parents, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">defending nest, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">egg broken by wren-tit, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">eggshell carried away, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">feeding young in new way, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>-<a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">jaunty nervous manners, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nest, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nesting site, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nest moved, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">spelling each other, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">talkative, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Gophers, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Grosbeak, Black-headed,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">migrants, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">song, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>Grosbeak, Blue, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Hangbird. See <a href="#Bush-tit">Bush-tit</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Hawk, Buteo, building, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">more likely to eat gophers than birds, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Hawk, Fish, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Hawk, Sparrow, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>-<a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">chased by bee-bird, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nesting site, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">snakes for breakfast, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">too small a front door, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>-<a href="#Page_134">134</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Hawks, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Heron, Green, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Lark, Horned,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on roadsides, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">song, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Horse, as help in observing, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>-<a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>-<a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br />
+<br />
+How-do-you-do Owl. See <a href="#Owl_Burrowing">Owl, Burrowing</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Hummingbird, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Hummingbird, Black-chinned, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>-<a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>-<a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>-<a href="#Page_219">219</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">around flowers by house, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attacking horse and rider, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">building, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>-<a href="#Page_155">155</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">call, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">courtship dance, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">enter house, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">feeding from primroses, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">feeding young, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">help in cross-fertilization, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nest, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nest destroyed, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nesting sites, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>-<a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>-<a href="#Page_218">218</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">perch, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">probing tobacco-tree flowers, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">tremulous moulding, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Hummingbird, Rufous, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">around wild gooseberries, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">song, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Irrigation, natural, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>-<a href="#Page_160">160</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="Jay" id="Jay"></a>Jay, California, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>-<a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">disciplining young, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">frightening small birds, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">local name, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">protecting young, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">scream, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">tender to young, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Kingbird,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Arkansas. See <a href="#Bee-bird">Bee-bird</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cassin's. See <a href="#Bee-bird">Bee-bird</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Eastern, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Linnet. See <a href="#Finch">Finch</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Lions, colts killed by, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.<br />
+<br />
+List of Birds referred to, <a href="#Page_ix">ix</a>.<br />
+<br />
+List of Illustrations, <a href="#Page_vii">vii</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Lizards, as eggers, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Magpie, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Mexican bridle, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Miring, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>-<a href="#Page_19">19</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Mockingbird, thrasher's resemblance to, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Mountain Billy, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a good lope, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>-<a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a narrow escape, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a petted companion, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">carrying blue gum boughs, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">carrying a chair, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>-<a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">enjoying blue gum grove, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">frightened by deer, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>-<a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ignoring snakes, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>-<a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">improving his time, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">inventing a fly brush, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">rolling, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>-<a href="#Page_166">166</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Mutual help in nature, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Nesting season, date in southern California, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Nests, broken up, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">building, hard work, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">building methods, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>-<a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>-<a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>-<a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>-<a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">defective building (?), <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">excessive amount of material, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">knothole entrance too small, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">materials of first nest used in second, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>-<a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">moved to safer place, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">odd situations, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">protective coloration, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">rapid building, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">second, <a href="#Page_48">48</a> (?), <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">snakes in, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">third (?), <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">time taken to build, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">unusual materials, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Observing, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>-<a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>-<a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">assisting in nest building, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>-<a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>-<a href="#Page_183">183</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">delight of finding a new bird, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">proportion of birds identified without a gun, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">temptations in, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Oden Canyon, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>-<a href="#Page_160">160</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>Oregon Robin, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Oriole, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Oriole, Arizona Hooded,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">building, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Oriole, Bullock's, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attacking an owl, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nest, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">song flight, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Owl, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>-<a href="#Page_216">216</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">asleep in window, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">diet of rats and mice, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">hiding in wells and mining shafts, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Owl, Barn,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">an old crone, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nesting site, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+<a name="Owl_Burrowing" id="Owl_Burrowing"></a>Owl, Burrowing, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">battles with a collie, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">feeding young, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nest not shared with rattlesnakes, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">screws head off, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Owl, Western Horned,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">devices to protect young, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">mobbed by neighbors, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Pewee, Wood, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>-<a href="#Page_162">162</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">building, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nesting site, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nest moved, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">perch, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Phainopepla, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>-<a href="#Page_210">210</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a distinguished bird, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">building (done by male), <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">call, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">eating pepper berries in door-yard, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nest, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nesting site, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">song, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Ph&oelig;be, Black, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>-<a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">brooding under a pump, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in the hen-house, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nest, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nesting site, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>-<a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Pipit, American, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Pond, made by spring rains,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">rendezvous of birds, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>-<a href="#Page_17">17</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+<a name="Poor-will" id="Poor-will"></a>Poor-will, Dusky,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">call, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>-<a href="#Page_102">102</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">flycatching, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Quail, Valley,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">call, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">flight of covey, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in chaparral, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in vineyard, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">tracks, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Rabbit,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cottontail, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">jack, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>-<a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+<a name="Road-runner" id="Road-runner"></a>Road-runner, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>-<a href="#Page_101">101</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">around ranch-house, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">drowned in windmill tanks, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">eating with hens, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fleetness, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">hunting cocoons, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">love call, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nest, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Robin, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="Shrike" id="Shrike"></a>Shrike, White-rumped, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>-<a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">absence of birds in neighborhood, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">building, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>-<a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gentle at nest, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">invading blackbird premises, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>-<a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nest, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nesting site, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Snakes,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gopher, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>-<a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">racer, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">rattle, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ringed, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">water, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Sparrow, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Sparrow, Golden-crowned, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Sparrow, Song, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nest, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>-<a href="#Page_84">84</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">young, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Sparrow, White-crowned, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Squirrels, ground, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Swallow, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Swallow, Eave,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">drinking on wing, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">getting mud for nests, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>-<a href="#Page_17">17</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nests on sycamore, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Tanager, Louisiana, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a brilliant stranger, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Thrasher, California, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>-<a href="#Page_164">164</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">digging with sickle-shaped bill, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>-<a href="#Page_164">164</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in chaparral, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">song, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">straight bills of young, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Titmouse, Plain, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>-<a href="#Page_183">183</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">building, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>-<a href="#Page_182">182</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gladly accepts feathers, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">needs no horsehair or straw, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>-<a href="#Page_181">181</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nesting sites, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">song, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Tit, Wren-, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>-<a href="#Page_193">193</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">breaking up gnatcatcher's nest, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">skulking manners, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">song, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">usurping a mother's rights, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>-<a href="#Page_193">193</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span><a name="Towhee_California" id="Towhee_California"></a><a name="Towhee" id="Towhee"></a>Towhee, California, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>-<a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">call note, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">common and tame, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nesting, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">shy at nest, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>-<a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">song, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Towhee, Green-tailed, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>-<a href="#Page_163">163</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Towhee, Spurred, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">singing, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Trade wind, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>-<a href="#Page_69">69</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Trees,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">acacia, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">elder, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">eucalyptus, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>-<a href="#Page_220">220</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">character of, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>-<a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>-<a href="#Page_220">220</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">grove, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>-<a href="#Page_220">220</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">raised for fuel, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">live-oaks, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>-<a href="#Page_170">170</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">garden of, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>-<a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">sapped by mistletoe, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">pepper, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sycamore, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>-<a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">the big, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>-<a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">tobacco, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">willow, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Turkey Buzzard. See <a href="#Vulture">Vulture</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Turtle Dove. See <a href="#Dove">Dove</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Twin Oaks Canyon, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>-<a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Ughland Canyon, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Vineyard, birds eating grubs in, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>-<a href="#Page_13">13</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Vireo, Hutton's, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>-<a href="#Page_146">146</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a devoted pair, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">building, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">call note, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fond of nest, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nest, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nesting site, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Vireo, Least,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">song, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Vireo, Warbling, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">building, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">scolding jay, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+<a name="Vulture" id="Vulture"></a>Vulture, Turkey, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>-<a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">circle over fighting snakes, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">eating woodpecker, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">eating skunk, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">queer attitude, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">scavenger, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">soaring, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Warbler, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">migrants, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Waxwing, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Whip-poor-will. See <a href="#Poor-will">Poor-will</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Woodpecker, California, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>-<a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">building, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">flycatching, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">hunting ground distant from nest, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">long intervals in feeding, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">lying in wait for prey, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nesting site, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">notes, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">old birds poisoned (?), <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">rescuing the young, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>-<a href="#Page_73">73</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">young orphans, inherited instincts, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">notes, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Woodpecker, Red-headed, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Wood rat,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in chaparral, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Wren, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>-<a href="#Page_10">10</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Wren, Vigors's, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>-<a href="#Page_174">174</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">linnets quarreling over materials, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nesting site, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">young buried alive by linnets (?), <a href="#Page_172">172</a>-<a href="#Page_174">174</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Wren, Western House, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>-<a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">building, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">common birds, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">feeding young on insects, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nesting takes six weeks, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nests in sycamore holes, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">odd nesting sites, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">song, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">tremulous motion of wings, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Yellow-bird. See <a href="#Goldfinch">Goldfinch</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Young birds,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bluebird, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Brewer's Blackbird, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Burrowing Owl, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>-<a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bush-tit, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">California Jay, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">California Woodpecker, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>-<a href="#Page_80">80</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">feather tracts, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fed at long intervals, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fed on insects, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">first flights, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>-<a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gnatcatchers, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>-<a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Horned Owl, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hummingbird, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>-<a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">interest in each other, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lazuli Bunting, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>-<a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">adopted by wren-tit, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>-<a href="#Page_193">193</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mourning Dove, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Owl, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sparrow Hawk, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">subdued on leaving nest, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">time kept in nest, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Titmouse, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>-<a href="#Page_183">183</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Vigors's Wren, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Western House Wren, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>-<a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span></p>
+<h2>INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
+
+
+<div>
+Bee-birds, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.<br />
+Blackbird, Brewer's, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.<br />
+Buntings, Lazuli (old and young), <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.<br />
+Bush-tits (birds and nest), <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.<br />
+Bush-tit (nest in oak), <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Chewink, California (head), <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.<br />
+Chewink, Eastern (head), <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.<br />
+Chewink, Green-tailed (head), <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Eucalyptus Avenue, showing pollarded trees, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.<br />
+Eucalyptus Wood stored for Market in a Eucalyptus Grove, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Gnatcatcher, Western (birds and nest), <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.<br />
+Grosbeak, Black-headed (head), <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.<br />
+Grosbeak, Rose-breasted (head), <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Hummingbird, Black-chinned (nest), <a href="#Page_157">157</a>.<br />
+Hummingbird, Black-chinned (on nest), <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Mountain Billy Deserted, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.<br />
+Mountain Billy under the Gnatcatcher's Oak, <a href="#frontis">frontispiece</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Oaks, Live, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.<br />
+Oriole, Arizona Hooded (head), <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.<br />
+Oriole, Baltimore, Eastern (head), <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Phainopepla's Nest in Oak Brush, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.<br />
+Phainopeplas on Pepper-tree, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.<br />
+Ph&oelig;be, Black (head), <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.<br />
+Ph&oelig;be, Eastern (head), <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Quail, Valley, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Road-runner, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Sycamores, Along the Line of, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.<br />
+Sycamore, The Big, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Titmouse, Plain (at nest), <a href="#Page_176">176</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Valley in Coast Mountains, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.<br />
+<br />
+Woodpecker, California, (head), <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.<br />
+Woodpecker, California (young), <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.<br />
+Woodpecker, Red-headed, Eastern (head), <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.<br />
+Wren-tit, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.<br />
+Wren, Vigors's (at nest), <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.<br />
+Wren, Western House, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.<br />
+Wren, Western House (singing), <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.<br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> In classification and nomenclature this list conforms to the American
+Ornithologists' Union 'Check-List of North American Birds,' Second
+Edition, 1895. L. S. Foster, New York.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> As this little pair dressed like twins, I could only infer
+which was which from the song and the actions of the two,
+which were quite distinct.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The difference in the dress of the woodpeckers is so slight
+that the sexes were not distinguished at this nest.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Since this paper was written, I have consulted an authority
+on nests, who thinks that this nameless bird was probably Hutton's
+vireo.</p></div></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3>
+<p>Obvious punctuation errors repaired.</p>
+
+<p>The remaining corrections made are indicated by dotted lines under the corrections. Scroll the mouse over the word and the original text will <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'apprear'">appear</ins>.</p></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A-Birding on a Bronco, by Florence A. Merriam
+
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@@ -0,0 +1,6292 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A-Birding on a Bronco, by Florence A. Merriam
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A-Birding on a Bronco
+
+Author: Florence A. Merriam
+
+Release Date: August 11, 2010 [EBook #33410]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Emmy and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Books by Florence A. Merriam.
+
+
+          BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. In Riverside Library
+          for Young People. Illustrated. 16mo, 75 cents.
+
+          MY SUMMER IN A MORMON VILLAGE. 16mo, $1.00.
+
+          A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO. Illustrated. 16mo, $1.25.
+
+
+          HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.
+          BOSTON AND NEW YORK.
+
+[Illustration: MOUNTAIN BILLY UNDER THE GNATCATCHER'S OAK]
+
+
+
+
+A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO
+
+BY FLORENCE A. MERRIAM
+
+
+                  I do invite you ... to my house ...
+          after, we'll a-birding together.
+                     SHAKESPEARE.
+
+_ILLUSTRATED_
+
+[Illustration: The Riverside Press.]
+
+
+          BOSTON AND NEW YORK
+          HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
+          The Riverside Press, Cambridge
+          1896
+
+
+
+
+          Copyright, 1896,
+
+          By FLORENCE A. MERRIAM.
+
+
+          _All rights reserved._
+
+
+          _The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A._
+
+          Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company.
+
+
+
+
+PREFATORY NOTE.
+
+
+THE notes contained in this book were taken from March to May, 1889, and
+from March to July, 1894, at Twin Oaks in southern California. Twin Oaks
+is the post-office for the scattered ranch-houses in a small valley at
+the foot of one of the Coast Ranges, thirty-four miles north of San
+Diego, and twelve miles from the Pacific.
+
+As no collecting was done, there is doubt about the identity of a few
+species; and their names are left blank or questioned in the list of
+birds referred to in the text. In cases where the plumage of the two
+sexes is practically identical, and only slight mention is made of the
+species, the sexes have sometimes been arbitrarily distinguished in the
+text.
+
+Several of the articles have appeared before, in somewhat different
+form, in 'The Auk,' 'The Observer,' and 'Our Animal Friends;' all the
+others are published here for the first time.
+
+The illustrations are from drawings of birds and nests by Louis Agassiz
+Fuertes, and from photographs taken in the valley; together with some
+of eucalyptus-trees from Los Angeles, for the use of which I am indebted
+to the courtesy of Dr. B. E. Fernow, Chief of the Division of Forestry
+of the U. S. Department of Agriculture.
+
+In the preparation of the book I have been kindly assisted by Miss
+Isabel Eaton, and have received from my brother, Dr. C. Hart Merriam,
+untiring criticism and advice.
+
+                                                    FLORENCE A. MERRIAM.
+
+  LOCUST GROVE, N. Y.,
+  July 15, 1896.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+                                                      PAGE
+              I. OUR VALLEY                             1
+             II. THE LITTLE LOVER                      20
+            III. LIKE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT             38
+             IV. WAS IT A SEQUEL?                      48
+              V. LITTLE PRISONERS IN THE TOWER         65
+             VI. HINTS BY THE WAY                      81
+            VII. AROUND OUR RANCH-HOUSE                86
+           VIII. POCKET MAKERS                        103
+             IX. THE BIG SYCAMORE                     112
+              X. AMONG MY TENANTS                     123
+             XI. AN UNNAMED BIRD                      140
+            XII. HUMMERS                              147
+           XIII. IN THE SHADE OF THE OAKS             159
+            XIV. A MYSTERIOUS TRAGEDY                 171
+             XV. HOW I HELPED BUILD A NEST            175
+            XVI. IN OUR NEIGHBOR'S DOOR-YARD          184
+           XVII. WHICH WAS THE MOTHER BIRD?           189
+          XVIII. A RARE BIRD                          194
+            XIX. MY BLUE GUM GROVE                    211
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+                                                               PAGE
+
+    Mountain Billy under the Gnatcatcher's Oak.    _Frontispiece_
+    Our Valley                                                  4
+    Head of Black-headed Grosbeak                               8
+    Head of Rose-breasted Grosbeak                              8
+    In Hot Pursuit (Brewer's Blackbird and Bee-birds)          13
+    The Little Lover (Western House Wren)                      20
+    A Trying Moment (Western House Wren)                       32
+    Nest of Western Gnatcatcher                                39
+    Head of California Woodpecker                              66
+    Head of Red-headed Woodpecker (Eastern)                    66
+    Jacob and Bairdi visiting the Old Nest Tree                78
+    Head of Arizona Hooded Oriole                              89
+    Head of Baltimore Oriole (Eastern)                         89
+    Head of California Chewink                                 93
+    Head of Eastern Chewink                                    93
+    Valley Quail and Road-runner                               99
+    Nest of the Bush-tit                                      104
+    Pocket Nest in an Oak                                     108
+    The Big Sycamore                                          114
+    Along the Line of Sycamores                               124
+    Head of Black Ph[oe]be                                    129
+    Head of Eastern Ph[oe]be                                  129
+    The Little Hummer on her Bow-knot Nest                    148
+    The Swing Nest of the Hummer                              157
+    A Shady Bower                                             160
+    Head of Green-tailed Chewink                              163
+    The Nosebag Nest (Vigors's Wren)                          173
+    The Plain Titmouse in her Doorway                         176
+    Which was the Mother Bird? (Wren-tit and Lazuli Buntings) 189
+    The Phainopeplas on the Pepper-tree                       194
+    The Phainopepla's Nest in the Oak Brush Island            198
+    Eucalyptus Avenue, showing Pollarded Trees on the Right   212
+    Eucalyptus Wood stored for Market in a Eucalyptus Grove   214
+    Mountain Billy Deserted                                   220
+
+
+
+
+BIRDS REFERRED TO IN THE TEXT.[1]
+
+  White Egret. _Ardea egretta._
+  Green Heron. _Ardea virescens anthonyi._
+  Spotted Sandpiper. _Actitis macularia._
+  Valley Quail. _Callipepla californica vallicola._
+  Mourning Dove. _Zenaidura macroura._
+  Turkey Vulture. _Cathartes aura._
+  Hawk. _Buteo ----._
+  Sparrow Hawk. _Falco sparverius deserticolus._
+  American Barn Owl. _Strix pratincola._
+  Western Horned Owl. _Bubo virginianus subarcticus._
+  Burrowing Owl. _Speotyta cunicularia hypogaea._
+  Road-runner. _Geococcyx californianus._
+  California Woodpecker. _Melanerpes formicivorus bairdi._
+  Red shafted Flicker. _Colaptes cafer._
+  Dusky Poor-will. _Phalaenoptilus nuttalli californicus._
+  Black-chinned Hummingbird. _Trochilus alexandri._
+  Rufous Hummingbird. _Selasphorus rufus._
+  Arkansas Kingbird. _Tyrannus verticalis._
+  Cassin's Kingbird. _Tyrannus vociferans._
+  Black Ph[oe]be. _Sayornis nigrescens._
+  Western Wood Pewee. _Contopus richardsonii._
+  Flycatcher. _Empidonax ----._
+  Horned Lark. _Otocoris alpestris chrysolaema._
+  California Jay. _Aphelocoma californica._
+  American Crow. _Corvus americanus._
+  Yellow-headed Blackbird. _Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus._
+  Red-winged Blackbird. _Agelaius ph[oe]nicius ----._
+  Arizona Hooded Oriole. _Icterus cucullatus nelsoni._
+  Bullock's Oriole. _Icterus bullocki._
+  Brewer's Blackbird. _Scholocophagus cyanocephalus._
+  Western House Finch. _Carpodacus mexicanus frontalis._
+  Goldfinch. _Spinus ----._
+  White-crowned Sparrow. _Zonotrichia leucophrys gambeli (?)._
+  Golden-crowned Sparrow. _Zonotrichia coronata._
+  Heerman's Song Sparrow. _Melospiza fasciata heermanni (?)._
+  Spurred Towhee or Chewink. _Pipilo maculatus megalonyx._
+  Green-tailed Towhee. _Pipilo chlorurus._
+  California Towhee. _Pipilo fuscus crissalis._
+  Black-headed Grosbeak. _Habia melanocephala._
+  Western Blue Grosbeak. _Guiraca caerulea eurhyncha._
+  Lazuli Bunting. _Passerina am[oe]na._
+  Louisiana Tanager. _Piranga ludoviciana._
+  Cliff Swallow. _Petrochelidon lunifrons._
+  Phainopepla. _Phainopepla nitens._
+  White-rumped Shrike. _Lanius ludovicianus excubitorides._
+  Warbling Vireo. _Vireo gilvus (?)._
+  Hutton's Vireo. _Vireo huttoni (?)._
+  Least Vireo. _Vireo bellii pusillus (?)._
+  Long-tailed Chat. _Icteria virens longicauda._
+  American Pipit. _Anthus pensilvanicus._
+  California Thrasher. _Harporhynchus redivivus._
+  Vigors's Wren. _Thryothorus bewickii spilurus._
+  Western House Wren. _Troglodytes aedon aztecus._
+  Plain Titmouse. _Parus inornatus._
+  Wren-tit. _Chamaea fasciata._
+  California Bush-tit. _Psaltriparus minimus californicus._
+  Western Gnatcatcher. _Polioptila caerulea obscura._
+  Varied Thrush or Oregon Robin. _Hesperocichla naevia._
+  Western Bluebird. _Sialia mexicana occidentalis._
+
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[1] In classification and nomenclature this list conforms to the
+American Ornithologists' Union 'Check-List of North American Birds,'
+Second Edition, 1895. L. S. Foster, New York.
+
+
+
+
+A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+OUR VALLEY.
+
+
+"CLIMB the mountain back of the house and you can see the Pacific," the
+ranchman told me with a gleam in his eye; and later, when I had done
+that, from the top of a peak at the foot of the valley he pointed out
+the distant blue mountains of Mexico. Then he gave me his daughter's
+saddle horse to use as long as I was his guest, that I might explore the
+valley and study its birds to the best advantage. Before coming to
+California, I had known only the birds of New York and Massachusetts,
+and so was filled with eager enthusiasm at thought of spending the
+migration and nesting season in a new bird world.
+
+I had no gun, but was armed with opera-glass and note-book, and had
+Ridgway's Manual to turn to in all my perplexities. Every morning, right
+after breakfast, my horse was brought to the door and I set out to make
+the rounds of the valley. I rode till dinner time, getting acquainted
+with the migrants as they came from the south, and calling at the more
+distant nests on the way. After dinner I would take my camp-stool and
+stroll, through the oaks at the head of the valley, for a quiet study of
+the nearer nests. Then once more my horse would be brought up for me to
+take a run before sunset; and at night I would identify my new birds and
+write up the notes of the day. What more could observer crave? The world
+was mine. I never spent a happier spring. The freedom and novelty of
+ranch life and the exhilaration of days spent in the saddle gave added
+zest to the delights of a new fauna. In my small valley circuit of a
+mile and a half, I made the acquaintance of about seventy-five birds,
+and without resort to the gun was able to name fifty-six of them.
+
+My saddle horse, a white bronco who went by the musical name of Canello,
+had been broken by a Mexican whose cruelty had tamed the wild blood in
+his veins and left him with a fear of all swarthy skins. Now he could be
+ridden bareback by the little girls, with only a rope noose around his
+nose, and was warranted to stand still before a flock of birds so long
+as there was grass to eat. He was to be relied on as a horse of ripe,
+experience and mature judgment in matters of local danger. No power of
+bit or spur could induce him to set foot upon a piece of 'boggy land,'
+and to give me confidence one of the ranchman's sons said, "Wherever
+I've killed a rattlesnake from him he'll shy for years;" and went on to
+cite localities where a sudden, violent lurch had nearly sent him over
+Canello's head! What greater recommendation could I wish?
+
+If the old horse had had any wayward impulses left, his Mexican bit
+would have subdued them. It would be impossible to use such an iron in
+the mouth of an eastern horse. They say the Mexicans sometimes break
+horses' jaws with it. From the middle of the bit, a flat bar of iron,
+three quarters of an inch wide, extended back four inches, lying on the
+horse's tongue or sticking into the roof of his mouth, according to the
+use of the curb--there was no other rein. The bit alone weighed sixteen
+ounces. The bridle, which came from Ensenada in Lower California, then
+the seat of a great gold excitement, was made of braided raw-hide. It
+was all hand work; there was not a buckle about it. The leather quirt at
+the end of the reins was the only whip necessary. When I left the ranch
+the bridle was presented to me, and it now hangs behind my study door, a
+proud trophy of my western life, and one that is looked upon with
+mingled admiration and horror by eastern horsemen.
+
+Canello and I soon became the best of friends. I found in him a valuable
+second--for, as I had anticipated, the birds were used to grazing
+horses, and were much less suspicious of an equestrian than a foot
+passenger--and he found in me a movable stake, constantly leading him
+to new grazing ground; for when there was a nest to watch I simply hung
+the bridle over the pommel and let him eat, so getting free hands for
+opera-glass and note-book. To be sure, there were slight causes of
+difference between us. He liked to watch birds in the high alfalfa under
+the sycamores, but when it came to standing still where the hot sun beat
+down through the brush and there was nothing to eat, his interest in
+ornithology flagged perceptibly. Then he sometimes carried the role of
+grazing horse too far, marching off to a fresh clump of grass out of
+sight of my nest at the most interesting moment; or when I was intently
+gazing through my glass at a rare bird, he would sometimes give a sudden
+kick at a horsefly, bobbing the glass out of range just as I was making
+out the character of the wing-bars.
+
+[Illustration: OUR VALLEY]
+
+From the ranch-house, encircled by live-oaks, the valley widened out,
+and was covered with orchards and vineyards, inclosed by the low
+brush-grown ridges of the Coast Mountains. It was a veritable paradise
+for the indolent field student. With so much insect-producing verdure,
+birds were everywhere at all times. There were no long hours to sit
+waiting on a camp-stool, and only here and there a treetop to 'sky' the
+wandering birds. The only difficulty was to choose your intimates.
+
+Canello and I had our regular beat, down past the blooming quince and
+apricot orchard, along the brush-covered side of the valley where the
+migrants flocked, around the circle through a great vineyard in the
+middle of the valley, past a pond where the feathered settlers gathered
+to bathe, and so back home to the oaks again.
+
+I liked to start out in the freshness of the morning, when the fog was
+breaking up into buff clouds over the mountains and drawing off in veils
+over the peaks. The brush we passed through was full of glistening
+spiders' webs, and in the open the grass was overlaid with disks of
+cobweb, flashing rainbow colors in the sun.
+
+As we loped gayly along down the curving road, a startled quail would
+call out, "Who-are-you'-ah? who-are-you'-ah?" and another would cry
+"quit" in sharp warning tones; while a pair would scud across the road
+like little hens, ahead of the horse; or perhaps a covey would start up
+and whirr over the hillside. The sound of Canello's flying hoofs would
+often rouse a long-eared jack-rabbit, who with long leaps would go
+bounding over the flowers, to disappear in the brush.
+
+The narrow road wound through the dense bushy undergrowth known as
+'chaparral,' and as Canello galloped round the sharp curves I had to
+bend low under the sweeping branches, keeping alert for birds and
+animals, as well as Mexicans and Indians that we might meet.
+
+This corner of the valley was the mouth of Twin Oaks Canyon, and was a
+forest of brush, alive with birds, and visited only by the children
+whose small schoolhouse stood beside the giant twin oak from which the
+valley post-office was named. Flocks of migrating warblers were always
+to be found here; flycatchers shot out at passing insects; chewinks
+scratched among the dead leaves and flew up to sing on the branches;
+insistent vireos cried _tu-whip' tu-whip' tu-whip' tu-wee'-ah_, coming
+out in sight for a moment only to go hunting back into the impenetrable
+chaparral; lazuli buntings sang their musical round; blue jays--blue
+squawkers, as they are here called--went screaming harshly through the
+thicket; and the clear ringing voice of the wren-tit ran down the scale,
+now in the brush, now echoing from the bowlder-strewn hills above. But
+the king of the chaparral was the great brown thrasher. His loud
+rollicking song and careless independent ways, so suggestive of his
+cousin, the mockingbird, made him always a marked figure.
+
+There was one dense corner of the thicket where a thrasher lived, and I
+used to urge Canello through the tangle almost every morning for the
+pleasure of sharing his good spirits. He was not hard to find, big brown
+bird that he was, standing on the top of a bush as he shouted out
+boisterously, _kick'-it-now, kick'-it-now, shut'-up shut'-up, dor'-a-thy
+dor'-a-thy_; or, calling a halt in his mad rhapsody, slowly drawled out,
+_whoa'-now, whoa'-now_. After listening to such a tirade as this, it
+was pleasant to come to an opening in the brush and find a band of
+gentle yellow-birds leaning over the blossoms of the white
+forget-me-nots.
+
+There were a great many hummingbirds in the chaparral, and at a certain
+point on the road I was several times attacked by one of the pugnacious
+little warriors. I suppose we were treading too near his nest, though I
+was not keen-eyed enough to find it. From high in the air, he would come
+with a whirr, swooping down so close over our heads that Canello started
+uneasily and wanted to get out of the way. Down over our heads, and then
+high up in the air, he would swing back and forth in an arc. One day he
+must have shot at us half a dozen times, and another day, over a spot in
+the brush near us,--probably, where the nest was,--he did the same thing
+a dozen times in quick succession.
+
+In the midst of the brush corner were a number of pretty round oaks, in
+one of which the warblers gathered. My favorite tree was in blossom and
+alive with buzzing insects, which may have accounted for the presence of
+the warblers. While I sat in the saddle watching the dainty birds decked
+out in black and gold, Canello rested his nose in the cleft of the tree,
+quite unmindful of the busy warblers that flitted about the branches,
+darting up for insects or chasing down by his nose after falling
+millers.
+
+One morning the ranchman's little girl rode over to school behind me on
+Canello, pillion fashion. As we pushed through the brush and into the
+opening by the schoolhouse, scattered over the grass sat a flock of
+handsome black-headed grosbeaks, the western representative of the
+eastern rose-breast, looking, in the sun, almost as red as robins. They
+had probably come from the south the night before. As we watched, they
+dispersed and sang sweetly in the oaks and brush.
+
+[Illustration: Black-headed Grosbeak.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+[Illustration: Rose-breasted Grosbeak.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+In the giant twin oak under whose shadow the the little schoolhouse
+stood was an owl's nest. When I stopped under it, nothing was to be seen
+but the tips of the ears of the brooding bird. But when I tried to hoot
+after the manner of owls, the angry old crone rose up on her feet above
+the nest till I could see her round yellow eyes and the full length of
+her long ears. She snapped her bill fiercely, bristled up, puffing out
+her feathers and shaking them at us threateningly. Poor old bird! I was
+amused at her performances, but one of her little birds lay dead at the
+foot of the tree, and I trembled for the others, for the school-children
+were near neighbors. Surely the old bird needed all her devices to
+protect her young. One day I saw on one side of the nest, below the big
+ears of the mother, the round head of a nestling.
+
+It was pleasant to leave the road to ride out under the oaks along the
+way. There was always the delightful feeling that one might see a new
+bird or find some little friend just gone to housekeeping. One morning I
+discovered a bit of a wren under an oak with building material in her
+bill. She flew down to a box that lay under the tree and I dismounted to
+investigate. A tin can lay on its side in the box, and a few twigs and
+yellowish brown oak leaves were scattered about in a casual way, but the
+rusted lid of the can was half turned back, and well out of sight in the
+inside was a pretty round nest with one egg in it. I was
+delighted,--such an appropriate place for a wren's nest,--and sat down
+for her to come back. She was startled to find me there, and stopped on
+the edge of the board when just ready to jump down. She would have made
+a pretty picture as she stood hesitating, with her tail over her back,
+for the sun lit up her gray breast till it almost glistened and warmed
+her pretty brown head as she looked wistfully down at the box. After
+twisting and turning she went off to think the matter over, and,
+encouraged perhaps by my whistle, came back and hopped down into the
+little nest.
+
+Two weeks later I was much grieved to find that the nest had been broken
+up. A horse had been staked under the tree, but he could not have done
+the mischief; for while the eggs were there, the nest itself was all
+jumbled up in the mouth of the can. I could not get it out of my mind
+for days. You become so much interested in the families you are watching
+that you feel as if their troubles were yours, and are haunted by the
+fear that they will think you have something to do with their accidents.
+They had taken me on probation at first, and at last had come to trust
+me--and then to imagine that I could deceive them and do the harm
+myself!
+
+When Canello and I left the brushy side of the canyon and started across
+the valley, the pretty little horned larks, whose reddish backs matched
+the color of the road, would run on ahead of us, or let the horses come
+within a few feet of them, squatting down ready to start, but not taking
+wing till it seemed as if they would get stepped on. Sometimes one sat
+on a stone by the roadside, so busy singing its thin chattering song
+that it only flitted on to the next stone as we came up; for it never
+seemed to occur to the trustful birds that passers-by might harm them.
+
+One of our most interesting birds nested in holes in the open
+uncultivated fields down the valley,--the burrowing owl, known
+popularly, though falsely, as the bird who shares its nest with prairie
+dogs and rattlesnakes. Though they do not share their quarters with
+their neighbors, they have large families of their own. We once passed a
+burrow around which nine owls were sitting. The children of the ranchman
+called the birds the 'how-do-you-do owls,' from the way they bow their
+heads as people pass. The owls believe in facing the enemy, and the
+Mexicans say they will twist their heads off if you go round them times
+enough.
+
+One of our neighbors milked his cows out in a field where the burrowing
+owls had a nest, and he told me that his collie had nightly battles with
+the birds. I rode down one evening to see the droll performance, and
+getting there ahead of the milkers found the bare knoll of the pasture
+peopled with ground squirrels and owls. The squirrels sat with heads
+sticking out of their holes, or else stood up outside on their hind
+legs, with the sun on their light breasts, looking, as Mr. Roosevelt
+says, like 'picket pins.' The little old yellowish owls who matched the
+color of the pasture sat on the fence posts, while the darker colored
+young ones sat close by their holes, matching the color of the earth
+they lived in. As I watched, one of the old birds flew down to feed its
+young. A comical little fellow ran up to meet his parent and then
+scudded back to the nest hole, keeping low to the ground as if afraid of
+being seen, or of disobeying his mother's commands. When the ranchman
+came with his cows the small owls ducked down into their burrows out of
+sight.
+
+Romulus, the collie, went up to the burrows and the old owls came
+swooping over his back screaming shrilly--the milkers told me that they
+often struck him so violently they nipped more than his hair! When the
+owls flew at him, Romulus would jump up into the air at them, and when
+they had settled back on the fence posts he would run up and start them
+off again. The performance had been repeated every night through the
+nesting season, and was getting to be rather an old story now, at least
+to Romulus. The ranchman had to urge him on for my benefit, and the owls
+acted as if they rather enjoyed the sport, though with them there was
+always the possibility that a reckless nestling might pop up its head
+from the ground at the wrong moment and come to grief. It would be
+interesting to know if the owls were really disturbed enough to move
+their nest another year.
+
+When Canello and I faced home on our daily circuit of the valley, we
+often found the vineyard well peopled. In April, when it was being
+cultivated, there was a busy scene. All the blackbirds of the
+neighborhood--both Brewer's and redwings--assembled to pick up grubs
+from the soft earth. A squad of them followed close at the plowman's
+heels, others flew up before his horse, while those that lagged behind
+in their hunt were constantly flying ahead to catch up, and those that
+had eaten all they could sat around on the neighboring grape-vines. The
+ranchman's son told me that when he was plowing and the blackbirds were
+following him, two or three 'bee-birds,' as they call the Arkansas and
+Cassin's flycatchers, would take up positions on stakes overlooking the
+flock; and when one of the blackbirds got a worm, would fly down and
+chase after him till they got it away, regularly making their living
+from the blackbirds, as the eagles do from the fish hawks.
+
+[Illustration: In Hot Pursuit.
+
+(Brewer's Blackbird and Bee-birds.)]
+
+One day in riding by the vineyard, to my surprise and delight I saw one
+of the handsome yellow-headed blackbirds sitting with dignity on a
+grape-vine. Although his fellows often flock with redwings, this bird
+did not deign to follow the cultivator with the others, but flew off and
+away while I was watching, showing his striking white shoulder patches
+as he went. The distinguished birds were sometimes seen assembled
+farther down the valley; and I once had a rare pleasure in seeing a
+company of them perched high on the blooming mustard.
+
+The son of the ranchman told me an interesting thing about the ordinary
+blackbirds. He said he had seen a flock of perhaps five hundred fly down
+toward a band of grazing sheep, and all but a few of the birds light on
+the backs of sheep. The animals did not seem to mind, and the birds flew
+from one to another and roosted and rode to their heart's content. They
+would drop to the ground, but if anything startled them, fly back to
+their sheep again. Sometimes he had seen a few of the blackbirds picking
+out wool for their nests by bracing themselves on the backs of the
+sheep, and pulling where the wool was loose. He had also seen the birds
+ride hogs, cattle, and horses; but he said the horses usually switched
+them off with their tails.
+
+On our way home we passed a small pond made by the spring rains. Since
+it was the only body of water for miles around, it was especially
+refreshing to us, and was the rendezvous of all our feathered
+neighbors--how they must have wished it would last all through the hot
+summer months! As I rode through the long grass on the edge of the pond,
+dark water snakes often wriggled away from under Canello's feet; but he
+evidently knew they were harmless, for he paid no attention to them,
+though he was mortally afraid of rattlers. I did not like the feeling
+that any snake, however innocent, was under my feet, so would pull him
+up out of the grass onto a flat rock overlooking the pond.
+
+In the fresh part of the morning, before the fog had entirely melted
+away, the round pool at our feet mirrored the blue sky and the small
+white clouds. If a breath of wind ruffled the water into lines, in a
+moment more it was sparkling. Along the margin of the water was a border
+of wild flowers, pink, purple, and gold; on one side stood a group of
+sycamores, their twisted trunks white in the morning sun and their
+branches full of singing birds; while away to the south a line of dark
+blue undulating hills was crowned by the peak from which we had looked
+off on the mountains of Mexico. The air was ringing with songs, the
+sycamores were noisy with the chatter of blackbirds and bee-birds, and
+the bushes were full of sparrows.
+
+There was an elder on the edge of the pond, and the bathers flew to this
+and then flitted down to the water; and when they flew up afterwards,
+lighted there to whip the water out of their feathers and sun themselves
+before flying off. I never tired watching the little bathers on the
+beach. One morning a pipit came tipping and tilting along the sand,
+peeping in its wild, sad way. Another time a rosy-breasted linnet
+stepped to the edge of the pond and dipped down daintily where the water
+glistened in the sunshine, sending a delicate circle rippling off from
+its own shadow. Then the handsome white and golden-crowned sparrows came
+and bathed in adjoining pools. When one set of birds had flown off to
+dry their feathers, others took their places. A pair of blackbirds
+walked down the sand beach, but acted absurdly, as if they did not know
+what to do in water--it was a wonder any of the birds did in dry
+California! Two pieces of wood lay in the shallows, and the blackbirds
+flew to them and began to promenade. The female tilted her tail as if
+the sight of herself in the pond made her dizzy, but the male finally
+edged down gingerly and took a dip or two with his bill, after which
+both flew off.
+
+On the mud flats on one side of the pond, bee-birds were busy
+flycatching, perching on sticks near the ground and making short sallies
+over the flat. Turtle doves flew swiftly past, and high over head hawks
+and buzzards circled and let themselves be borne by the wind.
+
+Swallows came to the pond to get mud for their nests. A long line of
+them would light on the edge of the water, and then, as if afraid of
+wetting their feet, would hold themselves up by fluttering their long
+pointed wings. They would get a little mud, take a turn in the air, and
+come back for more, to make enough to pay them for their long journeys
+from their nests. Sometimes they would skim over the pond without
+touching the surface at all, or merely dip in lightly for a drink in
+passing; at others they would take a flying plunge with an audible
+splash. Now and then great flocks of them could be seen circling around
+high up against a background of clouds and blue sky.
+
+One day I had a genuine excitement in seeing a snow-white egret perched
+on a bush by the water. I rode home full of the beautiful sight, but
+alas, my story was the signal for the ranchman's son to seize his gun
+and rush after the bird. Fortunately he did not find him, although he
+did shoot a green heron; but it was probably a short reprieve for the
+poor hunted creature.
+
+Canello was so afraid of miring in the soft ground that it was hard to
+get him across some places that seemed quite innocent. He would test the
+suspicious ground as carefully as a woman, one foot at a time; and if he
+judged it dangerous, would take the bits, turn around and march off in
+the opposite direction. I tried to force him over at first, but had an
+experience one day that made me quite ready to take all suggestions in
+such matters. This time he was deceived himself. We were on our homeward
+beat, off in the brush beyond the vineyard. I was watching for chewinks.
+We came to what looked like an old road grown up with soft green grass,
+and it was so fresh and tender I let Canello graze along at will; while
+keeping my eyes on the brush for chewinks. Suddenly Canello pricked up
+his ears and raised his head with a look of terror. Rattlesnakes or
+miring--it was surely one or the other! When I felt myself sinking, I
+knew which. I gave the horse a cut with the quirt to make him spring off
+the boggy ground, and looked off over his side to see how far down he
+was likely to go, but found myself going down backwards so fast I had to
+cling to the pommel. I lashed Canello to urge him out, and he struggled
+desperately, but it was no use. We were sinking in deeper and deeper,
+and I had to get off to relieve him of my weight. By this time his long
+legs had sunk in up to his body. On touching the ground I had a horrible
+moment thinking it might not hold me; but it bore well. Seizing the
+bridle with one hand and swinging the quirt with the other, I shouted
+encouragement to Canello, and, straining and struggling, he finally
+wrenched himself out and stepped on _terra firma_--I never appreciated
+the force of that expression before! The poor horse was trembling and
+exhausted when I led him up to high ground to remount, and neither of
+us had any desire to explore boggy lands after that.
+
+On our morning round, Canello and I attended strictly to business,--he
+to grazing, I to observing; but on our afternoon rides I, at least, felt
+that we might pay a little more heed to the beauties of the valley and
+the joys of horsebacking. Sometimes we would be overtaken by the night
+fog. One moment the mustard would be all aglow with sunshine; at the
+next, a sullen bank of gray fog would have risen over the mountain,
+obscuring the sun which had warmed us and lighted the mustard; and in a
+few moments it would be so cold and damp that I would urge Canello into
+a lope to warm our blood as we hurried home.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+THE LITTLE LOVER.
+
+
+[Illustration: The Little Lover.
+
+(Western House Wren.)]
+
+ON my second visit to California, I spent the winter in the Santa Clara
+valley, riding among the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, where
+flocks of Oregon robins were resting from the labors of the summer and
+passing the time until they could fly home again; but when the first
+spring wild flowers bloomed on the hills I shipped my little roan
+mustang by steamer from San Francisco to San Diego, and hurried south to
+meet him and spend the nesting season in the little valley of the Coast
+Mountains which, five years before, had proved such an ideal place to
+study birds.
+
+I went down early in March, to be sure to be in time for the nesting
+season; but spring was so late that by the last of April hardly a nest
+had been built, and it seemed as if the birds were never coming back.
+The weather was gloomy and the prospect for the spring's work looked
+discouraging, when one morning I rode over to the line of oaks and
+sycamores at the mouth of Ughland canyon I had not visited before. In
+this dry, treeless region of southern California only a little water is
+needed to cover the bare valley bottoms with verdure. The rushing
+streams that flow down the canyons after the winter rains fill their
+mouths with rich groves of brush, oaks and sycamores; while lines of
+trees border the streams as far as they extend down the valleys. Before
+the streams go far, the thirsty soil drinks them up, leaving only dry
+beds of sand bordered by trees, until the rains of the following winter.
+In April, the water in this particular canyon mouth had already
+disappeared, and the wide sand bed under the trees alone remained to
+tell of the short-lived stream. But the resulting verdure was enough to
+attract the birds. Apparently a party of travelers had just arrived. The
+brush and trees were full of song--yellowbirds, linnets, chewinks,
+doves, wrens, and, best of all, a song sparrow,--bless his
+heart!--singing as if he were on a bush in New York state. It was more
+cheering than anything I had heard in California.
+
+When able to listen to something besides song sparrows, I realized that
+from the trees in front of me was coming the rippling merry song of a
+wren. Wrens are always interesting,--droll, individual little
+scraps,--and having found their nests in sycamore holes before, I let my
+horse, Mountain Billy, graze nearer to the tree from which the sound
+came. Before long the small brown pair flew away together across the oat
+field that spread out from the mouth of the canyon. While they were
+gone, I took the opportunity to inspect the tree, and found a large hole
+with twigs sticking out suggestively. Presently, back flew one of the
+wrens with more building material. But this line of sycamores was off
+from the highway, and the bird was not used to prying equestrians; so
+when she found Mountain Billy and me planted in front of her door, she
+doubted the wisdom of showing us that it was her door. Chattering
+nervously, she would back and fill, flying all but to the door and then
+flitting off again. She could not make up her mind to go inside. But
+soon her mate came and--unmindful of visitors, ardent little lover that
+he was--sang to her so gayly that it put her in heart; and before I knew
+it she had slipped into the tree.
+
+Here was a nest, at last, right over my eye. To encourage myself while
+waiting for something to happen, I began a list with the heading NESTS,
+when something caught my eye overhead, and glancing up, behold, a
+goldfinch walked down a branch and seated herself in a round cup! A few
+moments later--buzz--whirr--a hummingbird flew to a nest among the brown
+leaves of one of the low-hanging oak sprays not ten feet away! I simply
+stared with delight and astonishment. No need of a list for
+encouragement now. From Billy's back I could look down into the little
+cup, which seemed the tiniest in the world. Forgetting the little lover
+and his mate, I sat still and watched this small household.
+
+The young were out of the eggs, though not much more, and their mother
+sat on the edge of the nest feeding them. She curved her neck over till
+her long bill stood up perpendicularly, when she put it gently into the
+gaping bills of her young; the smallest of bills, not more than an
+eighth of an inch long, I should judge. I never saw hummingbirds fed so
+gently. Probably the small bills and throats were so delicate the mother
+was afraid they would not bear the usual jabbing and pumping.
+
+When the little ones were fed, the old bird got down in the nest,
+fluffing her feathers about her in a pretty motherly way and settling
+herself comfortably to rest, apparently ignoring the fact that Billy was
+grazing close beside her. She may have had her qualms, but no mother
+bird would leave her tender young uncovered on such a cold morning.
+
+While she was on the nest, there was an approaching whirr, followed by a
+retreating buzz--had the father bird started to come to the nest and
+fled at sight of me? Remembering the evidence Bradford Torrey collected
+to prove that the male bird is rarely seen at the nest, I wondered if
+his absence might be explained by his usually noisy flight, for it would
+attract the notice of man or beast.
+
+Two days later I carefully touched the tip of my finger to the back of
+one of the tiny hummingbirds,--it was very skinny, I regret to
+state,--and at my touch the little thing opened its wee bill for food.
+That day the mother fed the birds in the regulation way, when we were
+only four feet distant. I was near enough to see all the horrors of the
+performance. She thrust her bill down their throats till I felt like
+crying out, "For mercy's sake, forbear!" She plunged it in up to the
+very hilt; it seemed as if she must puncture their alimentary canals.
+
+While waiting for the wrens, I buckled Billy's bridle around the
+sycamore and threw myself down on the warm sand under the beautiful
+tree. The little horse stood near, outlined against the blue sky, with
+the sunlight dappling his back, while I looked up into the light green
+foliage of the white sycamore overhead. There seemed to be a great deal
+of light stored in these delicate trees. The undersides of the big,
+soft, white leaves looked like white Canton flannel; the sunlight
+mottled the whitish bark of the trunks and branches; and a great limb
+arched above me, making a high vaulted chamber whose skylights showed
+the deep blue above.
+
+But there were the little lover and his mate, and I must turn my glass
+on them. She came first, with long streamers hanging from her bill, and
+at sight of me got so flustered that one of her straws slipped out and
+went sailing down to the ground. When the pair had gone again, two
+linnets came along. The female saw the wren's doorway, and being in
+search of apartments flew up to look at the house. When she came out she
+and her mate talked it over and, apparently, she told him something that
+aroused his curiosity--perhaps about the wren's twigs she found
+inside--for he flew into the dark hole and looked around as she had
+done. Then both birds went off to inspect other holes in the tree. The
+master of the wren cottage came back in time to see them on their
+rounds, and taking up his position in front of his door sang out loudly,
+with wings hanging and a general air of, "This is _my_ house, I'd have
+you understand!"
+
+When the lord of the manor had flown away, his lady came. I thought
+perhaps he had told her of the visitors and she had come to see if they
+had disturbed any of her sticks, for she brought no material. She was
+afraid to go to the nest in my presence, but flew to a branch near by
+and leaned down so far it was a wonder she didn't tip over as she stared
+anxiously at the hole--a bad way to keep a secret, my little lady! I
+thought. When her merry minstrel came, his song again gave her courage
+and she flew inside, turning in the doorway, however, to look out at me.
+
+But what with horses grazing under her windows and linnets making free
+with her nest, the poor wren was unsettled in her mind. Possibly it
+would be wiser to take out her sticks and build elsewhere. She went
+about looking at vacant rooms and examined one opening in the side of
+the trunk where I could see only her profile as she hung out of the
+hole.
+
+For some time the timid bird would not accept Mountain Billy and me as
+part of her immediate landscape, and I watched the premises a number of
+days, getting nothing but my labor for my pains, as far as wrens were
+concerned.
+
+One day when she did not come, I thought it was a good chance to get a
+study of the hummingbird's nest; but alas!--the delicate little
+structure hung torn and dangling from the twig, with nothing to tell
+what had become of the poor little hummers. I moralized sadly upon the
+mutability of human affairs as I took the tattered nest and tied it up
+in a corner of my handkerchief; for it was all that was left of the
+little home built with such exquisite care and brooded over so
+tenderly.
+
+The yellowbird's nest came to an untimely end, too, although its start
+was such a bright one. It was a disappointment, for the goldfinches are
+such trustful birds and so affectionate and tender in their family
+relations that they always win one's warm interest. At first, when this
+mother bird went to the nest, her mate stationed himself on the nest
+tree, leaning over and looking down anxiously at Billy and me; but
+before their home was broken up the watchful guardian fed his pretty
+mate at her brooding when we were below.
+
+We had a great many visitors while waiting for the wrens: neighbors came
+to sit in our green shade, young housekeepers came looking for rooms to
+rent, and old birds who were leading around their noisy families came to
+dine with us. Once a pair of flickers started to light in the tree, but
+they gave a glance over the shoulder at me and fled. Later I found their
+secret--down inside an old charred stump up the canyon. Occasionally I
+got sight of gay liveries in the green sycamore tops. A Louisiana
+tanager in his coat of many colors stopped one day, and another time,
+when looking up for dull green vireos, my eye was startled by a flaming
+golden oriole. The color was a keen pleasure. Lazuli buntings, relatives
+of our eastern indigo-bird, sang so much within hearing that I felt sure
+they were nesting in the weeds outside the line of sycamores--I did find
+a pair building in the malvas beyond; a pair of bush-tits, cousins of
+the chickadees, came with one of their big families; California towhees
+often appeared sitting quietly on the branches; linnets were always
+stopping to discuss something in their emphatic way; clamorous blue jays
+rushed in and set the small birds in a panic, but seeing me quickly took
+themselves off; and a pair of wary woodpeckers hunted over the sycamore
+trunks and worked so cautiously that they had finished excavating a nest
+only just out of my sight on the other side of the wren tree trunk
+before I seriously suspected them of domestic intentions.
+
+One day, when watching at the tree, a great brown and black lizard that
+the children of the valley call the 'Jerusalem overtaker' came worming
+down the side of an oak that I often leaned against. The rough bark
+seemed such a help to it that I imagined the wrens had done wisely in
+choosing a smooth sycamore to build in. I looked narrowly at their nest
+hole with the thought in mind and saw that the birds had another point
+of vantage in the way the trunk bulged at the hole--it did not seem as
+if a large lizard could work itself up the smooth slippery rounding
+surface, however much given to eggs for breakfast. But in the West
+Indies lizards walk freely up and down the marble slabs, so it is
+dangerous to say what they cannot do.
+
+Billy had a surprise one day greater than mine over the lizard. He was
+grazing quietly near where I sat under the wren tree, when he suddenly
+threw up his head. His ears pointed forward, his eyes grew excited, and
+as he gazed his head rose higher and higher. I jumped from the ground
+and put my hand on the pommel ready to spring into the saddle. As I did
+so, across the field I caught a glimpse of a great fawn-colored animal
+with a white tip to its tail, bounding through the brush--a deer! Then I
+heard voices through the trees and saw the red shawl of a woman in a
+wagon rumbling up the road the deer must have crossed.
+
+When Mountain Billy and I pulled ourselves together and started after
+the deer, the poor horse was so unstrung he made snakes of all the
+sticks he saw and shied at all imaginable bugaboos along the way. We
+were too late to see the deer again, but found the marks of its hoofs
+where it had jumped a ditch and sunk so deep in the fine sand on the
+other side that it had to take a great leap to recover itself.
+
+The sight of the deer made Billy as nervous as a witch for days. Every
+time we went to visit the wrens he would stand with eyes glued to the
+spot where it had appeared, and when a jack-rabbit came out of the brush
+with his long ears up, Billy started as if he thought it would devour
+him. I was perplexed by his nervousness at first, but after much
+pondering reasoned it out, to my own satisfaction at least. His name
+was Mountain Billy, and in the days when he had been a wayward bucking
+mustang he lived in the Sierra. Now, even in the hills surrounding our
+valley, colts were killed by mountain lions. How much more in the
+Sierra. Mountain lions are large fawn-colored animals: that was it:
+Mountain Billy was suffering from an acute attack of association of
+ideas. The sight of the deer had awakened memories of the nightmare of
+his colthood days.
+
+We made frequent visits to the wren tree, and both my nervous little
+horse and I had a start one morning, for as we rode in, a covey of quail
+flew up with a whirr from under the tree in front of us.
+
+When the wren had become reconciled to us she worked rapidly, flying
+back and forth with material, followed by her mate, who sang while she
+was on the nest and chased away with her afterwards. Often when she
+appeared in the doorway ready to go, his song, which had been just a
+merry round before, at sight of her would suddenly change to a most
+ecstatic love song. He would sit with drooping tail, his wings sometimes
+shaking at his sides, at others raised till they almost met over his
+back, trembling with the excitement of his joy. This peculiar tremulous
+motion of the wings was marked in both wrens; their emotions seemed too
+large for their small bodies.
+
+I found the wrens building, the last of April. The third week in May
+the little lover was singing as hard as ever. I wrote in my
+note-book--"Wrens do not take life with proper seriousness, their duties
+certainly do not tie them down." When the eggs were in the nest, if her
+mate sang at her door, the mother bird would fly out to him and away
+they would go together; for it never seemed to occur to the care-free
+lover that he might brood the eggs in her absence.
+
+When the young hatched, however, affairs took a more serious turn.
+Mother wren at least was kept busy looking for spiders, and later, when
+both were working together, if not hunting among the green treetops, the
+pretty little brown birds often flew to the ground and ran about under
+the weeds to search for insects. Once when the mother bird had flown up
+with her bill full, she suddenly stopped at the twig in front of the
+nest, looking down, her tail over her back wren fashion, the sun on her
+brown sides, and her bill bristling with spiders' legs.
+
+[Illustration: A Trying Moment.]
+
+On June 7 I noticed a remarkable thing. For more than five weeks, all
+through the building and brooding, the little lover had been acting as
+if on his honeymoon--as if the nest were a joke and there were nothing
+for him to do in the world but sing and make love to his pretty mate--as
+if life were all 'a-courtin'.' On this day he first came to the tree
+with food, sang out for his spouse, gave her the morsel, and flew off.
+Later in the morning he brought food and his mate carried it to the
+young. But afterwards, when she started to take a morsel from him,
+behold! he--the gay, frivolous little beau, the minstrel lover--actually
+acted as if he didn't want to give it up, as if he wanted to feed his
+own little birds himself. With wings trembling at his sides he turned
+his back on his mate and started to walk down the branch away from her!
+But he was too fond of her to even seem to refuse her anything, and so,
+coming back, gave her the morsel. She probably divined his thought, and,
+let us hope, was glad to have him show an interest in his children at
+last; at all events, when he came again with food and clung to the tip
+of a drooping twig waiting although she first lit above him and came
+down toward him with bill wide open and wings fluttering in the pretty,
+helpless, coquettish way female birds often tease to be fed; suddenly,
+as if remembering, she flew off, and--he went in to the nest himself! It
+was a conquest; the little lover was not altogether lacking in the
+paternal instinct after all! I looked at him with new respect.
+
+On June 12 I wrote: "The wrens seem to have settled down to business."
+It was delightful to find the small father actually taking turns feeding
+the young. I saw him feed his mate only once or twice, and noticed much
+less of the quivering wings, though after leaving the nest he would
+sometimes light on a branch and move them tremulously at his sides for a
+moment. June 15 I wrote: "The birds are feeding rapidly to-day. I hear
+very little song from the male; probably he has all he can attend to.
+I'd like to know how many young ones there are in that hole." At all
+events, the voices of the young were getting stronger and more
+insistent, and it is no bagatelle to keep half a dozen gaping mouths
+full of spiders, as any mother bird can tell. This particular mother
+wren, however, seemed to enjoy her cares. She often called to the young
+from a branch in front of the nest before going in, and stopped to call
+back to them with a motherly-sounding _krup-up-up_ as she stood in the
+entrance on leaving.
+
+One day as one of the old birds stood in the doorway its mate flew into
+the nest right over its head. The astonished doorkeeper was so startled
+that it took to its wings.
+
+Before this, in watching the wrens, I had looked off across a sunny
+field of golden oats, against the background of blue hills. On June 14,
+when I went to the nest, the mowers had been at work around the
+sycamores and the oat-field was full of cocks. Just as the wren was most
+anxious for peace and quietness, for a safe world into which to launch
+her brood, up came this rout of haymakers with all their clattering
+machines, laying low the meadows to her very door.
+
+No wonder the little bird met me with nerves on edge. When the eggs had
+first hatched, she had objected to me, but mildly. To be sure, once when
+she found me staring she flew away over my head, scolding as much as to
+say, "Stop looking at my little birds," and finding me there when she
+came back, shook her wings at her sides and scolded hard, though her
+bill was full; but still her disapproval did not trouble me; it was too
+sociable. But now, for some time, affected by the shadow of coming
+events, she had been growing more and more fidgety under my gaze,
+darting inside, then whisking back to the door to look at me, in again
+to her brood and out to me, over and over like a flash--or, like a poor
+little troubled mother wren, distracted lest her unruly youngsters
+should pop out of the hole in the tree trunk when I was below to catch
+them.
+
+On this day, when the wren came up from the dark nest pocket and found
+me below, she called back to her little ones in such distress that I
+felt reproached. By gazing fixedly through my glass into the dark hole I
+could see the head of a sprightly nestling pop up and turn alertly from
+side to side as if returning my inspection. The old wren's calls made me
+think of a human mother who can no longer control her big wayward
+offspring and has to entreat them to do as she bids. It was as if she
+said, "Oh, _do_ be good children, _do_ keep still; _do_ put your heads
+back; you _naughty_ children, you _must_ do as I tell you!"
+
+On June 16, six weeks after I had found the birds building, I wrote in
+my note-book: "I am astonished every morning when I come and find the
+wrens still here, but perhaps it's easier feeding them in one spot than
+it would be chasing around after them in half a dozen different places."
+
+The young were chattering inside the nest. They all talked at once as
+children will, but one small voice assumed the tones of the mother;
+probably the oldest brother speaking with the air of authority
+featherless children sometimes assume with the weaker members of the
+family. When a parent came, I saw the big brother's head pop up from
+behind the wall,--the nest was in a pocket below,--and by the time the
+old bird got there with food the big throat blocked the way for the
+little ones down behind. Sometimes I could see a flutter of small wings
+and tails, when the birds were being fed.
+
+As nothing happened, I went off to watch another nest, but in an hour
+was back to make sure of seeing the small wrens when they left the nest.
+A loud continuous scolding met me on approaching, and one of the old
+wrens, with bill full of insects, flew--not up to the nest--but down in
+among the weeds! In less than an hour that whole brood of wrens had
+flown, and were three or four rods away in the high weeds--safe! I was
+taken aback. They had stolen a march on me. Surely I had not been
+treated as was fit and proper, being one of the family!
+
+It was amusing to see the young ones fly. They whirled away on their
+wings as if they had been flitting around in the big world always; but
+their stubby tails sadly interfered with their progress, and they came
+to earth before they meant.
+
+Weak cries came from the young hidden in the weeds. They could fly, but
+it was different from being safe inside a tree trunk! I hardly
+recognized their weak appealing voices, after the stentorian tones that
+had issued from the old nest.
+
+The weeds were a most admirable cover, and the dead stalks sticking up
+through them served as sentry posts, from which the old birds scolded me
+when I followed too close on their heels. The youngsters sometimes
+appeared on the stalks, and looked very pert on their long legs with
+their short tails cocked over their backs.
+
+In the afternoon I went again to see the little family to which I had
+become so much attached and which were now slipping away from me. They
+had been led farther up the canyon, where, at a turn in the dry bed of
+the stream, the thick cover of weeds was still more protected by brush
+and overhanging trees, and the whole thicket was warmed by the afternoon
+sunshine. The old birds were busily flying back and forth feeding their
+invisible young. They scolded me as they flew past, but kept right on
+with their work.
+
+There was little use trying to keep track of the brood after that, and I
+thought I had given them up quite philosophically, reflecting that it
+was pleasant to leave them in such a sunny protected place. Still, day
+after day in riding along the line of sycamores on my way to other
+nests, it gave me a pang of loneliness to pass the old deserted wren
+tree where I had spent so many happy hours; and though the sycamores
+were silent, I could always hear and see the little lover singing to his
+pretty mate.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+LIKE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT.
+
+
+WHEN watching the little lover and his brood, I heard familiar voices
+farther down the line of oaks, voices of little friends I had made on my
+first visit to California, and had always remembered with lively
+interest as the jauntiest, most individual bits of humanity I had ever
+known in feathers. So, when Mountain Billy and I could be spared by the
+other bird families we were watching, we set out to hunt up the little
+bluish gray western gnatcatchers.
+
+The (sand) stream that widened under the wren's sycamores narrowed up
+the canyon to a--dry ditch, I should say, if it were not disrespectful
+to speak that way of a channel that once a year carries a torrent which
+excavates canals in the meadows. Billy and I started up this sand ditch,
+so narrow between its weed-grown banks that there was barely room for
+us, and so arched over in places by chaparral that we could get through
+only when Billy put down his ears and I bowed low on the saddle.
+
+[Illustration: Nest of Western Gnatcatcher.
+
+(From a photograph.)]
+
+We had not gone far before we heard the gnatcatchers, bluish gray mites
+with heads that are always cocked on one side or the other to look down
+at something, and long tails that are always flipping about as their
+owners flaunt gayly through the bushes: At sound of their voices I
+pulled Billy up out of the ditch, and, slipping from his back, sat down
+on the ground to wait for the birds. Eureka! there, in a slender young
+oak on the edge of the stream not a rod away, one of the pair was
+gliding off its nest, a beautiful lichen-covered, compact little
+structure such as I had admired years before. I was jubilant. What a
+relief! I had fully expected it to be inside the dense brush, where no
+mortal could tell what was going on; and here it was out in the plain
+light of day. What a delightful time I should have watching it! Before
+leaving the spot, in imagination I had followed the brood out into the
+world and filled a note-book with the quaint airs and graces of the
+piquant pair.
+
+When insinuating yourself into the secrets of the bird world, it is not
+well to be too obtrusive at first: it is a mistake to spend the day when
+you make your first call; so contenting myself with thinking of the
+morrow, and fixing the small oak in my memory, I took myself off before
+the blue-gray should tell on me to her mate. As I rose to go, a dove
+flew out of the oak--she had been brooding right over my head. Another
+nest, and a mourning dove's, one of the most gentle and winning of
+birds! Surely my good star was in the ascendent!
+
+The next day, forgetful of this second nest, I rode Billy right up under
+the oak, and was startled to find the pretty dove sitting quietly over
+our heads, looking down at us out of her gentle eyes. It was a pleasant
+surprise. She let me talk to her, but when I had dismounted Billy
+tramped around so uneasily that the saddle caught in the oak branches
+and scared the poor bird away. I had hardly seated myself when the
+jaunty little gnatcatcher came flying over and lit in an upper branch
+of the tree. What a contrast she was to the quiet dove! With many flirts
+of the tail she hopped down to the nest, jumping from branch to branch
+as if tripping down a pair of stairs. When she dropped into her deep cup
+her small head stuck up over one edge, her long tail pointed over the
+other.[2]
+
+I looked away a moment, and on glancing back found the nest empty.
+On the  instant, however, came the sound of my small friend's voice.
+Such a talkative  little person!--not one of your
+creep-in-and-out-of-the-nest-without-anybody's-knowing-it kind of a
+bird, not she! Her remarks sounded as if made over my head, and when
+Billy stamped about the brush and rapped the saddle trying to switch off
+flies, I imagined guiltily that they were addressed to me; but while I
+wondered if she would keep away all the rest of the morning because she
+had discovered me, back she came, talking to herself in complaining
+tones and whipping her tail impatiently, even after she stood on the
+edge of the nest, evidently absorbed in her own affairs, quite to the
+exclusion of the person down in the brush who thought herself so
+important!
+
+My doves were attending to me, however, altogether too much. The
+brooding bird was anxious to go to her nest. After flying out where she
+could see me, she whizzed toward it; but, fearful, hesitated and talked
+it over with her mate--both birds cooed with inflated breaths. After
+that the branches rattled overhead, but even then, though my back was
+turned, the timid bird dared not stay. She must make another inspection.
+From an opposite oak she peered through the branches, moving her head
+excitedly, and calling out her impressions to her mate. Meanwhile, he
+had flown down the sand stream and called back quite calmly. I, also,
+cooed reassuringly to her, and soon she quieted down and began to plume
+her feathers on the sunny branch. As the gnatcatchers did not honor us
+with their attention even when Billy stalked around in plain sight, I
+moved a little closer to their nest to give the dove more freedom; and
+soon the gentle bird slipped back to her brooding.
+
+Before leaving I went to see the dove in the oak, and spoke caressingly
+to her, admiring her soft dove-colored feathers and shining iridescent
+neck. She was on her own ground there, and felt that she could safely be
+friends, so she only winked in the sun, paying no heed to her mate when
+he called warningly. It was especially pleasant to watch this reserved
+lady-like bird, after the flippant tell-all-you-know little gnat.
+
+On going away, Billy and I took a run up the canyon. Billy was in high
+spirits, and went racing up the narrow road, winding and turning
+through the chaparral, brushing me against the the stiff scrub oak and
+loping under low branches so fast that the sharp leaves snapped back,
+stinging my cheeks. We had a gay ride, with a spice of excitement thrown
+in; for on our way home, in the thick dust across our path, besides the
+pretty quail tracks that made wall-paper patterns on the road, were the
+straight trails of gopher snakes, and the scalloped one of a rattlesnake
+we had been just too late to meet.
+
+At our next session with the blue-grays, when she was on the nest, her
+mate came back to relieve her and cried in his quick cheerful way, "Here
+I am, here I am!" Either she was taking a nap or didn't want to stir,
+for she didn't budge till he called insistently, "_Here_ I am, _here_ I
+am!" Then he hopped down in her place, and raising his head above the
+nest, remarked again, as if commenting upon the new situation, "Here I
+am!"
+
+It was quite a different matter when she came back to work. She only
+called "hello," not even hinting that he should make way for her, but he
+hopped off at the first sound of her voice, flying away promptly to
+another tree and calling back like a gleeful boy let out of school,
+"Here I am!"
+
+She was no more eager to go to the nest than he, however, and once when
+she came flirting leisurely along from twig to twig, she stopped a long
+time on the edge of the nest and leaned over, presumably to arrange the
+eggs; perhaps she and her mate had different views as to their proper
+positions. The next time I visited the gnats, she acted as if she really
+could not make up her mind to settle down to brooding on such a
+beautiful morning. The fog had cleared away and the air was fresh and
+full of life; goldfinches and lazuli buntings were singing merrily, and
+light-hearted vireos were shouting _chick-a-de-chick'-de-villet'_ from
+the brush. How much pleasanter it would be for such an airy fairy to go
+off for a race with her mate than to settle down demurely tucked into a
+cup! "Tsang," she cried impatiently as she flew up to catch a fly. She
+flirted about the branches, whipped up in front of the nest, couldn't
+make up her mind to go in, and flounced off again. But the eggs would
+get cold if she didn't cover them, so back she came, hopped up on the
+edge of the nest, and stood twisting and turning, glancing this way and
+that as though for a fly to chase, till she happened to look down at the
+eggs; then she whipped her tail, dropped in and--jumped out again!
+
+During the morning when she was away and her mate was waiting for her to
+come back to 'spell' him, he too got impatient. He hopped out of the
+nest crying, "Now here I am, quick, come quick!" and as he flew off,
+sang out in his funny little soliloquizing way, "Well, here I go; here I
+go!"
+
+His restless spouse had only just settled down when a wren-tit--a
+wren-like bird with a long tail--flew into a bush near her oak, and she
+darted out of the nest to snap her bill over his head. I thought it
+merely an excuse to leave her brooding. Calling out "tsang," she again
+flew at the brown bird who was hopping around in the bush, so
+innocently, as I thought. Conqueror for the moment, she flaunted back to
+the nest, and after much ado finally settled down.
+
+For a time all was quiet. Hearing the low cooing of doves, I went to
+talk to the pretty bird in the oak, and she let me come near enough to
+see her bluish bill and quiet eyes. As I returned to the gnatcatchers, a
+chewink was hoeing in the sand stream. Again the wren-tit approached
+stealthily. I watched with languid interest till he got to the gnat's
+tree. The instant he touched foot upon her domain, she dashed down at
+him, crying loudly and snapping her bill in his face. The brown bird
+dodged her blows, held his footing in spite of her, and slowly made his
+way up to the nest. I was astonished and frightened. He leaned over the
+nest, and--what he actually did I could not see, for by that time the
+blue-gray's cries had called her mate and they were both screaming and
+diving down at him as if they would peck his eyes out; and it sounded as
+if they hit him on the back good and hard.
+
+A peaceful lazuli bunting, hearing the commotion, came to investigate,
+but when she saw what was happening held back against the side of a twig
+as though afraid of getting struck, and soon flew off, having no desire
+to get mixed up in that affray.
+
+When the wren-tit had at last been driven from his position, the
+gnatcatchers flew up into a tree and, standing near together, talked the
+matter over excitedly. Then one of them went back to the nest, reached
+down into it and brought up something that it appeared to be eating. Its
+mate went to the nest and did the same, after which one of them flew
+away with a broken eggshell. When the little creatures turned away from
+the plundered nest they broke out into cries of distress that were
+pitiful to hear. I felt indignant at the wren-tit. How could a bird with
+eggs of its own do such a cruel thing? But then, I reflected, we who
+pretend to be better folks than wren-tits do not always spare our
+neighbors because of our own troubles. When the poor birds had carried
+away their broken eggshell, one of them came and tugged at the nest
+lining till it pulled out a long horsehair and what looked like a
+feather, apparently trying to take out everything that the egg had
+soiled.
+
+When the little housekeeper was working over her nest, a brown towhee
+flew into the tree. On the instant there was a flash of wings--the gnat
+was ready for war. But after a fair look at the big peaceful bird, she
+flew to the next tree without a word--she evidently knew friends from
+enemies. I never liked the towhee so well before. But though the
+blue-gray had nothing to say against her neighbor sitting up in the tree
+if he chose, her nerves were so unstrung that when she lit in the next
+tree she cried out "tsang" in an overburdened tone. It sounded so unlike
+the usual cry of the light-hearted bird, it quite made me sad.
+
+Whether the poor little gnatcatchers did not recover from this attack
+upon their home, and took their nest to pieces to put it up elsewhere,
+as birds sometimes do; or whether the stealthy wren-tit again crept in
+like a thief in the night to plunder his neighbor's house, I do not
+know; but the next time I went to the oak the nest was demolished. It
+was a sorry ending for what had promised to be such an interesting and
+happy home.
+
+My poor dove's nest had a tragic end, too. What happened I do not know,
+but one day the body of a poor little pigeon lay on the ground under the
+nest. My sympathies went out to both mothers, but especially to the
+gentle dove, now a mourner, indeed.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[2] As this little pair dressed like twins, I could only infer which was
+which from the song and the actions of the two, which were quite
+distinct.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+WAS IT A SEQUEL?
+
+
+AFTER the wren-tit stole in like a thief in the night and broke up the
+pretty home of the gnatcatchers, I suspected that they took their house
+down to put it up again in a safer place, and so was constantly on the
+lookout to find where that safer place was. At last, one day, I heard
+the welcome sound of their familiar voices, and following their calls
+finally discovered them flying back and forth to a high branch on an old
+oak-tree; both little birds working and talking together. Mind, I do not
+stake my word on this being the same pair of gnats; but the nest
+followed closely on the heels of the plundered one, which was a point in
+its favor, and, being anxious to take up the lines with my small friends
+again, I let myself think they were the birds of the sand ditch nest. It
+was such a delight to find them that I deserted the nest I had been
+watching, and went to spend the next morning with my old friends. The
+tree they had chosen was a high oak in an open space in the brush, and
+they were building fifteen or twenty feet above the ground--so high that
+it was necessary to keep an opera-glass focused on the spot to see what
+was going on at their small cup.
+
+As the birds worked, I was filled with forebodings by seeing a pair of
+wren-tits on the premises. They went about in the casual indifferent way
+sad experience had shown might cover a multitude of evil intentions, and
+which made me suspect and resent their presence. How had they found the
+poor little gnats? It was not hard to tell. How could they help finding
+such talkative fly-abouts? But if birds are in danger from all the
+world, including those who should be their comrades and champions, why
+should not builders keep as still at the nest as brooding birds, instead
+of heedlessly giving information to observers that lurk about taking
+notes for future misdeeds? But then, could gnatcatchers keep still
+anywhere at any time? No, that was not to be hoped for. I could only
+watch the little chatterers from hour to hour and be thankful for every
+day that their home was unmolested.
+
+It was interesting to see how the jaunty indifferent gnats would act
+when settling down to plain matters of business. Strange to say, they
+proved to be the most energetic, tireless, and skillful of builders.
+Their floor had been laid--on the branch--before I arrived on the scene,
+and they were at work on the walls. The plan seemed to be twofold, to
+make the walls compact and strong by using only fine bits of material
+and packing them tightly in together; while at the same time they gave
+form to the nest and kept it trim and shipshape by moulding inside, and
+smoothing the rim and outside with neck and bill. Sometimes the bird
+would smooth the brim as a person sharpens a knife on a whetstone, a
+stroke one way and then a stroke the other. When the sides were not much
+above the floor, one bird came with a bit of material which it proceeded
+to drill into the body of the wall. It leaned over and threw its whole
+weight on it, almost going head first out of the nest, and had to
+flutter its wings to recover itself. The birds usually got inside to
+build, but there was a twig beside the nest that served for scaffolding,
+and they sometimes stood on that to work at the outside.
+
+At first they seemed to take turns at building, working rapidly and
+changing places quite regularly; but one morning when seated under the
+oak I saw that things were not as they had been. Perhaps a difference of
+opinion had arisen on architectural points, and Mrs. Gnatcatcher had
+taken matters into her own hands. At all events, this is what happened:
+instead of rapid changes of place, when one of the gnats was at work its
+mate flew up and started to go to the nest, hesitated, and backed away;
+then unwilling to give up having a finger in the pie, advanced again.
+This was kept up till the little bird put its pride in its pocket, and
+gently gave over its cherished bit of material to its mate at the nest!
+
+Now as these gnatcatchers had the bad taste to dress so nearly alike
+that I could not tell them apart, I was left to my own surmises as to
+which took the material. Still, who could it have been but Mrs. Gnat?
+Would she give over the house to Mr. Gnat at this critical moment? She
+doubtless wanted to decorate as she went along, and men aren't supposed
+to know anything about such trivial matters! On the other hand, it might
+easily be he, for, supposing he had come of a family of superior
+builders, surely he would want to see to the laying of substantial
+walls; and unquestionably a good wall was the important part of this
+nest. Alas! it was a clear case of "The Lady or the Tiger." To
+complicate matters, the birds worked so fast, so high over my head, and
+so hidden by the leaves, that I had much ado to keep track of their
+exchanges at all. If I could only catch them and tie a pink ribbon
+around one of their necks!--then, at least, I would know which was doing
+what, or if it was doing what it hadn't done before! It is inconsiderate
+enough of birds to wear the same kind of clothes, but to talk alike too,
+when hidden by the leaves--that, indeed, is a straw to break the camel's
+back. If small gray gnatcatchers up in the treetops had only been big
+black magpies low in the brush, my testimony regarding their
+performances might be of more value; but then, the magpies of my
+acquaintance were so shy they would have none of me; so although life
+and field work are full of disappointments, they are also full of
+compensations.
+
+Not being able to do anything better with the gnat problems, I guessed
+at which was which--when I saw No. 2 go to the nest and No. 1
+reluctantly make way as if not wanting No. 2 to meddle, I drew my own
+conclusions, although they were not scientifically final. I did see one
+thing that was satisfactory, as far as it went. One of the birds came
+with big tufts of stiff moss sticking out from either side of its bill
+like great mustachios, and going up to the nest, handed them to its
+mate--actually something big enough for a person to see, once! Whatever
+had been the birds' first feeling as to which should put the bricks in
+the wall, it was all settled now, and the little helpmate flew off
+singing out such a happy good-by it made one feel like writing a sermon
+on the moral effect of renunciation. After that I was sure the little
+helper fed his (?) mate on the nest, again singing out good-by as he
+flitted away. Once when he (?) brought material he found her (?) busy
+with what she had, and so went to the other end of the branch, and
+waited till she was ready for it, when he flew back and gave it to her.
+
+It was a real delight to watch the little blue-grays at their work. Once
+as one of them started to fly away--I am sure this was she--she suddenly
+stopped to look back at the nest as if to think what she wanted to get
+next; or, perhaps, just to get the effect of her work at a distance, as
+an artist walks away from his painting; or as any mother bird would stop
+to admire the pretty nest that was to hold her little brood. Another
+time one of the gnats,--I was sure this was he,--having driven off an
+enemy, flipped his tail by the nest with a paternal air of satisfaction.
+The birds made one especially pretty picture; the little pair stood
+facing each other close to the nest, and the sun, filtering through the
+green leaves over their heads, touched them gently as they lingered near
+their home.
+
+One morning when a gnat was in the nest a leaf blew down past it,
+startling it so it hopped out in such a hurry that the first I knew it
+was seated beneath the nest, flashing its tail.
+
+Back and forth the dainty pair flew across the space of blue sky between
+the oak and the brush. They went so fast and carried so little it seemed
+as if they might have made their heads save their heels--they brought so
+little I couldn't see that they brought anything; but I feel delicate
+about telling what I know about nest-making, and it may be that this was
+just the secret of the wonderfully compact solid walls of the nest; a
+little at a time, and that drilled in to stay.
+
+When one of the small builders flew down near me--within two yards--for
+material, I felt greatly pleased and flattered. Her mate warned her, but
+she paid no particular attention to him, and with jaunty twists and
+turns hopped about on the dead limbs, giving hurried jabs at the cobwebs
+she was gathering. Once she rubbed her little cheek against a twig as if
+a thread of the cobweb had gotten in her eye. She dashed in among the
+dead leaves after something, but flew back with a start as if she had
+seen a ghost. She was not to be daunted, however, and after whipping her
+tail and peering in for a moment, hopped bravely down again. Sometimes,
+when collecting cobweb, the gnat would whip its tail and snap its bill
+snip, snip, snip, as if cutting the web with a pair of scissors.
+
+I was amused one day by seeing a gnat fly down from the oak to the brush
+with what looked like a long brown caterpillar. The worm dangling from
+the tip of his beak was almost as large as the bird, and the little
+fellow had to crook his tail to keep from being overbalanced and going
+on his bill to the ground.
+
+As the nest went up, the leaves hid it; but I could still see the small
+wings and tails flip up in the air over the edge of the cup and jerk
+about as the bird moulded. I watched the workers so long that I felt
+quite competent to build a nest myself, till happening to remember that
+it required gnatcatcher tools.
+
+Ornithologists are discouraging people to wait for, and Mountain Billy
+got so restless under the gnat tree that he had to invent a new
+fly-brush for himself. On one side of the oak the branches hung low to
+the ground, and he pushed into the tangle till the green boughs rested
+on his back and he was almost hidden from view. Meanwhile I sat close
+beside the chaparral wall, where all sorts of sounds were to be heard,
+suggestive of the industries of the population hidden within the brush
+at my back. Hearing small footsteps, I peered in through the brown
+twigs, and to my delight saw a pair of stately quail walking over the
+ground, promenading through the brush avenues. Afterwards I caught sight
+of a gray animal, probably a wood rat, running down a branch behind me,
+and heard queer muffled sounds of gnawing.
+
+Suddenly, looking back, I was startled to see a big ringed brown and
+yellow snake lying like a rope at the foot of the gnat's tree, just
+where I had sat. He was about four feet long, and had twenty-three
+rings. He started to wind into the crotch of the oak as if meaning to
+climb the tree, but instead, crept to a stump and festooned himself
+about it worming around the holes as he might do if looking for nest
+holes. Imagine how a mother bird would feel to have him come stealing
+upon her little brood in that horrid way! When he crawled over the dead
+leaves I noted with a shiver that he made no sound. Thinking of the
+gnats, I watched his every movement till he had left the premises and
+wormed his way off through the brush. Though quite engrossed with the
+gnats, it was finally forced upon me that there is more than one family
+in the world. The blue-gray's oak was a favored one. A pair of
+hang-birds had built there before the gnats came, and now two more
+families had come, making four for the big oak.
+
+When first suspecting a house on the north side of the tree, I moved my
+chair over there. Presently a vireo with disordered breast feathers flew
+down on a dead twig close to the ground and leaned over with a tired
+anxious look, and craning her neck, turned her head on one side, and
+bent her eyes on the ground scrutinizingly. Then she hopped down, picked
+up something, threw it away, picked up another piece and flew back to
+her perch with it, as if to make up her mind if she really wanted that.
+Then her mate came, raised his crown and looked down at the bit of
+material with a puzzled air as if wishing he knew what to say; as if he
+felt he ought to be able to help her decide. But he seemed helpless and
+could only follow her around when she was at work, singing to her
+betimes, and keeping off friends or enemies who came too near. When the
+young hatched I noticed a still more marked difference between the
+nervous manners of the gnats, and the repose of vireos. While the gnat
+flipped about distractedly, the vireo sat calmly beside her nest, an
+exquisite white basket hanging under the leaves in the sun, or walked
+carefully over the branches looking for food for the young. Some days
+before finding out the facts, I suspected that the wood pewee perching
+on the old tree had more important business there, for the way he and
+his mate flew back and forth to the oak top was very pointed. So again I
+moved my chair. To my delight the wood pewee flew up in the tree, sat
+down on a horizontal crotch, and went through the motions of moulding.
+
+There were two birds, however, that simply used the tree as a
+resting-place, as far as I ever knew. A hummingbird perched on the tip
+of a twig, looking from below like a good sized bumblebee as he preened
+his feathers and looked off upon the world below. At the other side of
+the oak a pretty pink dove perched on a sunny branch that arched against
+the blue sky. It sat close to the branch beside the green leaves and
+dressed its feathers or dozed quietly in the sun. We had other visitors
+that the house owners did not accept so willingly. The gnatcatchers up
+the sand ditch whose nest had been broken up by the thief-in-the-night
+did not object to brown chippies, but perhaps, if this were the same
+pair, they had been made suspicious by their trouble. In any case, when
+a brown chippie lit on a limb near the nest, quite accidentally I
+believe, and turned to look at the pretty structure, quite innocently I
+feel sure, the little gnats fell on him tooth and nail, and when he hid
+under the leaves where they could not reach him they fluttered above the
+leaves, and the moment he ventured from under cover were both at him
+again so violently that at the first opportunity he took to his wings.
+There was one curious thing about this attack and expulsion; the gnats
+did not utter a word during the whole affair! I had never known them to
+be silent before when anything was going on--rarely when there wasn't.
+
+Another morning when I rode in there was a great commotion up in the
+oak. A chorus of small scolding voices, and a fluttering of little wings
+among the branches told that something was wrong, while a large form
+moving deliberately about in the tree showed the intruder to be a blue
+jay! Aha! the gossips would wag their heads. I disapprove of gossip, but
+as a truthful reporter am obliged to say that I saw the blue jay pitch
+down into the brush with something white in his bill--perhaps a
+cocoon--and that thereupon a great weeping and wailing arose from the
+little folk up in the treetop. A big brown California chewink stood by
+and watched the--robbery(?), great big fellow that he was; and not once
+offered to take the little fellows' part. I felt indignant. Why didn't
+he pitch into the big bully and drive him off before he had stolen the
+little birds' egg--if it was an egg. A grosbeak called _ick'_ from the
+treetop, but thought he'd better not meddle; and--it was a pair of
+wren-tits who looked out from a brush screen and then skulked off,
+chuckling to themselves, I dare say, that some one else was up to their
+tricks. It gave my faith in birds a great shock, this, together with the
+pillage of the gnat's nest by the thief-in-the-night. My spleen was
+especially turned against the brown chewink; he certainly was a good
+fighter, and might at least have helped to clear the neighborhood of
+such a suspicious character.
+
+Where did the egg--if it was an egg--come from? The vireos and pewees
+and gnats were still building, I reflected thankfully, though trembling
+for their future; and fortunately the hangbird had young. Perhaps the
+jay had found a nest that I could not discover.
+
+After that, things went on quietly for several days. The gnats got
+through with their building, and went off for a holiday until it should
+be time to begin brooding. They flitted about the branches warbling, as
+if having nothing special to do; dear little souls, at work as at play,
+always together. One of them unexpectedly found himself near me one day;
+but when he saw it was only I, whipped his tail and exclaimed "_Oh, it's
+you'. I'm' not afraid._"
+
+This peace and quietness, however, did not last. The gnats' house was
+evidently haunted, and they did not like--blue--ghosts. One morning
+when I got to the oak it was all in a hubbub, and the vireo was
+scolding loudly at a blue jay. When the giant pitched into the brush the
+wren-tit chattered, and I thought perhaps the jay was teaching him how
+it feels to have a shoe pinch. A few moments later I was amazed to see a
+gnat jab at the wall till it got a bill full of material and then fly
+off to the brush with it! My little birds had moved! Evidently the
+neighborhood was too exciting for them. More than ten days of hard
+work--no one can tell how hard until after watching a gnatcatcher
+build--had been spent in vain on this nest; and if, as suspected, this
+was their second, how much more work did that mean? It was a marvel that
+the birds could get courage to start in again, especially if they had
+had two homes broken up already.
+
+From my position at the big oak I could see that the gnats were carrying
+the frame of the old house to a small oak in the brush. The wood pewee
+had moved too, and to my surprise and pleasure I found it had begun its
+nest on a branch under the gnats, so that both families could be watched
+at the same time. I nearly got brushed off the saddle promenading
+through the stiff chaparral to find a place where the nests could be
+seen from the ground; but when at last successful, I too, like the rest
+of the old oak's floating population, moved to pastures new. Hanging my
+chair on the saddle, I made Billy carry it for me; then I buckled the
+reins around the trunk of the oak and withdrew into the brush to watch
+my birds. It was a cozy little nook, from which Billy could be heard
+stamping his feet to shake off the flies. The little crack in the
+chaparral was a pleasant place to sit in, protected as it was from the
+wind, with the sun only coming in enough to touch up the brown leaves on
+the ground and warm the fragrant sage, bringing out its delicious spicy
+aromatic smell.
+
+The pewee did not altogether relish having us established under its vine
+and fig-tree. When it saw Billy under the tree it whistled, and the bit
+of grass it had brought for its nest went sailing down to the brush
+disregarded. It did not think us as bad as the blue jay, however, for it
+came back with a long stem of grass in its bill, and, lighting on a high
+branch, called _pee-ree_. To be sure, when it had gone to the nest and I
+was inconsiderate enough to turn a page in my note-book, it dashed off.
+But if murder will out, so will good intentions; and before long the
+timid bird was brooding its nest with Billy and me for spectators.
+
+The gnat's nest here was so much lower than the other one that it was
+much easier to watch. The first day the birds built rapidly. One of them
+got his spider's web from beside the pewee's nest, when the pewee was
+away. He started to go for it once after the owner had returned, caught
+sight of him, stopped short, and much to my amusement concluded to sit
+down and preen his feathers! The pewee had one special bare twig of his
+own that he used for a perch, and when the gnat seated himself there in
+his neighbor's absence he looked so small that I realized what a mite of
+a bird he really was. He sometimes sat there and talked while his mate
+moulded the nest.
+
+When the gnats got to brooding, many of the same pretty performances
+were repeated that had marked the first nest of all, up in the sand
+ditch. When the bird on the nest hopped out and called, "Come, come,"
+its mate, who had been wandering around in the sunny green treetop,
+called out in sweet tones, "Good-by, good-by."
+
+When waiting for the gnats to do something, I heard a little sound in
+the oak brush by my side, and, looking through the brown branches, saw a
+wren-tit come hopping toward me. It came up within three feet of me,
+near enough to see its bright yellow eyes. I began to wonder if it had a
+nest near by, and felt my prejudices melting away and my heart growing
+tender. Some thieves are very honest fellows; it is largely a difference
+in ethical standards! I began to feel a keen interest in the bird and
+its affairs, for the wren-tit was really a most original bird, and one I
+was especially anxious to study.
+
+My newly awakened interest was not chilled by any second tragedy; all
+went well with the little blue-grays. The day the gnat's eggs hatched,
+the old folks performed most ludicrously. Perhaps they were young
+parents, and this being their first brood, maternal and paternal love
+had not yet blinded their eyes to the ridiculous; so that they looked
+down on these skinny, squirming, big-eyeballed prodigies with mingled
+emotions. It looked very much as if they were surprised to find that
+their smooth pretty eggs had suddenly turned into these ugly, weak,
+hungry things they did not know what to do with. At first it seemed that
+something must be wrong at the nest; the little gnat shook her wings and
+tail beside it as if afraid of soiling herself; and when she hopped into
+it, jerked out again and flitted around distractedly. Every time the
+birds looked into the nest they got so excited that, had they been
+girls, they surely would have hopped up and down wringing their hands. I
+laughed right out alone in the brush, they acted so absurdly.
+
+They began feeding the nestlings in the most remarkable way I had ever
+witnessed. When the young mother was on the nest her mate came and
+brought her the food, whereupon, instead of jumping off the nest and
+feeding the young in the conventional way, she simply raised up on her
+feet and, apparently, poked the food backwards into the bills of the
+young under her breast! Even when the gnats got to feeding more in the
+ordinary way, they did it nervously. They fed as if expecting the young
+to bite them. They would fly up on the branch beside the nest, give a
+jab down at the youngsters, whip tails and flee. You would have thought
+the young parents had been playing house before, and their dolls had
+suddenly turned into live hungry nestlings.
+
+I watched this family till the house was deserted, and I had to ride
+along a line of brush before finding them. The young were now pretty
+silvery-breasted creatures who sat up in a small oak while the old birds
+hunted through the brush for food for them. Though I rode Billy into the
+chaparral after them, and got near enough to see the black line over the
+bill of the father bird, they did not mind, but hunted away quite
+unconcernedly; for we had been through many things together, and were
+now old and fast friends.
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+LITTLE PRISONERS IN THE TOWER.
+
+
+I HAD not spent many days in The Little Lover's door-yard before
+realizing that there was something in the wind. If an inoffensive person
+fancies sitting in the shade of a sycamore with her horse grazing
+quietly beside her, who should say her nay? If, at her approach,
+a--feathered--person steals away to the top of the highest, most distant
+oak within sight and, silent and motionless, keeps his eye on her till
+she departs; if, as she innocently glances up at the trees, she
+discovers a second--feathered--person's head extended cautiously from
+behind a trunk, its eyes fixed on hers; or if, as she passes along
+a--sycamore--street, a person comes to a window and cranes his neck to
+look at her, and instantly leaves the premises; then surely, as the
+world wags, she is quite justified in having a mind of her own in the
+matter. Still more, when it comes to finding chips under a window--who
+could do aught but infer that a carpenter lived within? Not I. And so it
+came about that I discovered that one of the apartments in the back of
+the wren sycamore had been rented by a pair of well-meaning but
+suspicious California woodpeckers, first cousins of the eastern
+red-heads.
+
+[Illustration: California Woodpecker.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+[Illustration: Red-headed Woodpecker--Eastern.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+It is unpleasant to be treated as if you needed detectives on your
+track. It strains your faith in human nature; the rest of the world must
+be very wicked if people suspect such extremely good creatures as you
+are! And then it reflects on the detectives; it shows them so lacking in
+discernment. Nevertheless, "A friend should bear his friend's
+infirmities," and I was determined to be friends with the woodpeckers.
+One of them kept me waiting an hour one morning. When I first saw it, it
+was on its tree trunk, but when it first saw me, it promptly left for
+parts unknown. I stopped at a respectful distance from its tree--several
+rods away--and threw myself down on the warm sand in the bed of the dry
+stream, between high hedges of exquisite lemon-colored mustard. Patient
+waiting is no loss, observers must remember if they would be consoled
+for their lost hours. In this case I waited till I felt like a
+lotus-eater who could have stayed on forever. A dove brooded her eggs on
+a branch of the spreading sycamore whose arms were outstretched
+protectingly above me; the sun rested full on its broad leaves, and bees
+droned around the fragrant mustard, whose exquisite golden flowers waved
+gently against a background of soft blue California sky.
+
+But that was not the last day I had to wait. It was over a month before
+the birds put any trust in me. The nest hole was excavated before the
+middle of May; on June 15 I wrote in my note-book, "The woodpecker has
+gotten so that when I go by she puts her head out of the window, and
+when I speak to her does not fly away, but cocks her head and looks down
+at me."[3] That same morning the bird actually entered the nest in my
+presence. She came back to her sycamore while I was watching the wrens,
+and flew right up to the mouth of the nest. She was a little nervous.
+She poked in her bill, drew it back; put in her head, drew that back;
+then swung her body partly in; but finally the tip of her tail
+disappeared down the hole.
+
+The next morning, in riding by, I heard weak voices from the woodpecker
+mansion. If young were to be fed, I must be on hand. Such luxurious
+observing! Riding Mountain Billy out into the meadow, I dismounted, and
+settled myself comfortably against a haycock with the bridle over my
+arm. It was a beautiful quiet morning. The night fog had melted back and
+the mountains stood out in relief against a sky of pure deep blue. The
+line of sycamores opposite us were green and still against the blue; the
+morning sun lighting their white trunks and framework. The songs of
+birds filled the air, and the straw-colored field dotted with haycocks
+lay sunning under the quiet sky. In the East we are accustomed to speak
+of "the peace of evening," but in southern California in spring there is
+a peculiar interval of warmth and rest, a langorous pause in the growth
+of the morning, between the disappearance of the night fog and the
+coming of the cool trade wind, when the southern sun shines full into
+the little valleys and the peace of the morning is so deep and serene
+that the labor of the day seems done. Nature appears to be slumbering.
+She is aroused slowly and gently by the soft breaths that come in from
+the Pacific. On this day I watched the awakening. Up to this time not a
+grass blade had stirred, but while I dreamed a brown leaf went whirling
+to the ground, the stray stalks of oats left from the mowing began to
+nod, and the sycamore branches commenced to sway. Then the breeze
+swelled stronger, coming cool and fresh from the ocean; the yellow
+primroses, around which the hummingbirds whirred, bowed on their stately
+stalks, and I could hear the wind in the moving treetops.
+
+Mountain Billy grazed near me till it occurred to him that stubble was
+unsatisfactory, when he betook him to my haycock. Though I lectured him
+upon the rights of property and enforced my sermon with the point of the
+parasol, he was soon back again, with the amused look of a naughty boy
+who cannot believe in the severity of his monitor; and later, I regret
+to state, when I was engrossed with the woodpeckers, a sound of munching
+arose from behind my back.
+
+The woodpeckers talked and acted very much like their cousins, the
+red-heads of the East. When they went to the nest they called
+_chuck'-ah_ as if to wake the young, flying away with the familiar
+rattling _kit-er'r'r'r'_. They flew nearly half a mile to their regular
+feeding ground, and did not come to the nest as often as the wrens when
+bringing up their brood. Perhaps they got more at a time, filling their
+crops and feeding by regurgitation, as I have seen waxwings do when
+having a long distance to go for food.
+
+I first heard the voices of the young on June 16; nearly three weeks
+later, July 6, the birds were still in the nest. On that morning, when
+I went out to mount Billy, I was shocked to find the body of one of the
+old woodpeckers on the saddle. I thought it had been shot, but found it
+had been picked up in the prune orchard. That afternoon its mate was
+brought in from the same place. Probably both birds had eaten poisoned
+raisins left out for the gophers. The dead birds were thrown out under
+the orange-trees near the house, and not many hours afterward, when I
+looked out of the window, two turkey vultures were sitting on the
+ground, one of them with a pathetic little black wing in his bill. The
+great black birds seemed horrible to me,--ugly, revolting creatures. I
+went outside to see what they would do, and after craning their long red
+necks at me and stalking around nervously a few moments they flew off.
+
+Now what would become of the small birds imprisoned in the tree trunk,
+with no one to bring them food, no one to show them how to get out, or,
+if they were out, to feed them till they had learned how to care for
+themselves? Sad and anxious, I rode down to the sycamore. I rapped on
+its trunk, calling _chuck'-ah_ as much like the old birds as possible.
+There was an instant answer from a strong rattling voice and a weak
+piping one. The weak voice frightened me. If that little bird's life
+were to be saved, it was time to be about it. The ranchman's son was
+pruning the vineyard, and I rode over to get him to come and see how we
+could rescue the little prisoners.
+
+On our way to the tree we came on a gopher snake four feet long. It was
+so near the color of the soil that I would have passed it by, but the
+boy discovered it. The creature lay so still he thought it was dead; but
+as we stood looking, it puffed itself up with a big breath, darted out
+its tongue, and began to move off. I watched to see how it made the
+straight track we so often saw in the dust of the roads. It bent its
+neck into a scallop for a purchase, while its tapering tail made an S,
+to furnish slack; and then it pulled the main length of its body along
+straight. It crawled noiselessly right to the foot of the woodpecker
+tree, but was only hunting for a hole to hide in. It got part way down
+one hole, found that it was too small, and had to come backing out
+again. It followed the sand bed, taking my regular beat, from tree to
+tree! To be sure, gopher snakes are harmless, but they are suggestive,
+and you would rather their ways were not your ways.
+
+Although the little prisoners welcomed us as rescuers should be
+welcomed, they did it by mistake. They thought we were their parents. At
+the first blow of the axe their voices hushed, and not a sound came from
+them again. It seemed as if we never should get the birds out.
+
+It looked easy enough, but it wasn't. The nest was about twelve feet
+above the ground. The sycamore was so big the boy could not reach around
+it, and so smooth and slippery he could not get up it, though he had
+always been a good climber. He clambered up a drooping branch on the
+back of the tree,--the nest was in front,--but could not swing himself
+around when he got up. Then he tried the hollow burned at the foot of
+the tree. The charred wood crumbled beneath his feet, but at last, by
+stretching up and clinging to a knothole, he managed to reach the nest.
+
+As his fingers went down the hole, the young birds grabbed them,
+probably mistaking them for their parents' bills. "Their throats seem
+hot," the boy exclaimed; "poor hungry little things!" His fingers would
+go through the nest hole, but not his knuckles, and the knothole where
+he steadied himself was too slippery to stand on while he enlarged the
+hole. It was getting late, and as he had his chores to do before dark I
+suggested that we feed the birds and leave them in the tree till
+morning; but the rescuer exclaimed resolutely, "We'll get them out
+to-night!" and hurried off to the ranch-house for a step-ladder and axe.
+
+The ladder did not reach up to the first knothole, four or five feet
+below the nest; but the boy cut a notch in the top of the knot and stood
+in it, practically on one foot, and held on to a small branch with his
+right hand--the first limb he trusted to broke off as he caught
+it--while with the left hand he hacked away at the nest hole. It was a
+ticklish position and genuine work, for the wood was hard and the
+hatchet dull.
+
+I stood below holding the carving-knife,--we hadn't many tools on the
+ranch,--and as the boy worked he entertained me with an account of an
+accident that happened years before, when his brother had chopped off a
+branch and the axe head had glanced off, striking the head of the boy
+who was watching below. I stood from under as he finished his story, and
+inquired with interest if he were sure his axe head was tight! Before
+the lad had made much impression on the hard sycamore, he got so tired
+and looked so white around the mouth that I insisted on his getting down
+to rest, and tried to divert him by calling his attention to the sunset
+and the voices of the quail calling from the vineyard. When he went up
+again I handed him the carving-knife to slice off the thinner wood on
+the edge of the nest hole, warning him not to cut off the heads of the
+young birds.
+
+At last the hole was big enough, and, sticking the hatchet and knife
+into the bark, the lad threw one arm around the trunk to hold on while
+he thrust his hand down into the nest. "My, what a deep hole!" he
+exclaimed. "I don't know as I can reach them now. They've gone to the
+bottom, they're so afraid." Nearly a foot down he had to squeeze, but at
+last got hold of one bird and brought it out. "Drop him down," I cried,
+"I'll catch him," and held up my hands. The little bird came fluttering
+through the air. The second bird clung frightened to the boy's coat,
+but he loosened its claws and dropped it down to me. What would the
+poor old mother woodpecker have thought had she seen these first flights
+of her nestlings!
+
+I hurried the little scared brothers under my jacket, my best substitute
+for a hollow tree, and called _chuck'-ah_ to them in the most
+woodpecker-like tones I could muster. Then the boy shouldered the
+ladder, and I took the carving-knife, and we trudged home triumphant; we
+had rescued the little prisoners from the tower!
+
+When we had taken them into the house the woodpeckers called out, and
+the cats looked up so savagely that I asked the boy to take the birds
+home to his sister to keep till they were able to care for themselves.
+On examining them I understood what the difference in their voices had
+meant. One of them poked his head out of the opening in my jacket where
+he was riding, while the other kept hidden away in the dark; and when
+they were put into my cap for the boy to carry home, the one with the
+weak voice disclosed a whitish bill--a bad sign with a bird--and its
+feeble head bent under it so weakly that I was afraid it would die.
+
+Three days later, when I went up to the lad's house, it was to be
+greeted by loud cries from the little birds. Though they were in a box
+with a towel over it, they heard all that was going on. Their voices
+were as sharp as their ears, and they screamed at me so imperatively
+that I hurried out to the kitchen and rummaged through the cupboards
+till I found some food for them. They opened their bills and gulped it
+down as if starving, although their guardian told me afterwards that she
+had fed them two or three hours before.
+
+When held up where the air could blow on them, they grew excited; and
+one of them flew down to the floor and hid away in a dark closet,
+sitting there as contentedly as if it reminded him of his tree trunk
+home.
+
+I took the two brothers out into the sitting-room and kept them on my
+lap for some time, watching their interesting ways. The weak one I
+dubbed Jacob, which is the name the people of the valley had given the
+woodpeckers from the sound of their cries; the stronger bird I called
+Bairdi, as 'short' for _Melanerpes formicivorus bairdi_--the name the
+ornithologists had given them.
+
+Jacob and Bairdi each had ways of his own. When offered a palm, Bairdi,
+who was quite like 'folks,' was content to sit in it; but Jacob hung
+with his claws clasping a little finger as a true woodpecker should; he
+took the same pose when he sat for his picture. Bairdi often perched in
+my hand, with his bill pointing to the ceiling, probably from his old
+habit of looking up at the door of his nest. Sometimes when Bairdi sat
+in my hand, Jacob would swing himself up from my little finger, coming
+bill to bill with his brother, when the small bird would open his mouth
+as he used to for his mother to feed him. Poor little orphans, they
+could not get used to their changed conditions!
+
+They did other droll things just as their fathers had done before them.
+They used to screw their heads around owl fashion, a very convenient
+thing for wild birds who cling to tree trunks and yet need to know what
+is going on behind their backs. Once, on hearing a sudden noise, one of
+them ducked low and drew his head in between his shoulders in such a
+comical way we all laughed at him.
+
+I often went up to the ranch to visit them. We would take them out under
+a big spreading oak beside the house, where the little girl's mother sat
+with her sewing, and then watch the birds as we talked. When we put them
+on the tree trunk, at first they did not know what to do, but soon they
+scrambled up on the branches so fast their guardian had to climb up
+after them for fear they would get away. Poor little Jacob climbed as if
+afraid of falling off, taking short hops up the side of the tree,
+bending his stiff tail at a sharp angle under him to brace himself
+against the bark. Bairdi, his strong brother, was less nervous, and
+found courage to catch ants on the bark. Jacob did a pretty thing one
+day. When put on the oak, he crept into a crack of the bark and lay
+there fluffed up against its sides with the sun slanting across,
+lighting up his pretty red cap. He looked so contented and happy it was
+a pleasure to watch him. Another time he started to climb up on top of
+my head and, I dare say, was surprised and disappointed when what he had
+taken for a tree trunk came to an untimely end. When we put the brothers
+on the grass, one of them went over the ground with long hops, while the
+other hid under the rocking-chair. One bird seemed possessed to sit on
+the white apron worn by the little girl's mother, flying over to it from
+my lap, again and again.
+
+The woodpeckers had brought from the nest a liking for dark, protected
+places. Bairdi twice clambered up my hair and hung close under the brim
+of my black straw hat. Another time he climbed up my dress to my black
+tie and, fastening his claws in the silk, clung with his head in the
+dark folds as if he liked the shade. I covered the pretty pet with my
+hand and he seemed to enjoy it. When I first looked down at him his eyes
+were open, though he kept very still; but soon his head dropped on my
+breast and he went fast asleep, and would have had a good nap if Jacob
+had not called and waked him up.
+
+Jacob improved so much after the first few days--and some doses of red
+pepper--that we had to look twice to tell him from his sturdy brother.
+He certainly ate enough to make him grow. The birds liked best to be
+fed with a spoon; probably it seemed more like a bill. After a little,
+they learned to peck at their food, a sign I hailed eagerly as
+indicative of future self-support; for with appetites of day laborers
+and no one to supply their wants, they would have suffered sorely, poor
+little orphans! Sometimes, when they had satisfied their first hunger,
+they would shake the bread from their bills as if they didn't like it
+and wanted food they were used to.
+
+[Illustration: JACOB AND BAIRDI VISITING THE OLD NEST TREE]
+
+When one got hungry he would call out, and then his brother would begin
+to shout. The little tots gave a crooning gentle note when caressed, and
+a soft cry when they snuggled down in our hands or cuddled up to us as
+they had done under their mother's wing. Their call for food was a
+sibilant chirr, and they gave it much oftener than any of the grown-up
+woodpecker notes. But they also said _chuck'-ah_ and rattled like the
+old birds.
+
+I was glad there were two of them so they would not be so lonely. If
+separated they showed their interest in each other. If Bairdi called,
+Jacob would keep still and listen attentively, raising his topknot till
+every microscopic red feather stood up like a bristle, when he would
+answer Bairdi in a loud manly voice.
+
+It was amusing to see the small birds try to plume themselves. Sometimes
+they would take a sudden start to make their toilettes, and both work
+away vigorously upon their plumes. It was comical to see them try to
+find their oil glands. Had the old birds taught them how to oil their
+feathers while they were still in the nest? They were thickly feathered,
+but when they reached back to their tails the pink skin showed between
+their spines and shoulders, giving a good idea of the way birds'
+feathers grow only in tracts.
+
+When the little princes were about a month old, I arranged with a
+neighboring photographer to have them sit for their picture. He drove
+over to the sycamore, and the lad who had rescued the prisoners took
+them down to keep their appointment. One of them tried to tuck its head
+up the boy's sleeve, being attracted by dark holes. While we were
+waiting for the photographer, the boy put Jacob in a hollow of the tree,
+where he began pecking as if he liked it. He worked away till he
+squeezed himself into a small pocket, and then, with his feathers
+ruffled up, sat there, the picture of content. Indeed, the little fellow
+looked more at home than I had ever seen him anywhere. The rescuer was
+itching to put the little princes back in their hole, to see what they
+would do, but I wouldn't listen to it, being thankful to have gotten
+them out once.
+
+When Bairdi was on the bark and Jacob was put below him, he turned his
+head, raised his red cap, and looked down at his brother in a very
+winning way.
+
+Soon the photographer came, and asked, "Are these the little chaps that
+try to swallow your fingers?" We were afraid they would not sit still
+enough to get good likenesses, but we had taken the precaution to give
+them a hearty breakfast just before starting, and they were too sleepy
+to move much. In the picture, Jacob is clinging to the boy's hand in his
+favorite way, and Bairdi is on the tree trunk.
+
+Mountain Billy pricked up his ears when he discovered the woodpeckers
+down at the sycamore, but he often saw them up at the ranch and took me
+to make a farewell call on them before I left for the East. We found the
+birds perched on the tobacco-tree in front of the ranch-house, with a
+tall step-ladder beside it so the little girl could take them in at
+night. Their cup of bread and milk stood on the ladder, and when I
+called them they came over to be fed. They were both so strong and well
+that they would soon be able to care for themselves, as their fathers
+had done before them. And when they were ready to fly, they might have
+help; for an old woodpecker of their family--possibly an unknown
+uncle--had been seen watching them from the top of a neighboring oak,
+and may have been just waiting to adopt the little orphans. In any case,
+however they were to start out in the world, it was a great satisfaction
+to have rescued them from their prison tower.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[3] The difference in the dress of the woodpeckers is so slight that the
+sexes were not distinguished at this nest.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+HINTS BY THE WAY.
+
+
+ON our way back and forth along the line of oaks and sycamores belonging
+to the little prisoners, the little lover, and the gnatcatchers,
+Mountain Billy and I got a good many hints, he of places to graze, and I
+of new nests to watch.
+
+While waiting for the woodpeckers one day I saw a small brownish bird
+flying busily back and forth to some green weeds. She was joined by her
+mate, a handsome blue lazuli bunting, even more beautiful than our
+lovely indigo bunting, and he flew beside her full of life and joy. He
+lit on the side of a cockle stem, and on the instant caught sight of me.
+Alas! he seemed suddenly turned to stone. He held onto that stalk as if
+his little legs had been bars of iron and I a devouring monster. When he
+had collected his wits enough to fly off, instead of the careless gay
+flight with which he had come out through the open air, he timidly kept
+low within the cockle field, making a circuitous way through the high
+stalks.
+
+He could be afraid of me if he liked, I thought,--for after a certain
+amount of suspicion an innocent person gets resentful; at any rate, I
+was going to see that nest. Creeping up cautiously when the mother bird
+was away, so as not to scare her, and carefully parting the mallows, I
+looked in. Yes, there it was, a beautiful little sage-green nest of old
+grass laid in a coil. I felt as pleased as if having a right to share
+the family happiness.
+
+After that I watched the small worker gather material with new interest,
+knowing where she was going to put it. She worked fast, but did not take
+the first thing she found, by any means. With a flit of the wing she
+went in nervous haste from cockle to cockle, looking eagerly about her.
+Jumping down to the ground, she picked up a bit of grass, threw it down
+dissatisfied, and turned away like a person looking for something. At
+last she lit on the side of a thistle, and tweaking out a fibre flew
+with it to the nest.
+
+When the house was done, one morning in passing I leaned down from the
+saddle, and through the weeds saw her brown wings as she sat on the
+nest. A month after the first encounter with the father lazuli, I found
+him looking at me around the corner of a cockle stalk, and in passing
+back again caught him singing full tilt, though his bill was full of
+insects! After we had turned our backs, I looked over my shoulder and
+had the satisfaction of seeing him take his beakful to the nest. You
+couldn't help admiring him, for though not a warrior who would snap his
+bill over the head of an enemy of his home, he had a gallant holiday air
+with his blue coat and merry song, and you felt sure his little brown
+mate would get cheer and courage enough from his presence to make family
+dangers appear less frightful. Even this casual acquaintance with the
+little pair gave me a new and tender interest in all of their name I
+might know in future.
+
+While watching the lazulis from the sycamores, on looking up on a level
+with Billy's ears, I discovered a snug canopied nest held by a jointed
+branch of the twisted tree, as in the palm of your hand. It was as if
+the old sycamore were protecting the little brood, holding it secure
+from all dangers. Looking at the nest, I spied a brown tail resting
+against the limb, and then a small brown head was raised to look at me
+from between the leaves. It was the little bird whose sweet home-like
+song had so cheered my heart in this far-away land, the home song
+sparrow, dearer than all the birds of California. It was such a pleasure
+to find her that I sat in the saddle and talked to the pretty bird while
+she brooded her eggs under the green leaves.
+
+The next time we went down to the sycamore the bird was away, and it
+seemed as if the tree had been deserted. It was empty and uninteresting.
+Again I came, and this time the father song sparrow sang blithely in
+the old tree, while his gentle mate went about looking for food for her
+brood. Her little birds had come! How happy and full of business she
+seemed! She ran nimbly over the ground, weaving in and out between the
+stalks of the oats and the yellow mustard, as if there were paths in her
+forest. When she had to run across the sand bed, out in open sight, she
+put up her tail, held her wings tight at her sides, and scudded across.
+Then with the sunlight through the leaves dappling her back, she ran
+around the foot of the sycamore. She had something in her bill, and with
+a happy chirp was off to her brood.
+
+There was another family abroad on our beat. When riding past the little
+lover's, I heard voices of young birds beyond, and rode out to the oak
+in the middle of the field from which they came, to see who it was. It
+was a surprise to find a family of full-fledged blue jays--a surprise,
+because the jays had been terrorizing the small birds of the
+neighborhood till it seemed strange to think they had any family life
+themselves. I had come to feel that they were great hobgoblins going
+about seeking whom they could devour; but such harsh judgments are
+usually false, whether of birds or beasts, and I was convinced against
+my will on hearing the tender tone in which the old jays called to their
+young.
+
+To be sure, they were imperative in their commands. As I rode, around
+the tree, one of them looked at me sharply and proceeded to take
+measures to protect his brood. When one of the children told me where he
+was, his parent promptly flew over and shouted in his ear, "Be quiet!"
+with such a ring of command that an unbroken hush followed. Moreover,
+when one child, probably a greedy one, teased for food, its parent ran
+down the branch to drive it off; and in some way best known to
+themselves the old birds hushed up the boisterous young ones and
+spirited them out of my sight. But all these things were in line with
+good family government and the best interests of the children, and were
+more than atoned for by the soft gentle notes the old birds used when
+they were leading around their cherished brood out of harm's way.
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+AROUND OUR RANCH-HOUSE.
+
+
+CLOSE up under the hills, the old vine-covered ranch-house stood within
+a circle of great spreading live oaks. The trees were full of noisy,
+active blackbirds--Brewer's blackbirds, relatives of the rusty that we
+know in New York. The ranchman told me that they always came up the
+valley from the vineyard to begin gathering straws for their nests on
+his brother's birthday, the twenty-fifth of March. After that time it
+was well for passers below to beware. If an unwary cat, or even a hen or
+turkey gobbler, chanced under the blackbirds' tree, half a dozen birds
+would dive down at it, screaming and scolding till the intruders beat an
+humble retreat. But the blackbirds were not always the aggressors. I
+heard a great outcry from them one day, and ran out to find them
+collecting at the tree in front of the house. A moment later a hawk flew
+off with a young nestling, and was followed by an angry black mob.
+
+One pair of the blackbirds nested in the oak by the side of the house,
+over the hammock. Though making themselves so perfectly at home on the
+premises, driving off the ranchman's cats and gobblers, and drinking
+from his watering-trough, if they were taken at close quarters, with
+young in their nests, the noisy birds were astonishingly timid. One
+could hardly understand it in them.
+
+One afternoon I sat down under the tree to watch them. Mountain Billy
+rested his bridle on my knee, and the ranchman's dog came out to join
+us; but the mother blackbird, though she came with food in her bill and
+started to walk down the branch over our heads, stopped short of the
+nest when her eye fell on us. She shook her tail and called _chack_, and
+her mate, who sat near, opened wide his bill and whistled _chee_. The
+small birds were hungry and grew impatient, seeing no cause for delay,
+so raised their three fuzzy heads above the edge of the nest and sent
+imperative calls out of their three empty throats. As the parents did
+not answer the summons, the young dozed off again, but when the old ones
+did get courage to light near the nest there was such a rousing chorus
+that they flew off alarmed for the safety of their clamorous brood.
+After that outbreak, it seemed as if the mother bird would never go back
+to her children; but finally she came to the tree and, after edging
+along falteringly, lit on a branch above them. The instant she touched
+foot, however, she was seized with nervous qualms and turned round and
+round, spreading her tail fan-fashion, as if distracted.
+
+To my surprise, it was the father bird who first went to the nest,
+though he had the wit to go to it from the outside of the tree, where he
+was less exposed to my dangerous glance. I wondered whether it was
+mother love that kept her from the nest when he ventured, or merely a
+case of masculine common-sense versus nerves. How birds could imagine
+more harm would be done by going to the nest than by making such a fuss
+five feet away from it was a poser to me. Perhaps they attribute the
+same intelligence to us that some of us do to them!
+
+While the blackbirds were making such a time over our heads, I watched
+the hummingbirds buzzing around the petunias and pink roses under the
+ranch-house windows, and darting off to flutter about the tubular
+flowers of the tobacco-tree by the well. One day the small boy of the
+family climbed up to the hummingbird's nest in the oak "to see if there
+were eggs yet," and the frightened brood popped out before his eyes. His
+sister caught one of them and brought it into the house. When she held
+it up by the open door the tiny creature spread its little wings and
+flew out into the vines over the window. The child was so afraid its
+mother would not find it she carried it back to its oak and watched till
+the mother came with food. The hummers were about the flowers in front
+of the windows so much that when the front door was left open they often
+came into the room.
+
+In an oak behind the barn I found a hummingbird's nest, and, yielding to
+temptation, took out the eggs to look at them. In putting them back one
+slipped and dropped on the hard ground, cracking the delicate pink shell
+as it fell. The egg was nearly ready to hatch, and I felt as guilty as
+if having killed a hummingbird.
+
+[Illustration: Arizona Hooded Oriole.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+[Illustration: Baltimore Oriole--Eastern.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+When in the hammock under the oak one day, I saw a pair of the
+odd-looking Arizona hooded orioles busily going and coming to a drooping
+branch on the edge of the tree. They had a great deal to talk about as
+they went and came, and when they had gone I found, to my great
+satisfaction, that they had begun a nest. They often use the gray
+Spanish moss, but here had found a good substitute in the orange-colored
+parasitic vine of the meadows known among the people of the valley as
+the 'love-vine' (dodder). The whole pocket was composed of it, making a
+very gaudy nest.
+
+Linnets nested in the same old tree. Indeed, it is hard to say where
+these pretty rosy house finches, cousins of our purple finches, would
+not take it into their heads to build. They nested over the front door,
+in the vines over the windows, in the oaks and about the outbuildings,
+and their happy musical songs rang around the ranch-house from morning
+till night. As I listened to their merry roundelay day after day during
+that beautiful California spring, it sounded to me as though they said,
+"_How-pretty-it-is'-out, how-pretty-it-is'-out, how-pretty-it-is'!_" The
+linnets are ardent little wooers, singing and dancing before the
+indifferent birds they would win for their mates. I once saw a rosy
+lover throw back his pretty head and hop about before his brown lady
+till she was out of patience and turned her back on him. When that had
+no effect, she opened her bill, spread her wings, and leaned toward him
+as if saying, "If you don't stop your nonsense, I'll----" But the fond
+linnets' gallantry and tenderness are not all spent in the wooing. When
+the mother bird was brooding her nest over our front door, her
+crimson-throated mate stood on the peak of the ridgepole above and sang
+blithely to her, turning his head and looking down every little while to
+make sure that she was listening to his pretty prattle.
+
+One of the birds that nested in the trees by the ranch-house was the
+bee-bird, who was soft gray above and delicate yellow below, instead of
+dark gray above and shining white below, like his eastern relative, the
+kingbird. The birds used to perch on the bare oak limbs, flycatching. It
+was interesting to watch them. They would fly obliquely into the air and
+then turn, with bills bristling with insects, and sail down on
+outstretched wings, their square tails set so that the white outer
+feathers showed to as good advantage as the white border of the
+kingbird's does in similar flights. They made a bulky untidy nest in the
+oaks by the barn, using a quantity of string borrowed from the ranchman.
+Their voices were high-keyed and shrill with an impatient emphasis, and
+at a distance suggested the shrill yelping of the coyote. _Kee'-ah,
+kee-kee' kee'-ah_, they would cry. The wolves were so often heard around
+the ranch-house that in the early morning I have sometimes mistaken the
+birds for them.
+
+One of the favorite hunting-grounds of the bee-birds was the orchard,
+where they must have done a great deal of good destroying insects. They
+were quarrelsome birds, and were often seen falling through the air
+fighting vigorously. I saw one chase a sparrow hawk and press it so hard
+that the hawk cried out lustily. The ranchman's son told me of one
+bee-bird who defended his nest with his life. Two crows lit in a tree
+where the flycatcher had a nest containing eggs. The crows had
+difficulty in getting to the tree to begin with, for the bee-birds
+fought them off; and though they lighted, were soon dislodged and chased
+down the vineyard. The man was at work there, and as the procession
+passed over his head the bee-bird dove at the crow; the crow struck back
+at him, crushing his skull, and the flycatcher dropped through the air,
+dead! The other bee-bird followed its dead mate to the ground, and then,
+without a cry, flew to a tree and let the crows go on their way.
+
+The bee-bird was one of the noisiest birds about the ranch-house, but
+commoner than he; in fact, the most abundant bird, next to the linnet
+and blackbird, was the California chewink, or, as the ranchman
+appropriately called him, the 'brown chippie;' for he does not look like
+the handsome chewink we know, but is a fat, dun brown bird with a thin
+_chip_ that he utters on all occasions. He is about the size of the
+eastern robin, and, except when nesting, almost as familiar. There were
+brown chippies in the door-yard, brown chippies around the barns, and
+brown chippies in the brush till one got tired of the sight of them.
+
+The temptations that come to conscientious observers are common to
+humanity, and one of the subtlest is to undervalue what is at hand and
+overvalue the rare or distant. Unless a bird is peculiarly interesting,
+it requires a definite effort to sit down and study him in your own
+dooryard, or where he is so common as to be an every-day matter. The
+chippies were always sitting around, scratching, or picking up seeds; or
+else quarreling among themselves. Feeling that it was my duty to watch
+them, I reasoned with myself, but they seemed so mortally dull and
+uninteresting it was hard work to give up any time to them. When they
+went to nesting, their wild instincts asserted themselves, and they hid
+away so closely I was never sure of but one of their nests, and that
+only by most cautious watching. Then for the first time they became
+interesting! To my surprise, one day I heard a brown chippie lift up his
+voice and sing. It was in a sunny grove of oaks, and though his song was
+a queer squeaky warble, it had in it a good deal of sweetness and
+contentment; for the bird seemed to find life very pleasant. The
+ranchman's son told me that up in the canyons at dusk he had sometimes
+heard towhee concerts, the birds answering each other from different
+parts of the canyon.
+
+[Illustration: California Chewink.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+[Illustration: Eastern Chewink.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+There was a nest in the chaparral which probably belonged to these
+chewinks. It was in a mass of poison ivy that had climbed up on a
+scrub-oak. I spent the best part of a morning waiting for the birds to
+give in their evidence. Brown sentinels were posted on high bare brush
+tops, where they chipped at me, and once a brown form flew swiftly away
+from the nest bush; but like most people whose conversation is limited
+to monosyllables, the towhees are good at keeping a secret. While
+watching for them, I heard a noise that suggested angry cats spitting at
+each other; and three jack-rabbits came racing down the
+chaparral-covered knoll. One of them shot off at a tangent while the
+other two trotted along the openings in the brush as if their trails
+were roads in a park. Then a cottontail rabbit came out on a spot of
+hard yellow earth encircled by bushes, and lying down on its side kicked
+up its heels and rolled like a horse; after which the pretty thing
+stretched itself full length on the ground to rest, showing a pink light
+in its ears. After a while it got up, scratched one ear, and with a kick
+of one little furry leg ran off in the brush. Another day, when I sat
+waiting, I saw a jack-rabbit's ears coming through the brush. He trotted
+up within a few feet, when he stopped, facing me with head and ears up;
+a noble-looking little animal, reminding me of a deer with antlers
+branching back. He stood looking at me, not knowing whether to be
+afraid or not, and turning one ear trumpet and then the other. But
+though smiling at him, I was a human being, there was no getting around
+that; and after a few undecided hops, this way and that, he ran off and
+disappeared in the brush. Near where he had been was a spot where a
+number of rabbit runways came to a centre, and around it the rabbit
+council had been sitting in a circle, their footprints proved.
+
+Brown chippies were not much commoner around the ranch-house than
+western house wrens were, but the big prosaic brown birds seemed much
+more commonplace. The wrens were strongly individual and winning
+wherever they were met. They nested in all sorts of odd nooks and
+corners about the buildings. One went so far as to take up its abode in
+the wire-screened refrigerator that stood outside the kitchen under an
+oak! Another pair stowed their nest away in an old nosebag hanging on a
+peg in the wine shed; while a third lived in one of the old grape crates
+piled up in the raisin shed.
+
+The crate nest was delightful to watch. The jolly little birds, with
+tails over their backs and wings hanging, would sing and work close
+beside me, only three or four feet away. They would look up at me with
+their frank fearless eyes and then squeeze down through their crack into
+the crate, and sit and scold inside it--such an amusing muffled little
+scold! The nest was so astonishingly large I was interested to measure
+it. Twigs were strewn loosely over one end of the box, covering a square
+nearly sixteen inches on a side. The compact high body of the nest
+measured eight by ten inches, and came so near the top of the crate that
+the birds could just creep in under the slats. Some of the twigs were
+ten inches long, regular broom handles in the bills of the short bobbing
+wrens. One of the birds once appeared with a twig as long as itself. It
+flew to the side of a beam with it, at sight of me, and stood there
+balancing the stick in its bill, in pretty fashion. Another time it flew
+to the peak of the shed to examine an old swallow's nest now occupied by
+linnets, and amused itself throwing down its neighbors' straws--the
+naughty little rogue!
+
+Such jolly songsters! They were fairly bubbling over with happiness all
+the time. They had an old stub in front of the shed that might well have
+been called the singing stub, for they kept it ringing with music when
+they were not running on inside the shed. They seemed to warble as
+easily as most birds breathe; in fact, song seemed a necessity to them.
+There was a high pole in front of the shed, and one day I found my
+ebullient little friend squatting on top to hold himself on while he
+sang out at the top of his lungs! Another time I came face to face with
+a pair when the songster was in the midst of his roundelay. He stopped
+short, bobbed nervously from side to side, and then, rising to his feet
+and putting his right foot forward with a pretty courageous gesture,
+took up his song again. When the pair were building in the crate, I
+stuck some white hen's feathers there, thinking they might like to use
+them. Mr. Troglodytes came first, and seeing them, instead of turning
+tail as I have known brave guardians of the nest to do, burst out
+singing, as if it were a huge joke. Then he hopped down on the rim of
+the box to scrutinize the plumes, after which he flew out. But he had to
+stop to sing atilt of an elder stem before he could go on to tell his
+spouse about them.
+
+One day, when riding back to the ranch, I saw half a dozen turkey
+buzzards soaring over the meadow--perhaps there was a dead jack-rabbit
+in the field. It was astonishing to see how soon the birds would
+discover small carrion from their great height. The ranchman never
+thought of burying anything, they were such good scavengers. A few hours
+after an animal was thrown out in the field the vultures would find it.
+They would stand on the body and pull it to pieces in the most revolting
+way. The ranchman told me he had seen them circle over a pair of
+fighting snakes, waiting to devour the one that was injured. They were
+grotesque birds. I often saw them walk with their wings held out at
+their sides as if cooling themselves, and the unbird-like attitude
+together with the horrid appearance of their red skinny heads made them
+seem more like harpies than before.
+
+They were most interesting at a distance. I once saw three of them
+standing like black images on a granite bowlder, on top of a hill
+overlooking the valley. After a moment they set out and went circling in
+the sky. Although they flew in a group, it seemed as if the individual
+birds respected one another's lines so as not to cover the same ground.
+Sometimes when soaring they seemed to rest on the air and let themselves
+be borne by the wind; for they wobbled from one side to the other like a
+cork on rough water.
+
+One of the most interesting birds of the valley is the road-runner or
+chaparral cock, a grayish brown bird who stands almost as high as a crow
+and has a tail as long as a magpie's. He is noted for his swiftness of
+foot. Sometimes, when we were driving over the hills, a road-runner
+would start out of the brush on a lonely part of the road and for quite
+a distance keep ahead of the horses, although they trotted freely along.
+When tired of running he would dash off into the brush, where he stopped
+himself by suddenly throwing his long tail over his back. A Texan, in
+talking of the bird, said, "It takes a right peart cur to catch one,"
+and added that when a road-runner is chased he will rise but once, for
+his main reliance is in his running, and he does not trust much to his
+short wings. The chaparral cocks nested in the cactus on our hills, and
+were said to live largely on lizards and horned toads.
+
+[Illustration: Valley Quail and Road-Runner.]
+
+It became evident that a pair of these singular birds had taken up
+quarters in the chaparral on the hillside back of the ranch-house, for
+one of them was often seen with the hens in the dooryard. One day I was
+talking to the ranchman when the road-runner appeared. He paid no
+attention to us, but went straight to the hen-house, apparently to get
+cocoons. Looking between the laths, I could see him at work. He flew up
+on the hen-roosts as if quite at home; he had been there before and knew
+the ways of the house. He even dashed into the peak of the roof and
+brought down the white cocoon balls dangling with cobweb. When he had
+finished his hunt he stood in the doorway, and a pair of blackbirds lit
+on the fence post over his head, looking down at him wonderingly. Was he
+a new kind of hen? He was almost as big as a bantam. They sat and looked
+at him, and he stood and stared at them till all three were satisfied,
+when the blackbirds flew off and the road-runner walked out by the
+kitchen to hunt among the buckets for food.
+
+These curious birds seem to be of an inquiring turn of mind, and
+sometimes their investigations end sadly. The windmills, which are a new
+thing in this dry land, naturally stimulate their curiosity. A small boy
+from the neighboring town--Escondido--told me that he had known four
+road-runners to get drowned in one tank; though he corrected himself
+afterwards by saying, "We fished out _one_ before he got drowned!"
+
+Another lad told me he had seen road-runners in the nesting season call
+for their mates on the hills. He had seen one stand on a bowlder fifteen
+feet high, and after strutting up and down the rock with his tail and
+wings hanging, stop to call, putting his bill down on the rock and going
+through contortions as if pumping out the sound. The lad thought his
+calls were answered from the brush below.
+
+In April the ranchman reported that he had seen dusky poor-wills,
+relatives of our whip-poor-wills, out flycatching on the road beyond the
+ranch-house after dark. He had seen as many as eight or nine at once,
+and they had let him come within three feet of them. Accordingly, one
+night right after tea I started out to see them. The poor-wills choose
+the most beautiful part of the twenty-four hours for their activity.
+When I went out, the sky above the dark wall of the valley was a quiet
+greenish yellow, and the rosy light was fading in the north at the head
+of the canyon. White masses of fog pushed in from the ocean. Then the
+constellations dawned and brightened till the evening star shone out in
+her full radiant beauty. Locusts and crickets droned; bats zigzagged
+overhead; and suddenly from the dusty road some black objects started
+up, fluttered low over the barley, and dropped back on the road again.
+At the same time came the call of the poor-will, which, close at hand,
+is a soft burring _poor-will, poor-wil'-low_. Two or three hours later
+I went out again. The full moon had risen, and shone down, transforming
+the landscape. The road was a narrow line between silvered fields of
+headed grain, and the granite bowlders gleamed white on the hills
+inclosing the sleeping valley. For a few moments the shrill barking of
+coyote wolves disturbed the stillness; then again the night became
+silent; peace rested upon the valley, and from far up the canyon came
+the faint, sad cry, _poor-wil'-low, poor-wil'-low_.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+POCKET MAKERS.
+
+
+THE bush-tits are cousins of the eastern chickadees, which is reason
+enough for liking them, although the California fruit growers have a
+more substantial reason in the way the birds eat the scale that injures
+the olive-trees. The bush-tits might be the little sisters of the
+chickadee family, they are so small. They look like gray balls with long
+tails attached, for they are plump fluffy tots, no bigger than your
+thumb, without their tails. One of them, when preoccupied, once came
+within three feet of where I stood. When he discovered me a comical look
+of surprise came into his yellow eyes and he went tilting off, for his
+long tail gave him a pitching flight as if he were about to go on his
+bill, a flight that reminds one of the tail that wagged the dog.
+
+[Illustration: Nest of the Bush-tit.]
+
+There were so many of the gray pocket nests in the oaks that it was hard
+to choose which to watch, but one of the most interesting hung from a
+branch of the big double oak of the gnatcatchers, above the ranch-house,
+where I could see it when sitting in the crotch of the tree. While
+watching it I looked beyond over the chaparral wall away to a dark
+purple peak standing against a sky flecked with sun-whitened clouds. The
+nest was like an oriole's, but nearly twice as long, though the builders
+were less than half the size of the orioles. Instead of being open at
+the top, it was roofed over, and the only entrance was a small round
+hole, the girth of the bird, about two inches under the roof.
+
+One might imagine that such big houses would be dark with only one small
+dormer window, and the valley children assured me that the birds hung
+living firefly lamps on their walls! I suggested that a Society for the
+Prevention of Cruelty to Fireflies would be needed if that were the
+case; but when it comes to that, what bird would choose to brood by
+gaslight?
+
+When I first saw the bush-tit in its round doorway, it suggested Jack
+Horner's famous plum, comical little ball of feathers! When first
+watching the nest the small pair put me on their list of enemies, along
+with small boys, blue jays, and owls. To go down into the pocket under
+my stare seemed a terrible thing. When one of them came with a bit of
+moss for lining, it started for the front door, saw me, stopped, and
+turned to go to the back of the nest. Then it tried to get up courage to
+approach the house from the side, got in a panic and dashed against the
+wall as if expecting a door would open for it. When at last it did make
+bold to dart into the nest it was struck with terror, and, whisking
+around, jabbed the moss into the outside wall and fled!
+
+Seeing that nothing awful happened, the birds finally took me off the
+black list and allowed me to oversee their work, as long as I gave no
+directions. Sometimes both little tots went down into the bag to work
+together; surely there was plenty of room for many such as they. But it
+is not always a matter of cubic inches, and one morning when the second
+bird was about to pop in, apparently it was advised to wait a minute.
+There was no ill feeling, though, for when the small builder came out it
+flew to the twig in front of the door, where its mate was waiting, and
+sat down beside it, a little Darby by his Joan.
+
+They worked busily. Sometimes they popped in only to pop out again; at
+other times they stayed inside as long as if they had been human
+housekeepers, hanging pictures, straightening chairs, and setting their
+bric-a-brac in order for the fortieth time; each change requiring mature
+deliberation.
+
+One morning--after the birds had been putting in lining long enough to
+have wadded half a dozen nests--if my judgment is of any value in such
+matters--I discovered that the roof was falling in; it was almost on top
+of the front door! The next day, to my dismay, the door had vanished.
+What was the trouble? Were the pretty pair young builders; was this
+their first nest, and had they paid more attention to decorating their
+house inside than to laying strong foundations; or had their pocket been
+too heavy for its frame?
+
+However it came about, the wise birds concluded that they would not
+waste time crying over spilt milk. They calmly went to work to tear the
+first nest to pieces and build a second one out of it. One of them
+tweaked out its board with such a jerk it sent the pocket swinging like
+a pendulum. But the next time it wisely planted its claw firmly to
+steady itself, while it cautiously pulled the material out with its
+bill.
+
+If the birds were inexperienced, they were bright enough to profit by
+experience. This time they hung their nest between the forks of a strong
+twig which had a cross twig to support the roof, so that the accident
+that had befallen them could not possibly occur again. They began work
+at the top, holding onto the twig with their claws and swinging
+themselves down inside to put in their material; and they moulded and
+shaped the pocket as they went along.
+
+After watching the progress of the new nest, I went to see what had
+become of the old one. It was on the ground. On taking it home and
+pulling it to pieces, I found that the wall was from half an inch to an
+inch thick, made of fine gray moss and oak blossoms. There was a thick
+wadding of feathers inside. I counted _three hundred_, and there were a
+great many more! The amount of hard labor this stood for amazed me. No
+wonder the nest pulled down, with a whole feather-bed inside! Why had
+they put it in? I asked some children, and one said, "To keep the eggs
+warm, I guess;" while the other suggested, "So the eggs wouldn't break."
+Most of the feathers were small, but there must have been several dozen
+chicken's feathers from two to three inches long. Among them was a plume
+of an owl.
+
+[Illustration: POCKET NEST IN AN OAK]
+
+Much to my surprise, in the bush-tit's nest there was a broken eggshell.
+Had the egg broken in falling, or had a snake been there? One of the
+boys of the valley told me about seeing a racer snake go into a
+bush-tit's pocket. The cries of the birds rallied several other pairs,
+and they all flew about in distress, though not one of them dared touch
+the dreadful tail that hung out of the nest hole. As the snake was about
+three feet long, the pocket bulged as it moved around inside. There were
+four nestlings about a quarter grown, and the relentless creature
+devoured them all. The boy waited below with a stick, and when it came
+out, killed it and shook it by the tail till the small birds popped out
+of its mouth. If my broken eggshell pointed to any such tragedy, it
+cleared the birds of the accusation of being poor builders.
+
+The nest, which the first day was a filmy spot in the leaves, by the
+next day had become a gray pocket over eight inches long, although I
+could still see daylight through it. In working, the birds flew to the
+top of the open bag and hopped down inside. I could see the pocket shake
+and bulge as they worked within. When they flew away to any distance,
+on their return they almost always came with their little call of
+_schrit, schrit_.
+
+This nest was so low that I used to throw myself on the sand beneath the
+tree to watch it, taking many a sunbath there, with hat drawn down till
+I could just see the nest in the pendent branches, and watch the
+changing mosaics made by the sky through the moving leaves. When resting
+on the sand the thought of rattlesnakes came to me, for the brush on
+either side was a shelter for them, and they might easily have crept up
+beside me without my hearing them.
+
+The second bush-tit's nest was shorter than the first one. Perhaps the
+builders thought the length had something to do with the fall of the
+first; or perhaps they didn't feel like collecting three hundred more
+feathers, with oak blossoms and moss to match. They first put the frame
+of the front door below the supporting cross twig, and then, as if they
+thought it needed more support, changed it and put the door above the
+twig, so that the roof could not possibly close the hole, even if it did
+fall in. The doorway was also made much larger than that of the first
+nest.
+
+After making away with the old nest, my conscience smote me. Perhaps the
+little pocket makers were not through with it, even if it was on the
+ground; so I brought a piece of it back and tied it with a grass stem to
+a twig below the nest they were at work on, to save them as much
+trouble as might be. When my bird came, her bright eyes were quick to
+espy the old nest. She looked around, bewildered, as if wondering
+whether she was really awake, and making sure that this strange looking
+affair were not her second nest, come to grief in her absence. Being
+reassured by her examination, she came back and hopped from twig to twig
+inspecting the old piece of nest. At last she caught sight of a feather.
+That, apparently, was just what she wanted. She quickly flew over,
+pulled out the white plume, and went straight to the new house with it!
+
+I was not able to watch any of my bush-tits through the season, that
+year, but five years later, when again in southern California, to my
+delight I found the tits building in almost the same tree where they had
+been before.
+
+One day an interesting brood was out in the brush, and I took notes on
+their proceedings: "A family of young were abroad this morning filling
+the leaves with their little moving forms, and the air with their
+fledgling cry of _schrit_. As nearly as I could judge, there were ten in
+the family--eight young tagging after two old birds. While I watched, a
+droll thing happened, proving that a family of eight may affect a
+parent's breakfast as well as his nerves. One of the family, which I
+took to be the father bird, had some goody in his bill, and one of the
+young, presumably, followed him for it, flying up on his twig. The old
+bird turned his back upon the little one and went on shaking the grub.
+Presently a second one flew down on the other side of him,--he was
+between two fires; they touched him on both sides. I watched with
+interest to see what he would do about it, and was much amused when he
+opened his wings and flew up over their heads out of reach! Would he
+come back to feed them after his food was properly prepared? No,--he sat
+up on the branch and ate the morsel himself! I was rather shocked by
+such a deliberate proceeding, but then it occurred to me that parent
+birds have to take a bite themselves once in a while; though of course
+their business is to feed the children!"
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+THE BIG SYCAMORE.
+
+
+BEFORE going home from my morning sessions with the little lover and
+other feathered friends, I often took a gallop at the foot of the hills
+to visit a gigantic old tree, the king of the valley. One such ride is
+especially marked in my memory. It was on one of California's most
+perfect mornings. When the sun had risen over the valley, the fog
+dissolved before it, sinking away until only small white clouds were
+left in the tender blue of the notches between the red hills; while the
+bared vault overhead had that pure, deep, satisfying color peculiar to
+fog-cleared skies; and the cool fresh air was full of exhilaration. It
+put Mountain Billy so in tune with the morning that, when I chirrupped
+to him, shaking the reins on his neck, he quickly broke into a lope and
+his ringing hoofs beat time to my song as we sped down the valley, past
+vineyards and orchards and yellow fields of ripening grain. The free
+swift motion was a delight in itself, and after days and weeks given to
+the details of nest-making, shut away from the world in our little
+remote valley at the foot of the mountains, now, when we came to a
+break in the hills and our nostrils were greeted by the cool salt breeze
+coming from the Pacific, suddenly the whole horizon broadened; the
+inclosing valley walls were overlooked; we were galloping under the high
+arching heavens in a wind blowing from far over the wide ocean.
+
+Here stood the great sycamore, with branches swaying; for the tree faced
+this break in the hills. It seemed as if the old monarch, with roots
+firmly planted, had battled for its ground; and now, as a conqueror,
+stood with arms uplifted to meet the ocean gales. I had never before
+appreciated the dignity of those straight upreared shafts, the vital
+strength of those deep grappling roots, the mighty grandeur of this old
+battle king.
+
+When one of the trunks fell, I had to hunt the sycamore over to find
+where it came from, not missing it in the massive framework that was
+left. The giant measured twenty-three feet and a half in circumference,
+three feet from the ground. Its enormous branches stretched out
+horizontally so far that, between the body of the tree and the tips that
+hung to the earth, there was a wide corridor where one could promenade
+on horseback. In fact, the tree spanned, from the tip of one branch to
+the tip of the other, one hundred and fifty-eight feet. In the
+photograph, the figure of a person is almost lost in the complicated
+network of the frame of the tree. The treetop was a grove in itself. A
+flock of blackbirds flying up into it was lost among the branches.
+
+[Illustration: THE BIG SYCAMORE]
+
+The ranchman knew the sycamore as the 'swallow tree,' because in former
+years, before the valley was settled, swallows that have since taken to
+barns built there. Between three and four hundred of them plastered
+their nests on the underside of the big limbs, about half way up the
+tree, where the bark was rough. They built so close together that the
+nests made a solid mass of mud. For several seasons, it was said, "they
+had bad luck." They began building before the rainy season was over, and
+all but a few dozen nests which were in especially protected places were
+swept away. The number of nests was so enormous that the ground was
+covered several inches deep with mud.
+
+Billy used to improve his time by nibbling barley while I watched birds
+in the sycamore corridor. We had not been there long before I discovered
+a bee's nest in the hollow of one of the trunks. The owners were busily
+flying in and out, and a pair of big bee-birds flew down from their nest
+in the treetop and saved themselves trouble by lunching at this
+convenient ground floor restaurant. As I sat on Billy, facing the nest,
+one of the pair swept down over the mouth of the hole, caught a bee and
+settled back on the branch to swallow it. This seemed to be the regular
+performance, and was kept up so continuously, even when we were
+standing close by, that if, as is supposed, the birds eat only drones,
+few but workers would be left in that hive.
+
+The flycatchers seemed well suited to the sycamore; they were birds of
+large ideas and sweeping flights. Their nest was at the top of the tree;
+probably eighty feet from the ground, but when one of them flew down,
+instead of coming a branch at a time, he would set his wings and, giving
+a loud cry,--as a child shouts when pushing off his sled at the top of a
+steep hill,--he would sail obliquely down from the treetop to the foot
+of the hillside beyond. When looking for his material he would hover
+over the field like a ph[oe]be. Then, on returning, unlike the other
+birds who lived in the tree and used the branches as ladders, he would
+start from the ground and with labored flights climb obliquely up the
+air to the treetop. Once his material dangled a foot behind him. The
+birds seemed to enjoy these great flights.
+
+Their nest was not finished, and while one went for material, the
+other--presumably the male--guarded the nest. As there was nothing to
+guard as yet, it often seemed a matter of venting his own spleen! When
+not occupied in arranging his plumes, he would shoot down at every small
+bird that came upstairs; a cowardly proceeding, but perhaps he thought
+it necessary to keep his hand in against meeting bigger boys than he!
+When coming with material, one of the bee-birds got caught in a heavy
+rope of cobweb that dangled from the nest, and had to flutter hard to
+extricate itself. About their nests these birds seemed as home-loving as
+any others. Their domesticity quite surprised me; they had always seemed
+such harsh, scolding, aggressive birds! When one of them sat among the
+green leaves, pluming the soft sulphur yellow feathers of its breast, it
+looked so gentle and attractive that it was a shock when the familiar
+petulant screams again jarred the air. The birds often hunted from the
+fence beyond the sycamore, and flew from post to post with legs
+dangling, shaking their wings as they lit, with a shrill _kit'r'r'r'r'_.
+
+The sycamore was a regular apartment house; so many birds were moving
+among the boughs it was impossible to tell where they all lived. One day
+I found a pair of doves sitting on a sunny branch above me. The one I
+took to be the male sat perched crosswise, while his mate sat facing
+him, lengthwise of the limb. He calmly fluffed out his feathers and
+preened himself, while his meek spouse watched him. She fluttered her
+wings, teasing him to feed her, but he kept on dressing out his plumes.
+Then she edged a little closer, and almost essayed to touch his majesty
+with her pretty blue bill, but he sat with lordly composure quite
+ignoring her existence till a blackbird bustled up, when they both
+started nervously, and turning, sat demurely side by side on the limb,
+the wind tilting their long tails.
+
+A pair of bright orange orioles had a nest in the sycamore, though I
+never should have known it had I not seen them go to it to feed their
+young. It was a well shaded cradle surely, with its canopy of big green
+leaves.
+
+There were a good many hints to be had, first and last. A song sparrow
+appeared and stood on a branch with its tail perked up in a
+business-like way as if it had been feeding a brood. A wren came to the
+tree,--a mere pinch of feathers in the giant sycamore,--and though I
+lost sight of it, many a hollow up in the fourteenth story might have
+afforded a home for the pretty dear without any one's being the wiser,
+unless it were the bee-bird in the attic. A family of bush-tits flew
+about in the sycamore top, looking like pin-heads in a grove of trees. A
+black ph[oe]be sometimes lit on the fence posts under the branches--it
+wanted to find a nesting place about the windmill in the opposite field,
+I felt sure, though a boy had told me that the bird sometimes plastered
+its nest onto the branches of the big tree itself. Besides all the rest,
+rosy linnets and blue lazuli buntings made the old tree ring with their
+musical roundelays.
+
+One day when I rode down to the sycamore, the meadow bordering it was
+full of haycocks, and a rabbit ran out from under one of them,
+frightened by the clatter of Billy's hoofs. That morning the tree was
+fairly alive with blackbirds and doves--what a deafening medley the
+blackbirds made! In the fields near the sycamore flocks of redwings went
+swinging over the tall gleaming mustard. This was a great place for
+blackbirds, for the big tree was on the edge of the one piece of marsh
+land in the valley, and they were quick to take advantage of its reeds
+for nesting places.
+
+The cienaga--as they called the swamp--was used as a pasture. It was
+pleasant to look out upon, from under the branches of the great tree. A
+group of horses stood in the shade of a cluster of oaks on the farther
+side of it, while the cows, a beautiful herd of buff and white
+Guernseys, waded through the swamp grass to drink near the sycamore, and
+the blackbirds wound in and out among them. I had been in a dry land so
+long it was hard to believe there was actual water in the marsh till I
+saw it drip from their chins and heard the sucking sound as they
+laboriously dragged their feet out of the mud--a noise that took me back
+to eastern pastures, but sounded strangely unfamiliar here in this
+rainless land. One of the pretty Guernseys with a white star in her
+forehead strayed up under the tree, and the shadows of the leaves moved
+over her as she raised her sensitive face to see who was there.
+
+The son of the ranchman who owned the dairy--the one who invited me down
+to see the play between his dog Romulus and the burrowing owl--said that
+when herding cows by the sycamore he once caught sight of a coyote wolf.
+He clapped his hands to send his dog, Romulus, after the wolf; and the
+noise frightened the wild creature so that he started to run up the hill
+across the road from the sycamore. Romulus followed hard at his heels
+till they got well up the hillside, when the coyote felt that he was on
+his own ground and turned on the dog, who fled back to his master with
+his tail between his legs. The lad, clapping his hands, set the dog on
+the coyote again, and this animated but bloodless performance was
+repeated and kept up till both were tired out, the animals chasing each
+other back and forth from the sycamore to the hillside with as much
+energy and perhaps as much courage as was displayed by that historic
+king of France who had five thousand men and--
+
+          "... marched them up a hill and then
+           He marched them down again."
+
+On one side of the sycamore was a great wall of weeds higher than my
+head when on horseback; a dense mass of yellow mustard, and fragrant
+wild celery which was covered with delicate white bloom. I saw
+blackbirds carrying material into this thicket, but as I had known of
+neighbors' horses getting bitten by rattlesnakes among the high weeds,
+did not think it worth while to wade around in it much for such common
+birds as they. But one day, seeing a pair of rare blue grosbeaks fly
+down into the tangle, I turned Billy right in after them, though holding
+his head well up in consideration of the snakes. The birds vanished, so
+we stood still to wait. Suddenly I heard a slight sound as of something
+slipping through the weeds at Billy's feet, and looking down saw a snake
+marked like a rattler; and as it slid by Billy's hoof I noticed with
+horror that the end of its tail was blunt--the harmless gopher snake
+that resembles the rattler has a tapering tail! I gazed at it
+spellbound, but in the dim light could not make out whether it had
+rattles or not. I had seen enough, however, and whipping up Billy was
+out of those weeds in a hurry. Safely outside, I looked at my little
+horse remorsefully--what if my desire to see a new nest had been the
+cause of his getting a rattlesnake bite!
+
+The next day when I went down to the sycamore a German was mowing there
+with a pair of mules. He was a typical Rhinelander, with blue eyes and
+long curling hair and beard, and as he drove he sang in a deep rich
+voice one of the beautiful melodies of his fatherland. Screened by the
+branches, I listened quite unmindful of my work till my reverie was
+interrupted by the man's giving a harsh cry to his mules. It was only an
+aside, however, for he dropped back into his song in the same rich
+sympathetic voice.
+
+In riding out from the tree on my way home, I saw that he was mowing
+just where the snake had been, and warned him to be careful lest the
+horses get bitten. At the word rattlesnake his blue eyes dilated, and he
+assured me that he would be on his guard. Seeing my glasses and
+note-book, he asked if I were studying birds. When told that I was, from
+his seat on the mowing-machine he took off his hat and bowed with the
+air of a lord, saying in broken English, "I am pleased to meet you!"--a
+pleasant tribute to the profession. A few days later, on meeting him, he
+asked if I had found the rattlesnake--he had killed it under the
+sycamore and hung it on a branch for me to see.
+
+As the memory of my morning rides down to the sycamore brings to mind
+the wonderful freshness of California's fog-cleared skies, so my sunset
+rides home from the great tree recall the peacefulness of the quiet
+valley at twilight. One sunset stands out with peculiar distinctness. As
+Mountain Billy turned from the sycamore marsh its leaning blades gleamed
+in the evening light, and the sun warmed the sides of the line of buff
+Guernseys wading in procession through the high swamp grass to their
+out-door milking stand. Beyond, a load of hay was crossing the meadows
+with sun on the reins and the pitchforks the men carried over their
+shoulders; and beyond, at the head of the valley, the western canyons
+were filled with golden haze, while the last shafts of yellow light
+loitered over the apricot orchards below, where the tranquil birds were
+singing their evening songs. Slowly the long shadows of the mountain
+crept over orchard and vineyard until, finally, the sun rounded the last
+peak and left our little valley in darkness.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+AMONG MY TENANTS.
+
+
+THE first year I was in California the thought of the orchards that were
+to be set out on my ranch appealed to me much less than what the place
+already possessed. As an inheritance from the stream that came down in
+spring through the Ughland canyon--past the homes of the little lover,
+the gnatcatchers, the little prisoners, and the lazulis and blue
+jays--there was a straggling line of old sycamores, full of birds'
+nests; and a patch of weeds, wild mustard, and willows, which was a
+capital shelter for wandering warblers; and a bright sunny spot always
+ringing with songs.
+
+So many houses were being put up without so much as a by-your-leave that
+it was high time for an ornithological landlady to bestir herself and
+look to her ornithological squatters; so, day after day I turned my
+horse toward the ranch and spent the morning getting acquainted with my
+tenants, riding along the shady line and making friendly calls at each
+tree.
+
+Half of the blackbirds who worked in the vineyard must have been
+beholden to me for rent, I should judge by the jolly choruses of the
+sable hordes moving about my treetops. There was a bee's nest in one of
+the sycamores, and one day the buzzing mob 'took after me' so madly that
+I had to whip up Canello and beat about with my hat to get clear of
+them.
+
+[Illustration: ALONG THE LINE OF SYCAMORES]
+
+Another day, when we stopped under a sycamore, such a loud shrill
+whistle sounded suddenly overhead that the horse started. A big bird in
+black sat with feathers bristled up about him like a threatening raven,
+croaking away sepulchrally directly overhead, bending down gazing at us
+out of his yellow eyes as if to see how we took it. It was a laughable
+sight. Blackbirds seem such human, humorous birds one can almost fancy
+them playing such pranks just for the fun of it.
+
+The blackbird colony was a busy one nesting-time. The builders would fly
+down to the road to get material, stepping along quickly, looking from
+side to side with an alert, business-like air, as if they knew just what
+they wanted. Some of them used the button-balls to line their nests.
+
+A pair had built in one of the round mats of mistletoe at the end of a
+branch, and while looking at the nest one day I was amazed to see a
+butcherbird come flying in a straight line toward it. He did not reach
+his destination, for while still in air both blackbirds darted down at
+him and drove him back faster than he had come. The guardian of the nest
+escorted him almost home, and when the victorious pair were returning
+they were joined by a noisy band of indignant members of the blackbird
+clan.
+
+I watched this attack with great interest, not knowing that shrikes were
+concerned in blackbird matters, and also because it was welcome news
+that one of these strange characters had rented a lot of me. I made a
+note of the direction my outlaw tenant took when driven ignominiously
+home, and at my earliest convenience called. Such cruel tales are told
+of his cold-blooded way of impaling birds and beasts upon thorns and
+barbed wires that one naturally looks upon him as a monster; but I found
+that he, like many another villain, turns a gentle face to his nest.
+
+He had pitched his tent on the farthest outpost of my ranch in a little
+bunch of willows, weeds, and mustard--long since converted into a
+well-kept prune orchard. The nest, which was a big round mass of sticks,
+was inside the willows in a clump of dry stalks about six feet from the
+ground. I had hardly found it before one of the builders swooped down to
+it right before my eyes, with the hardihood of one who fears no man;
+though it must be acknowledged that the shrikes, like other birds on the
+ranch, were so used to grazing horses they quite naturally took me for a
+cattle herder.
+
+In this case Canello did not act as my ally. He had been quiet and
+docile most of the morning, but now was hungry and saw some grass he
+was bent on having, so took the bit in his teeth and made such an
+obstinate fight that, before I had conquered him, the shrikes had left
+the premises and my call was finished without my hosts.
+
+On my next visit Canello behaved in more seemly manner, and permitted me
+to see something of the ways of the maligned birds. You would not have
+known them from any one else except for the remarkable stillness of
+their neighborhood. Some finches flew overhead as if meaning to stop,
+but saw the shrike and went on. I could hear the merry songs of the
+assembly down in the sycamores, but not a bird lit while we were
+there--the shrikes certainly have a bad name among their neighbors. They
+had a proud bearing and an imperative manner, but seemed so gentle and
+human in their domestic life that my prejudices were softened, as one's
+generally are by near acquaintance, and I became really very fond of my
+handsome tenants.
+
+It looked as if the shrike fed his mate. At any rate, they worked
+together and rested together, perching in lordly fashion high on the
+willows overlooking their home. They did not object to observers when at
+work. One day, when Canello's nose appeared by the nest, the builder
+looked at him over her shoulder and then quietly slid off the nest,
+flying up on her perch to wait till he should leave. It was a temptation
+to keep her waiting some time, for the shrike's corner was a pleasant
+place to linger in. The sea-breeze was so strong it turned the willow
+leaves white side out, and the beautiful glistening mustard grew so high
+there that when Canello walked into it, the golden blossoms waved over
+our heads. We haunted the premises till the birds had finished their
+framework, put in a lining of snow-white plant cotton, and had laid four
+eggs.
+
+But when getting to feel like an old friend of the family, on riding
+down one day I found the nest lying in the dust of the road broken and
+despoiled. It made me as unhappy as if the outlaws had been
+unimpeachable bird citizens--which comes of knowing both sides of a
+person's character! Do birds hand down traditions of ill luck? However
+it may be, five years later I found the nest of a pair in a dark mat of
+mistletoe at the end of a high oak branch, which was a much safer place
+than the low willow.
+
+While I was watching the first shrike family, Canello had two scares.
+Once when we were standing still by the willow we heard what sounded
+like a rattlesnake springing its rattle. The nervous horse pricked up
+his ears, raised his head, and looked in the grass as if he saw snakes,
+and though I succeeded in quieting him, when we went home he started at
+every stick and was ready to shy at every shadow. Another morning he saw
+a Mexican riding along by the vineyard, a man with a very dark face and
+a red shirt. Canello acted much as he had when hearing the rattlesnake,
+and did not quiet down till horse and rider were out of sight. The
+ranchman told me he had been cruelly treated by the Mexican who broke
+him, so perhaps it was another case of association of ideas.
+
+East of the willows, and separated from them by the dark green mallows
+and bright yellow California forget-me-nots, was the sycamore where the
+shrike was driven off by the blackbirds. Here a little brown wren had
+taken up her abode. The nest was in a dead limb with a lengthwise slit,
+and a scoop at the end like an apple-corer, so when one of the wrens
+flew down its hole with a stick, the twig stuck out of the crack as she
+ran along with it. She quite won my heart by her frank way of meeting
+her landlady. Instead of flying off, she looked me over and then quietly
+sat down in her doorway to wait for her mate.
+
+On the road to my sycamores was a deserted whitewashed adobe. The place
+had become overgrown with weeds, vines, and bushes, and was taken
+possession of by squirrels and birds. Nature had reclaimed it, covering
+its ugly scars with garlands, and making it bloom under her tender
+touch. One morning, as I rode by, a black ph[oe]be was perched on the
+old adobe chimney of the little house, while his mate sat on the board
+that covered the well, in a way that made it easy to jump to a
+conclusion. When she flew up to the acacia beside the well and looked
+down anxiously, I put the pair on my calling list. It did not take many
+visits to prove my conclusion--there was a nest down in the well with
+white eggs in it. The ph[oe]bes were most trustful birds, and not only
+let Canello tramp around their yard, but when a pump was put down the
+well, and water pumped up day by day, the brave parents, instead of
+deserting their eggs, went on brooding as if nothing had happened.
+
+[Illustration: Black Ph[oe]be.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+[Illustration: Eastern Ph[oe]be.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+Five years later, on going back to the ranch, I found the ph[oe]bes
+around the old place, but hunted in vain for the nest. A schoolhouse had
+been built in the interval, near the old adobe, and the birds perched on
+its gables, on the hitching posts in front of it, and on my prune-trees,
+that had taken the place of the willows, across the road. They even came
+up to my small ranch-house and filled me with delightful anticipations
+by inspecting the beams of the piazza; but they could not find what they
+wanted and flew off to build elsewhere. Later in the season, a neighbor
+whose ranch was opposite mine showed me a ph[oe]be's nest inside his
+whitewashed chicken house. It was a mud pocket like a swallow's, made of
+large pellets of mud plastered against a board in the peak of the house.
+Of course I could never prove that these birds were my old friends, but
+it seemed very probable.
+
+The smallest of my tenants was a hummingbird. I saw it fly into a low
+spray, and it stayed there so long that when it left I rode up to look,
+and found that it was building on the tip of a twig under a sycamore
+leaf umbrella, one whose veining showed against the light. By rising in
+the saddle I could just reach the twig and pull it down to look inside
+the nest; but afterwards I found so many other hummers who could be
+watched with fewer gymnastics, I rested content with knowing that this
+little friend was there.
+
+One morning, when on the way to the sycamores, I found an oriole's nest
+high in a tree. Canello was hungry, but when permitted to eat barley
+under the branches kept reasonably quiet. There were two species of
+orioles in the valley; and not knowing to which the nest belonged, I
+prepared to wait for the return of the owner. The heat was so oppressive
+that I took off my hat, and a bird flew into the tree with bill open,
+gasping. After my hot ride down the valley the shade of the big tree was
+very grateful; and the cool trade wind coming through a gap in the
+hills most refreshing.
+
+Suddenly there was a flash--we all waked up--was that the house owner?
+What a remarkable bird! and what a display of color!--it had a red head,
+fiery in the sun; a black back, and a vivid yellow breast. On looking it
+up in Ridgway the stranger proved to be the Louisiana tanager, a high
+mountain bird. That was a red letter day for me. No one can know,
+without experiencing it, the delight of such discoveries. The pleasure
+is as genuine as if the world were made anew for you. In the excitement
+the oriole's nest was neglected; but ordinarily the rare unknown birds
+did not detract from the enjoyment of the old, more familiar ones.
+
+So when the brilliant stranger flew away and was seen no more I turned
+with pleasure to the pair of sparrow hawks who had come to live on the
+ranch. A branch had fallen from one of the trees, and the hawks found
+its hollow just suited to their needs. It was a good, spacious house,
+but a pair of their cousins who had built in a tree over the whitewashed
+hovel had made a sad mistake in choosing their dwelling--for the front
+door was so small they could hardly enter! I used to stop to watch them,
+and was very much amused at their efforts to make the best of it.
+
+Canello could stand up to his knees in alfilaree clover under their
+tree, so he allowed me to watch the birds in peace. The first day the
+male sparrow hawk flew to the tree with what looked like a snake
+dangling from his bill, and as he alighted screamed _kit-kit'ar'r'r'r'_,
+spreading his wings and shaking them with emphasis. When this
+brought no response, he flew from branch to branch, crying out lustily.
+He revolved around the end of a broken limb in whose small hollow was
+framed the head of Madame Falco. From her height she looked like a rag
+doll at her window. Her funny round face, which filled the doorway, had
+black spots for bill and eyes, and dark lines down the cheeks that might
+have simulated rag doll tattooing.
+
+Evidently there was some reason why she did not want to come to
+breakfast. Once she started to turn back into the nest, but at last
+laboriously wedged her way out of the hole and flew to a branch. Her
+mate was at her side in an instant, and handed her the snake. She took
+it greedily and flew off with it, let us hope because she was afraid of
+me, not because she did not want to divide with him, or thought he would
+ask her to, after all his devotion and patience!
+
+When the bird went back to her nest, her hesitation about leaving it was
+explained. For a long time she sat on a limb near by with tail bobbing,
+apparently trying to make up her mind to go in. When she did fly up at
+the hole she could not get in, and half fell down. After this failure
+she sat down on a branch, her tail tilting as violently as a pipit's,
+and when Canello moved around too much, took the excuse and flew off.
+Her mate came back with her, but when he saw us, he screamed and flew
+away, leaving her to her fate.
+
+She sat looking at her hole a long time before she tried it again, and
+when she did try, failed. It was not till her fourth attempt that she
+succeeded. The hole was very much too small for her, and the surface of
+the branch below it was so smooth and slippery that it gave her nothing
+to hold to in trying to wedge herself in. She would fly against the hole
+and attempt to hook her bill over the edge, and so draw herself up, but
+her shoulders were too big for the space. She tried to make them smaller
+by drawing down her wings lengthwise. Once, in her efforts, she spread
+her tail like a fan. After her third struggle, she sat for a long time
+smoothing her ruffled feathers, shaking herself, scratching her face
+with her foot and trying to get her plumes in order.
+
+While making her toilet she apparently thought of a new plan. She went
+back to the hole and, raising her claw, fastened it inside the hole and
+with a spasmodic effort wedged in her body and disappeared down the
+black hollow. Her mate came a moment after, but she did not even appear
+in the doorway when he called. Again he came, crying _keek' keek'
+kick-er' r' r'_, in tender falsetto; but it was no use. Madame Falco had
+had altogether too hard a time getting in, to go out again in a hurry.
+He held a worm in his bill till he was tired, changed it to his claw,
+letting it dangle from that for a while; and then, as she would make no
+sign, finally flew off.
+
+The next day we had another session with the sparrow hawk. She had
+evidently profited by experience. She did not fly at the hole in the
+violent way she had done the day before, but ambled along a limb to get
+as close to it as possible, and then quietly flew up. She made two or
+three unsuccessful attempts to enter, but kept at the branch,--falling
+back but once. She got half way in once or twice, but could not force
+her wings through. She acted as if determined not to give up, and at
+last, when she found herself falling backwards, with a desperate effort
+drew herself in.
+
+There was another sparrow hawk family across the road from my ranch. In
+riding by one day, I saw a youngster looking out from the nest hole with
+big frightened eyes. Was it the only child, or was it monopolizing the
+fresh air while its brothers were smothering below? Another day there
+were two heads in the window; one was the round domed, top of a fluffy
+nestling whose eyes expressed only vague fear; but the other was the
+strongly marked head of an old sparrow hawk, who eyed us with keen
+intelligence. As I stared up, the young one drew back into the hole
+behind its parent, probably in obedience to her command; and the old
+bird bent such an anxious inquiring gaze upon me that I took the hint
+and rode away to save the poor mother worry.
+
+These were not the only hawks of the valley. Once, seeing one of the
+large Buteos winging its way with nesting sticks hanging from its claws,
+I turned Canello into the field after it, following till it lit in the
+top of a high sycamore. The pair were both gathering material. Sometimes
+they flew with the twigs in their claws; sometimes in their bills; now
+they would fly directly to the nest, again circle around the tree before
+alighting. When one was at work, the other sometimes flew up and soared
+so high in the sky he looked no larger than a sparrow hawk. In swooping
+to the ground suddenly, the hawks would hollow in their backs, stick up
+their tails, drop their legs for ballast, and so let themselves come to
+earth. While one of the birds was peacefully gathering sticks, two
+blackbirds attacked it, apparently on general grounds, because it
+belonged to a family that had been traduced since history began. To tell
+the honest truth, I trembled a little myself at thought of what might
+happen to some of my small tenants, though I reassured myself by
+remembering that the facts prove the maligned hawks much more likely to
+eat gophers than birds.
+
+In the back of the stub occupied by one of the sparrow hawks it was a
+pleasure to find a flicker excavating its nest. Planting its claws
+firmly in the hole with tail braced against the bark, the bird leaned
+forward, thrusting its head in, over and again, as if feeding young. It
+used its feet as a pivot, and swung itself in, farther and farther, as
+it worked. Such gymnastics took strong feet, for the bird raised itself
+by them each time. It worked like an automatic toy wound up for the
+performance. When tired, the flicker hopped up on a branch and vented
+its feelings by shouting _if-if-if-if-if-if-if_, after which it quietly
+returned to work. The wood was so soft that the excavating made almost
+no noise, but it was easy to see what was going on, for the carpenter
+simply drew back its head and tossed out the glistening chips for all
+the world to see. At the end of a week the flicker was working so far
+down in its excavation that only the tip of its tail stuck out of the
+door.
+
+The nest of another Colaptes, I found by accident--a fresh chip dropped
+from mid-air upon my riding skirt. Just then Canello gave a stentorian
+sneeze and the bird came to her window to look down. She did not object
+to us, and was loath to turn back inside the dark hole--such a close
+stuffy place--when outside there were the rich green leaves of the tree,
+the sweet breath of the hayfield and the gentle breeze just springing
+up; all the warmth and sunshine and fragrance of the fields. How could
+she ever leave to go below? Perhaps she bethought her that soon the dark
+hole would be a home ringing with the voices of her little ones; at all
+events, she quickly turned and disappeared in her nest.
+
+At the foot of the ranch I discovered a comical, sleepy little brown
+owl, dozing in a sycamore window. When we waked it up, it went backing
+down the hole. I wondered if it kept awake all day without food, for
+surely owl children do not get many meals by daylight. I spoke to the
+ranchman's son about it, and he said he thought the old birds fed the
+young too much, that he had found about a dozen small kangaroo rats and
+mice in their holes! He told me that he had known old owls to change
+places in the daytime, and both birds to stay in the hole during the
+day. Down the valley, where an old well was only partly covered over, at
+different times he had found a number of drowned owls. They seemed to
+fly into any dark hole that offered. Three barn owls had been taken from
+a windmill tank in the neighborhood in about a month. In a mine at
+Escondido the man had found a number of owls sitting in a crevice where
+the earth, had caved; and he had seen about a dozen of them fifty to a
+hundred feet underground, at the bottom of the mine shaft.
+
+I did not wonder the birds wanted to keep out of sight in the daytime,
+knowing what happened to those that stayed out. A pair nested in the top
+of a high sycamore on my neighbors' premises, and when one stirred away
+from home, it did so to its sorrow. One morning there was such a
+commotion I rode down to see what was the matter. A big dark brown form
+flew down the avenue of sycamores ahead of us, followed by a mob of all
+the feathered house owners in the neighborhood. They escorted it home to
+the top of its own tree, where it seated itself on a limb, its big
+yellow eyes staring and its long ears dropped down, as if home were not
+home with a rout of angry bee-birds and blackbirds screeching and diving
+at you over your own doorsill. Two orioles started to fly over from the
+next tree, but went back, perhaps thinking it wiser not to make open war
+upon such near neighbors; while a sparrow hawk who came to help in the
+attack was judged too dangerous an ally and escorted home by a squad of
+blackbirds dispatched for the purpose. The poor persecuted owl screwed
+its head around to its back as if hoping to see pleasanter sights on
+that side; but the uncanny performance did not seem to please its
+enemies, and a blackbird flew rudely past, close under its bill, as if
+to warn it of what might happen.
+
+The queerest of all my tenants was an old mother barn owl who lived in
+the black charred chimney of one of the sycamores. I found a white
+feather on the black wood one day in riding by, and pulling Canello up
+by the tree, broke off a twig and rapped on the door. She came
+blundering out and flew to a limb over our heads--such a queer old
+crone, with her hooked nose and her weazened face surrounded by a
+circlet of dark feathers. The light blinded her, and with her big round
+eyes wide open she leaned down staring to make out who we were. Then
+shaking her head reproachfully, she swayed solemnly from side to side.
+As the wind blew against her ragged feathers she drew her wings over her
+breast like a cloak, making herself look like a poverty-stricken
+wiseacre. Finding that we did not offer to go, the poor old crone took
+to her wings; but as she passed down the line of sycamores she roused
+the blackbird clan, and a pair of angry orioles flew out and attacked
+her. My conscience smote me for driving her out among her enemies, but
+on our return to the sycamores all was quiet again, and a lizard was
+sunning himself on the edge of the old owl's chimney.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+AN UNNAMED BIRD.
+
+
+SIX years ago, on my first visit to California, I found a dainty cup of
+a nest out in the oaks, but the name of its owner was a puzzle. On
+returning East I consulted those who are wisest in matters of such fine
+china, but they were unable to clear up the matter. For five years that
+mystery haunted me. At the end of that time, when back in California, up
+in those same oaks, I found another cup of the same pattern; but the cup
+got broken and that was the end of it.
+
+The fact of the matter is, you can identify perhaps ninety per cent. of
+the birds you see, with an opera-glass and--patience; but when it comes
+to the other ten per cent., including small vireos and flycatchers, and
+some others that might be mentioned, you are involved in perplexities
+that torment your mind and make you meditate murder; for it is
+impossible to
+
+          Name _all_ the birds without a gun.
+
+On bringing my riddle to the wise men, they shook their heads and asked
+why I did not shoot my bird and find out who he was. On saying the word
+his skin would be sent to me; but after knowing the little family in
+their home it would have been like raising my hand against familiar
+friends. Could I take their lives to gratify my curiosity about a name?
+I pondered long and weighed the matter well, trying to harden my heart;
+but the image of the winning trustful birds always rose before me and
+made it impossible. I will put the case before you, and you can judge if
+you would not have withheld your hand.
+
+One day, hearing the sound of battle up in the treetops, I hurried over
+to the scene of action, when out dashed a pair of courageous little
+dull-colored birds in hot pursuit of a blue jay, whom they dove at till
+they drove him from the field. My sympathies were enlisted at once.
+Fearless little tots to brave a bird four times as big as themselves in
+defense of their home! How hard to have to build and rear a brood in the
+face of such a powerful foe! I wanted to take up the cudgels for them
+and stand guard to see that no harm came.
+
+Planting my camp-stool under their oak, I watched eagerly to have my new
+friends show me their home. As I waited, a pair of turtle doves walked
+about on the sand under the farther branches of the tree; a pair of
+woodpeckers sat on a dead limb lying in wait for their prey; and a
+couple of titmice came hunting through the oak--all the world seemed
+full of happy home-makers.
+
+But soon I saw a sight that made me forget everything else. There were
+my brave little birds up in the oak working upon a beautiful moss cup
+that hung from a forked twig. They were building together, flying
+rapidly back and forth bringing bits of moss from the brush to put in
+their nest.
+
+They worked independently, each hunting moss and placing it to its own
+satisfaction. What one did the other would be well pleased with, I felt
+sure. But while each worked according to its own ideas, they always
+appeared to be working together; they could not bear to be out of sight
+of each other long at a time. When the small father bird found himself
+at the nest alone, after placing his material he would stand and call to
+let his pretty mate know that he was waiting for her; or else sit down
+by the nest and warble over such a contented, happy little lay it warmed
+my heart just to listen to him.
+
+When his mate appeared the merry birds would chase off for a race
+through the treetops. Song and play were mingled with their work, but,
+for all that, the happy builders' house grew under their hands, and they
+kept faithfully at their task of preparing the home for their little
+brood. Once the small, dainty mother bird,--surely it must have been
+she,--after putting in her bit of moss, settled down in the nest and
+sat there the picture of quiet happiness.
+
+This was all I saw of the nest builders that year. A great storm swept
+through the valley, and it must have washed away the frail mossy cup,
+for it was gone and the tree was deserted. Nevertheless, the birds had
+been so attractive, and their nest so interesting, that through the five
+years that passed before my return to California I kept their memory
+green, and could never think of them without tenderness--though I could
+call them by no name. If they had only worn red feathers in their caps,
+it would have been some clue to their coats-of-arms; but, out of hand,
+there seemed to be nothing to mark the plain, little, greenish gray
+birds from half a dozen of their cousins.
+
+When I finally returned to the California ranch, one of my first
+thoughts was for the moss nest makers up in the oaks. Now I had a chance
+to solve the mystery without harming one of their pretty feathers, for
+by long and patient watching I might get near enough to puzzle out the
+'spurious primary' and the subtle distinctions of tint that make such a
+difference in calling birds by their right names.
+
+For six weeks I watched and listened in vain, but one day when riding up
+the canyon rejoicing at the new life that filled the trees, I stopped
+under an oak only a few rods from the one where the nest had been five
+years before, and looking up saw a small dull-colored bird with a bit of
+moss in its bill walking down into a mossy cup right before my eyes! For
+a few moments I was the happiest observer in the land. I had found my
+little friend again, after all these years! It looked over the edge of
+the twig at me several times, but went on gathering material as
+unconcernedly as if it, too, remembered me. The mossy cup seemed
+prettier than any rare bit of Sevres china, for I looked upon it with
+eyes that had been waiting for the sight for five years.
+
+As the bird worked, a cottontail rabbit rustled the leaves, and Billy
+started forward, frightening the timid animal so that it scampered off
+over the ground, showing the white underside of its tail. But though
+Billy and the rabbit were both terrified, the brave worker only flew
+down to a twig to look at them, and turned back calmly to its task.
+
+The nest was so protectively colored that I could not see it readily,
+and sometimes started to find that I had been looking right at it
+without knowing it. The prospect of identifying my birds was not
+encouraging. You might as well expect to see from the first floor what
+was going on up in a cupola as to expect to see from the ground what
+birds are doing up in the thick oak tops. You have reason to be thankful
+for even a glimpse of a bird in the heavy foliage, and as for 'spurious
+primaries,'--"Woe worth the chase!"
+
+Now and then I got a hint of family matters. My two little friends were
+working together, and occasionally I saw a bit of moss put in; but it
+was evident that the main part of the work was over. One day I waited
+half an hour, and when the bird came it acted as if it had really done
+all that was necessary, and only returned for the sake of being about
+its pretty home.
+
+The birds said a good deal up in the oak, sometimes in sweet lisping
+tones, as though talking to themselves about the nest. They often flew
+away from it not far over my head. The call note was a loud
+whistle--_whee-it'_--and the bird gave it so rapidly that I once took
+out my watch to time him, after which he called seventy times in sixty
+seconds. Often after whistling loudly he would give a soft low call. His
+clear ringing voice was one of the most cheering in the valley.
+
+When the building seemed done and I was looking forward to the brooding,
+as the birds would then, perforce, be more about the nest, one sad
+morning I rode up through the oaks and found the beautiful moss cup torn
+and dangling from its branch. It was the keenest disappointment of the
+nesting season, and there had been many. The pretty acquaintance to
+whose renewal I had looked forward so many years was now ended.
+
+Again I had to leave California without being able to name my winning
+little friends. If I had been too much interested in them before to set
+a price on their heads; now, rather than raise my voice against them,
+they should remain forever unnamed.[4]
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[4] Since this paper was written, I have consulted an authority on
+nests, who thinks that this nameless bird was probably Hutton's vireo.
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+HUMMERS.
+
+
+CALIFORNIA is the land of flowers and hummingbirds. Hummingbirds are
+there the winged companions of the flowers. In the valleys the airy
+birds hover about the filmy golden mustard and the sweet-scented
+primroses; on the blooming hillsides in spring the air is filled with
+whirring wings and piping voices, as the fairy troops pass and repass at
+their mad gambols. At one moment the birds are circling methodically
+around the whorls of the blue sage; at the next, hurtling through the
+air after a distant companion. The great wild gooseberry bushes with red
+fuchsia-like flowers are like bee-hives, swarming with noisy hummers.
+The whizzing and whirring lead one to the bushes from a distance, and on
+approaching one is met by the brown spindle-like birds, darting out from
+the blooming shrubs, gleams of green, gold, and scarlet glancing from
+their gorgets.
+
+[Illustration: The Little Hummer on her Bow-Knot Nest.
+
+(From a photograph.)]
+
+The large brown hummers probably stop in the valley only on their way
+north, but the little black-chinned ones make their home there, and the
+big spreading sycamores and the great live-oaks are their nesting
+grounds. In the big oak beside the ranch-house I have seen two or three
+nests at once; and a ring of live-oaks in front of the house held a
+complement of nests. From the hammock under the oak beside the house one
+could watch the birds at their work. If the front door was left open,
+the hummers would sometimes fly inside; and as we stepped out they
+often darted away from the flowers growing under the windows.
+
+California is the place of all places to study hummingbirds. The only
+drawback is that there are always too many other birds to watch at the
+same time; but one sees enough to want to see more. I never saw a
+hummingbird courtship unless--perhaps one performance I saw was part of
+the wooing. I was sitting on Mountain Billy under the little lover's
+sycamore when a buzzing and a whirring sounded overhead. On a twig sat a
+wee green lady and before her was her lover (?), who, with the sound and
+regularity of a spindle in a machine, swung shuttling from side to side
+in an arc less than a yard long. He never turned around, or took his
+eyes off his lady's, but threw himself back at the end of his line by a
+quick spread of his tail. She sat with her eyes fixed upon him, and as
+he moved from side to side her long bill followed him in a very droll
+way. When through with his dance he looked at her intently, as if to see
+what effect his performance had had upon her. She made some remark,
+apparently not to his liking, for when he had answered he flew away. She
+called after him, but as he did not return she stretched herself and
+flew up on a twig above with an amusing air of relief.
+
+This is all I have ever seen of the courtship; but when it comes to
+nest-building, I have often been an eye-witness to that. One little
+acquaintance made a nest of yellow down and put it among the green oak
+leaves, making me think that the laws of protective coloration had no
+weight with her, but before the eggs were laid she had neatly covered
+the yellow with flakes of green lichen. I found her one day sitting in
+the sun with the top of her head as white as though she had been diving
+into the flour barrel. Here was one of the wonderful cases of 'mutual
+help' in nature. The flowers supply insects and honey to the
+hummingbirds, and they, in turn, as they fly from blossom to blossom
+probing the tubes with the long slender bills that have gradually come
+to fit the shape of the tubes, brush off the pollen of one blossom to
+carry it on to the next, so enabling the plants to perfect their flowers
+as they could not without help. It is said that, in proportion to their
+numbers, hummingbirds assist as much as insects in the work of
+cross-fertilization.
+
+Though this little hummer that I was watching let me come within a few
+feet of her, when a lizard ran under her bush she craned her neck and
+looked over her shoulder at him with surprising interest. She doubtless
+recognized him as one of her egg-eating enemies, on whose account she
+put her nest at the tip of a twig too slender to serve as a ladder.
+
+Another hummingbird who built across the way was still more
+trustful--with people. I used to sit leaning against the trunk of her
+oak and watch the nest, which was near the tip of one of the long
+swinging branches that drooped over the trail. When the tiny worker was
+at home, a yard-stick would almost measure the distance between us. As
+she sat on the nest she sometimes turned her head to look down at the
+dog lying beside me, and often hovered over us on going away.
+
+The nest was saddled on a twig and glued to a glossy dark green oak
+leaf. Like the other nest, it was made of a spongy yellow substance,
+probably down from the underside of sycamore leaves; and like it, also,
+the outside was coated with lichen and wound with cobweb. The bird was a
+rapid worker, buzzing in with her material and then buzzing off after
+more. Once I saw the cobweb hanging from her needle-like bill, and
+thought she probably had been tearing down the beautiful suspension
+bridges the spiders hang from tree to tree.
+
+It was very interesting to see her work. She would light on the rim of
+the nest, or else drop directly into the bottom of the tiny cup, and
+place her material with the end of her long bill. It looked like trying
+to sew at arm's length. She had to draw back her head in order not to
+reach beyond the nest. How much more convenient it would have been if
+her bill had been jointed! It seemed better suited to probing flower
+tubes than making nests. But then, she made nests only in spring, while
+she fed from flowers all the year round, and so could afford to stretch
+her neck a trifle one month for the sake of having a good long fly spear
+during the other eleven. The peculiar feature of her work was her
+quivering motion in moulding. When her material was placed she moulded
+her nest like a potter, twirling around against the sides, sometimes
+pressing so hard she ruffled up the feathers of her breast. She shaped
+her cup as if it were a piece of clay. To round the outside, she would
+sit on the rim and lean over, smoothing the sides with her bill, often
+with the same peculiar tremulous motion. When working on the outside, at
+times she almost lost her balance, and fluttered to keep from falling.
+To turn around in the nest, she lifted herself by whirring her wings.
+
+When she found a bit of her green lichen about to fall, she took the
+loose end in her bill and drew it over the edge of the nest, fastening
+it securely inside. She looked very wise and motherly as she sat there
+at work, preparing a home for her brood. After building rapidly she
+would take a short rest on a twig in the sun, while she plumed her
+feathers. She made nest-making seem very pleasant work.
+
+One day, wanting to experiment, I put a handful of oak blossoms on the
+nest. They covered the cup and hung down over the sides. When the small
+builder came, she hovered over it a few seconds before making up her
+mind how it got there and what she had better do about it. Then she
+calmly lit on top of it! Part of it went off as she did so, but the rest
+she appropriated, fastening in the loose ends with the cobweb she had
+brought.
+
+She often gave a little squeaky call when on the nest, as if talking to
+herself about her work. When going off for material she would dart away
+and then, as if it suddenly occurred to her that she did not know where
+she was going, would stop and stand perfectly still in the air, her
+vibrating wings sustaining her till she made up her mind, when she would
+shoot off at an angle. It seemed as if she would be worn out before
+night, but her eyes were bright and she looked vigorous enough to build
+half a dozen houses.
+
+"There's odds in folks," our great-grandmothers used to say; and there
+certainly is in bird folks; even in the ways of the same one at
+different times. Now this hummingbird was content to build right in
+front of my eyes, and the hummer down at the little lover's tree, with
+her first nest, was so indifferent to Billy and me that I took no pains
+to keep at a distance or disguise the fact that I was watching her. But
+when her nest was destroyed she suddenly grew old in the ways of the
+world, and apparently repented having trusted us. In any case, I got a
+lesson on being too prying. The first nest had not been down long before
+I found that a second one was being built only a few feet away--by the
+same bird? I imagined so. The nest was only just begun, and being
+especially interested to see how such buildings were started, I rode
+close up to watch the work. A roll of yellow sycamore down was wound
+around a twig, and the bottom of the nest--the floor--attached to the
+underside of this beam; with such a solid foundation, the walls could
+easily be supported.
+
+The small builder came when Billy and I were there. She did not welcome
+us as old friends, but sat down on her floor and looked at us--and I
+never saw her there again. Worse than that, she took away her nest,
+presumably to put it down where she thought inquisitive reporters would
+not intrude. I was disappointed and grieved, having already planned---on
+the strength of the first experience--to have the mother hummer's
+picture taken when she was feeding her young on the nest.
+
+At first I thought this suspicion reflected upon the good sense of
+hummingbirds, but after thinking it over concluded that it spoke better
+for hummingbirds than for Billy and me. If this were, as I supposed, the
+same bird who had to brood her young with Billy grazing at the end of
+her bill, and if she had been present at the unlucky moment when he got
+the oak branches tangled in the pommel of the saddle, although her
+branch was not among them, I can but admire her for moving when she
+found that the Philistines were again upon her, for her new house was
+hung at the tip of a branch that Billy might easily have swept in
+passing.
+
+These nests had all been very low, only four or five feet above the
+ground; but one day I found young in one of the common treetop nests. I
+could see it through the branches. Two little heads stuck up above the
+edge like two small Jacks-in-boxes. Billy made such a noise under the
+oak when the bird was feeding the youngsters that I took him away where
+he could not disturb the family, and tied him to an oak covered with
+poison ivy, for he was especially fond of eating it, and the poison did
+not affect him.
+
+Before the old hummer flew off, she picked up a tiny white feather that
+she found in the nest, and wound it around a twig. On her return, in the
+midst of her feeding, she darted down and set the feather flying; but,
+as it got away from her, she caught it again. The performance was
+repeated the next time she came with food; but she did it all so
+solemnly I could not tell whether she were playing or trying to get rid
+of something that annoyed her.
+
+She fed at the long intervals that are so trying to an observer, for if
+you are going to sit for hours with your eyes glued to a nest, it
+really is pleasant to have something happen once in a while! Though the
+mother bird did not go to the nest often, she sometimes flew by, and
+once the sound of her wings roused the young, and they called out to her
+as she passed. When they were awake, it was amusing to see the little
+midgets stick out their long, thread-like tongues, preen their
+pin-feathers, and stretch their wings over the nest.
+
+One fine morning when I went to the oak I heard a faint squeak, and saw
+something fluttering up in the tree. When the mother came, she buzzed
+about as though not liking the look of things, for her children were out
+of the nest, and behold!--a horse and rider were under her tree. She
+tried to coax the unruly nestlings to follow her into the upper stories,
+but they would not go.
+
+[Illustration: The Swing Nest of the Hummer.
+
+(From a Photograph.)]
+
+Although not ready to be led, one of the infants soon felt that it would
+be nice to go alone. When a bird first leaves the nest it goes about
+very gingerly, but this little fellow now began to feel his strength and
+the excitement of his freedom. He wiped his tongue on a branch, and
+then, to my astonishment, his wings began to whirl as if he were getting
+up steam, and presently they lifted him from his twig, and he went
+whirring off as softly as a hummingbird moth, among the oak sprays. His
+nerves were evidently on edge, for he looked around at the sound of
+falling leaves, started when Billy sneezed, and turned from side to
+side very apprehensively, in spite of his out-in-the-world, big-boy
+airs. He may have felt hampered by his unused wings, for, as he sat
+there waiting for his mother to come, he stroked them out with his bill
+to get them in better working order. That done, he leaned over, rounded
+his shoulders, and pecked at a leaf as if he were as much grown up as
+anybody.
+
+Of all the beautiful hummingbirds' nests I saw in California, three are
+particularly noteworthy because of their positions. One cup was set down
+on what looked like an inverted saucer, in the form of a dark green oak
+leaf wound with cobweb. That was in the oak beside the ranch-house.
+Another one was on a branch of eucalyptus, set between two leaves like
+the knot in a bow of stiff ribbon. To my great satisfaction, the
+photographer was able to induce the bird to have a sitting while she
+brooded her eggs. The third nest I imagined belonged to the bird who
+took up her floor because Billy and I looked at her. If she were, her
+fate was certainly hard, for her eggs were taken by some one, boy or
+beast. Her nest was most skillfully supported. It was fastened like the
+seat of a swing between two twigs no larger than knitting-needles, at
+the end of a long drooping branch. It was a unique pleasure to see the
+tiny bird sit in her swing and be blown by the wind. Sometimes she went
+circling about as though riding in a merry-go-round; and at others the
+wind blew so hard her round boat rose and fell like a little ship at
+sea.
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+IN THE SHADE OF THE OAKS.
+
+
+THERE were half a dozen places in the valley, irrigated by the spring
+rains, where I was always sure of finding birds. Among them, on the west
+side, was the big sycamore, standing at the lower end of the valley;
+while above, in the northwest corner, was the mouth of Twin Oaks canyon
+where the migrants flocked in the brush around the large twin oak that
+overlooked the little old schoolhouse. On the east side was the Ughland
+canyon, at the mouth of which the little lover and his neighbors nested;
+while below it straggled the line of sycamores that followed the Ughland
+stream down through my ranch. But up at the head of the valley beyond
+the ranch-house was the most delightful place of all. There I was always
+sure of finding interesting nests to study.
+
+Surrounded by a waste of chaparral, it was a little oasis of great
+blooming live-oaks, and in their shade I used often to spend the hot
+afternoon hours. In the spring the water that flowed down the hills at
+the head of the valley formed a fresh mountain stream that ran down the
+Oden canyon and so on through the centre of this grove, feeding the
+oaks and spreading out to enrich the valley below. In summer, like the
+rest of the canyon streams, only its dry sandy bed remained. Then, when
+the meadows were oppressively hot, my leafy garden was a shady bower to
+linger in. Its long drooping branches hung to the ground, dainty yellow
+warblers flitted about the golden tassels of the blossoming trees, and
+the air was full of the happy songs of mated birds.
+
+[Illustration: A SHADY BOWER]
+
+The trail from the ranch-house to the oaks was a line through the low
+grass in which grew yellow fly flowers and orange poppies; and over them
+every spring, day after day, processions of migrating butterflies
+drifted slowly up the canyon. At the entrance of the garden was a
+sentinel oak whose dark green foliage contrasted well with the yellow
+flowers in the grass outside. It was the chosen hunting-ground of many
+birds. Its dead upper branches offered the bee-birds and woodpeckers an
+unobstructed view of passing insects, and gave the jays and flickers a
+chance to overlook the brush, and take their bearings. The lower limbs
+offered perches where doves might come to rest, finches to chatter, and
+chewinks to sing; while its hanging boughs and elm-like feathered sides
+attracted wandering warblers and songful wrens.
+
+The happy days spent among these beautiful California oaks are now
+far in the past, but as I sit in my study in the East and dream back
+over those hours my mind is filled with memory pictures. Sauntering
+through this oaken gallery, each tree recalls some pleasant hour--the
+sight of a new bird, the sound of a new song, the prolonged delight of
+some cozy home that I watched till accepted as a friend, when the little
+family's fears and joys were my own.
+
+That big double oak, spreading across the middle of the garden, was the
+haunted tree whose blue ghost drove away the pewees and gnatcatchers
+after they had begun to build; though the vireos and bush-tits braved it
+out, and the tiny hummer and gentle dove were not afraid to perch there.
+This was hummingbird lane--that small oak held the nest in which the two
+wee nestlings sat up like Jacks-in-the-box; these blue sage bushes
+growing in the sand were the ones the honey bees and hummers used to
+haunt, the hummers probing each lavender lip as they circled round the
+whorls; in front of this bush I saw a fairy dancer perform his airy
+minuet,--swing back and forth, and then sweep up in the air to dive
+whirring down with gorget puffed out and tail spread wide; and here,
+when watching a procession of ants, I discovered a tiny hummingbird
+building in a drooping branch that overhung the trail. That dead limb
+was the perch of a wood pewee, a silent grave bird with a sad call, who
+flew on when he was still only a lonely stranger. That oak top was made
+memorable by the sight of a flaming oriole, though he came on a cold
+foggy morning and answered my calls with a broken song and a
+half-hearted scold as he sat with his feathers ruffled up about him.
+Under the low spreading branches of that tree the chewinks used to
+scratch--I can hear the brown leaves rustle now--the branches were so
+low that, if the shy birds flew up to rest from their labors, they could
+quickly drop down and disappear in the brush.
+
+On ahead, where the garden narrows to the trail between the walls of
+brush, when I was hidden behind a screen of branches, the timid
+white-crowned sparrows used to venture out, hopping along quietly or
+stopping to sing and pick up seeds on the path. Back a few steps was the
+tree where the bush-tits came to build their second nest after the roof
+of the first one fell in; the nest which hung on such a low limb that I
+watched it from the sand beneath, looking up through the branches at the
+blue sky, the canyon walls covered with sun-whitened bowlders, and the
+turkey buzzards circling over the mountains.
+
+[Illustration: Green-tailed Chewink.
+
+(One half natural size.)]
+
+Just there, in that small open place between the trees,--how well I
+remember the afternoon,--I saw a new bird come out of the bushes; the
+green-tailed chewink he proved to be, on his way back to the Rocky
+Mountains. He was a beautiful stranger with a soft glossy coat touched
+off with yellowish green, while his high-bred gentle manners have made
+me remember him with affectionate interest all these years. Across the
+garden I heard my first song from that unique rhapsodist, the
+yellow-breasted chat. The same place marks another interesting
+experience. While I was sitting in the crotch of an oak a thrasher came
+out of the brush into an open space in front of me. Her feathers were
+disordered and apparently she had come from her nest. She walked with
+wings tight at her sides and her tail up at an angle well out of the way
+of the rustling leaves; altogether a neat alert figure that contrasted
+sharply with the lazy brown chippie which appeared just then in
+characteristic negligee, its wings hanging and tail dragging on the
+ground. The thrashers of Twin Oaks have bills that are curved like a
+sickle, and this bird used her tool most skillfully. Instead of
+scratching up the leaves and earth with her feet as chewinks and
+sparrows do, the thrasher used her bill almost exclusively. First she
+cleared a space by scraping the leaves away, moving her bill through
+them rapidly from side to side. Then she made two holes in the ground,
+probing deep with her long bill. After taking what she could get from
+the second hole, she went back to the first again, as if to see if
+anything had come to the surface there. Then she lay down on the sand to
+sun herself and acted as though going to take a sun bath, when suddenly
+she discovered me and fled.
+
+When watching the bird at work I got a pretty picture in the round disk
+of my opera-glass. The glass was focused on the digging thrasher, but a
+goldfinch came into the picture and pulled at some stems for its nest
+and a cottontail ran rapidly across from rim to rim. I lifted the glass
+to follow him and saw him go trotting down the path between the bushes.
+
+The thrasher's curved bill gives a most ludicrous look to the bird when
+singing. He looks as if he were trying to turn himself inside out. I
+once saw an adult thrasher tease its mate for food, and wondered how it
+would be possible for one curved bill to feed another curved bill; but a
+few days later I came on a family of young, and discovered for myself
+that _they_ have straight bills; a most curious and interesting instance
+of adaptation.
+
+At the head of the garden stands a tree that always reminds me of the
+horses I rode in California. I watched my first bush-tit's nest under
+it, with Canello grazing near; and five years later watched another
+bush-tit's nest there, sitting in the crotch of the oak with Mountain
+Billy looking over my shoulder. Although Billy was, in his prime, a
+bucking mustang, he became more of a petted companion than Canello had
+been; and when we were out alone together, we were a great deal of
+company for each other. As soon as I dismounted he would put his head
+down to have me slip the reins off over his ears, so that he could graze
+by himself. Sometimes, when he stood behind me he rested his bridle on
+my sun-hat, and once went so far as to take a bite out of the brim--in
+consideration of its being straw. If I were sitting on the ground and he
+was grazing near, he would at times walk up and gravely raise his face
+to look into mine. When he got tired, he would rub up against my arm and
+yawn, looking down at me with a friendly smile in his eyes.
+
+Birding was rather dull for Billy--when there was neither grass nor
+poison ivy at hand, but he had one never-failing source of
+enjoyment--rolling. He tried it in the sand under the oak, one day, with
+the saddle on. Before I knew what he was about he was down on his knees,
+sitting still, with a comical, helpless look in his eyes, as if quite at
+a loss to know what to do next, having become conscious of the saddle.
+When I had gotten him on his feet and finished lecturing him I uncinched
+the saddle, laid it one side on the ground, took hold of the end of the
+long bridle, and told him to roll. A droll abstracted look came into
+his eyes, he dropped on his knees and, with a sudden convulsion, threw
+his heels into the air and rolled back and forth, rubbing his backbone
+vigorously on the sand. After that, the first thing every morning when
+we got to the oaks, I unsaddled him and let him roll, and then he would
+stand with bare back keeping cool in the shade of the trees.
+
+One morning as we stood under the bush-tit's tree, I discovered a pair
+of turtle doves looking out at me from the leaves of the small oak
+opposite, craning their necks and moving their heads uneasily. One of
+them seemed to be shaping a nest of twigs. I drew Billy around between
+us, so that my staring would seem less pointed, and when one of the pair
+flew to the ground to spy at me, hurriedly looked the other way to
+remove his anxiety. His mate soon joined him, and the two doves walked
+away together, fixed their feathers in the sun, stretched their wings,
+and lazily picked at the ground. When one whirred back to the nest, the
+other soon followed. The gentle lovers put their bills together, while,
+unnoticed, I stood behind Billy, looking on and thinking that it was
+little wonder such birds should rise from the ground with a musical
+whirr.
+
+Billy's oak was the last of the high trees in the garden. Above it was a
+grassy space where bright wild flowers bloomed, and pretty cottontail
+rabbits often went ambling over the soft turf. On one side of the
+opening was a low stocky oak, full of balls of mistletoe, and on the
+other a great blossoming bush buzzing with hummingbirds. The mistletoe
+had begun to sap the little oak, and on one of its dead twigs a
+hummingbird had taken to perching. I wondered if he were the idle mate
+of one of my small garden builders, but he sat and sunned himself as if
+his conscience were quite clear.
+
+My first experience with gnatcatchers had been here. I suspected a nest,
+and the ranchman's daughter went with me to hunt through the brush. She
+cautioned me to look out for rattlesnakes, but the brush was so dense
+and the ground so covered with crooked snake-like sticks that it was not
+an easy matter to tell what you were stepping on. Then, the poison oak
+was so thick that I felt like holding up my hands to avoid it. We pushed
+our way through the dense chaparral, and my fearless companion got down
+on her hands and knees to look through the tangle for the nest. It was
+hard disagreeable work, even if one did not object to snakes, and we
+were soon so tired that we were ready to sit down and let the birds show
+us to their house. We might have saved ourselves all the trouble if we
+had done this to begin with, for it was only a few moments before the
+little pair went to the mistletoe oak, out in plain sight and within
+easy reach--how they would have laughed in their sleeves had they known
+what we were hunting for back in the brush! The nest was about the size
+of a chilicothe pod, and so covered with lichen that it looked just like
+a knot on the tree.
+
+Around the blossoming bush the air fairly vibrated with hummers, darting
+up into the sky, shooting down and chasing each other pell
+mell--sometimes almost into my face. As I sat by the bush one day, a
+handsome male went around with upraised throat, poking his bill up the
+red fuchsia-like tubes. Another one was flying around inside the bush,
+and I edged nearer to see. The sun shone in, whitening the twigs, and as
+the bird whirred about with a soft burring sound, I caught gleams of
+red, gold, and green from his gorget, and could see the tiny bird rest
+his wee feet on a twig to reach up to a blossom. Then he hummed what
+sounded more like a love song than anything I had ever heard from a
+hummingbird. He seemed so much more like a real bird than any of his
+brothers that I felt attracted to him.
+
+One morning a little German girl, in a red pinafore, and with hair
+flying, came riding down the sand stream toward my bush. Her colt reared
+and pranced, but she sat as firmly as if she had been a small centaur.
+It was a holiday, and she was staking out her horses to graze, making
+gala-day work of it. She had one horse down by the little oak already,
+and springing off the one she had brought, changed about, jumped as
+lightly as a bird upon the other's back and raced home. Soon she came
+galloping back again, and so she went and came until tired out, for pure
+fun on her free holiday.
+
+In looking over the bright memory pictures of my beautiful oak garden,
+there is one to which I always return. The spreading trunks of a great
+five-stemmed tree on one side of the grove made a dark oaken couch,
+screened by the leafy willow-like branches that hung to the ground.
+Here--after looking to see that there were no rattlesnakes coiled in the
+dead leaves--I spent many a dreamy hour, reclining idly as I listened to
+the free songs of the birds that could not see me behind my curtain. It
+was interesting to note the way certain sounds predominated; certain
+songs would absorb one's attention, and then pass and be replaced by
+others. At one time a jay's scream would jar on the ear and drown all
+other voices; when that had passed, the chewinks would fly up from the
+leaves and sing and answer each other till the air was quivering with
+their trills. Then came the thrashers, with their loud rollicking songs;
+and when they had pitched down into the brush, out rang the clear
+bell-like tones of the wren-tit, filling the air with sound. Afterwards
+the impatient whipped-out notes of the chaparral vireo were followed by
+the soft cooing of doves; and then, as the wind stirred the trees and
+sent the loosened oak blossoms drifting to the ground, from high out of
+an oak top came a most exquisite song. At the first note of this
+grosbeak all other songs were forgotten--they were noise and
+chatter--this was pure music. It was like passing from the cries of the
+street into the hall of a symphony concert. The black-headed grosbeak
+has not the spirituality of the hermit thrush, and his ordinary song is
+not so remarkable, but his love song excels that of any bird I have ever
+heard in finish, rich melody, and music. As I listened, my surroundings
+harmonized so perfectly with the wonderful song echoing through the
+great trees that the old oak garden seemed an enchanted bower. The
+drooping branches were a leafy lattice through which the afternoon sun
+filtered, steeping the oaks in thick still sunshine. Last year's leaves
+drifted slowly to the ground, while the bees droned about the yellow
+tassels of the blooming trees. As a violinist, lingering to perfect a
+note, draws his bow again and again over the strings, so this rapt
+musician dwelt tenderly on his highest notes, trolling them over till
+each was more exquisite and tender than the last, and the ear was
+charmed with his love song--a song of ideal love fit to be dreamed of in
+this stately green oak garden filled with golden sunlight.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+A MYSTERIOUS TRAGEDY.
+
+
+ON a peg just inside the door of the ranchman's old wine shed hung one
+of the horses' unused nosebags. A lad on the place told me that a wren
+had a nest in it, and added that he had seen a fight between the wren
+and a pair of linnets who seemed to be trying to steal her material.
+
+The first time I went to the wine shed both wrens and linnets were
+there, but nothing happened and I forgot about the original quarrel. By
+peering through a crack in the boarding I could look down on the wren in
+the nosebag inside. I could see her dark eyes, the white line over them,
+and her black barred tail. She was Vigor's wren. She got so tame that
+she would not stir when the creaking door was opened close by her, or
+when people were talking in the shed; and I used to go often to see how
+her affairs were progressing.
+
+All her eggs hatched in time, and the small birds, from being at first
+all eyeball, soon got to be all bill. When I opened the bag to look at
+them, the light woke them up and they opened their mouths, showing
+chasms of yellow throat.
+
+The mother bird fed them several times when I was watching only a few
+feet away. She would come ambling along in the pretty wren fashion, with
+her tail over her back; creeping down the side of a lath, running behind
+a rafter, scolding as though to make conversation, and then winding down
+to the nest through a crack. One day she hesitated, and waited to spy at
+me, since I had thought it polite to stare at her! When satisfied, she
+hopped along from beam to beam, her bright eyes still upon me. Then her
+mate joined her. He had been suspicious of me at our first meeting, but
+apparently had changed his mind, for, seeing his spouse hesitate, he
+glanced at me unconcernedly, as much as to say, "Is she all you're
+waiting for?" and flew out, leaving her to my tender mercies. She hopped
+meekly into the bag after that rebuke, but stretched up to peer at me
+once more before settling down inside.
+
+One day when I looked in to see how wren matters were progressing, to my
+amazement and horror, instead of my wren's nest I found another, high in
+the mouth of the bag with one fresh egg in it! The egg was a linnet's,
+and the nest had been built right on top of the wren's. Such a stench
+came from the bag that I took out the upper nest and found the four
+little wrens dead in their crib.
+
+[Illustration: The Nosebag Nest.
+
+(Vigors's Wren.)]
+
+I had become very fond of the winsome mother bird, and so much
+interested in her brood that this horrid discovery came like a tragedy
+in the family of a friend.
+
+And what did it all mean? Unless the old wrens had been dead, could the
+linnets have gotten possession? The wrens were usually able to hold
+their own in a discussion. If the nestlings had been alive, would the
+linnets--would any bird--have built upon them, deliberately burying them
+alive? It seemed too diabolical. On the other hand, what could have
+killed the little wrens and left them in the nest? If they had been dead
+when the linnets came to build, how could the birds have chosen such a
+sepulchre for a building site?
+
+Grieving over my little friends, I cleaned out the nosebag and hung it
+up on its peg. Three weeks later I discovered, to my great perplexity,
+that a pair of wrens had built in the bottom of the bag and had one egg
+in the nest. Now, was this the same pair of birds that had built there
+before, and if so, what did it all mean?
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+HOW I HELPED BUILD A NEST.
+
+
+THEY picked out their crack in the oak and began to build without any
+advice from me, winning little gray-crested titmice that they were.
+Their oak was right behind the ranch-house barn; I found it by hearing
+the bird sing there. The little fellow, warmed by his song, flitted up
+the tree a branch higher after each repetition of his loud cheery
+_tu-whit', tu-whit', tu-whit', tu-whit'_. Meanwhile his pretty mate,
+with bits of stick in her bill, walked down a crack in the oak trunk.
+
+Thinking she had gone, I went to examine the place. I poked about with a
+twig but couldn't find the nest till, down in the bottom of the crack, I
+spied a little gray head and a pair of bright eyes looking up at me. The
+bird started forward as if to dart out, but changed her mind and stayed
+in while I took a hasty look and fled, more frightened than she by the
+intrusion.
+
+The titmice had been flying back and forth from the hen-yard with
+chicken's feathers, and it seemed such slow work for them I thought I
+would help them. So the next day, when the pair were away, I stuffed a
+few white feathers into the mouth of the nest and withdrew under the
+shadow of the barn to watch through my glass without being observed.
+Then my conscience began to trouble me. What if this interference should
+drive the gentle bird to desert her nest?
+
+[Illustration: The Plain Titmouse in her Doorway.]
+
+When I heard the familiar chickadee call--the titmouse often chirrups
+like his cousin--it made me quake guiltily. What would the birds do? The
+gray pair came flying in with crests raised, and my small friend hopped
+down to her doorway. She gave a start of surprise at sight of the
+feathers, but after a moment's hesitation went bravely in! While she was
+inside, her mate waited in the tree, singing for her; and when she came
+out, he flew away with her. Then I crept up to the oak, and to my
+delight found that all the feathers had disappeared. She evidently
+believed in taking what the gods provide. In fact, she seemed only to
+wish that they would provide more, for, after taking a second supply
+from me, she stood in the vestibule, cocked her crested head, and looked
+about as if expecting to see new treasures.
+
+She had common-sense enough to take what she found at hand, but if she
+had not been such a plucky little builder she would have been scared
+away by the strange sights that afterwards met her at her nest. Once
+when she came, feathers were sticking in the bark all around the crack.
+She hesitated--the rush of her flight probably fanned the air so the
+white plumes waved in her face--she hesitated and looked around timidly
+before getting courage to go in; and on leaving the nest flew away in
+nervous haste; but she was soon back again, and ready to take the
+feathers down inside the oak. She caught hold of the tip of one that was
+wedged into a crack, and tugged and tugged till I was afraid she would
+get discouraged and go off without it. She got it, however, and drew it
+in backwards. Then she attacked another feather, but finding that it
+came harder than the first, let go her hold and took an easier one. She
+was not to be daunted, though, and after stowing away the loose one came
+back for the tight one again, and persevered till she bent it in several
+places, besides breaking off the tip.
+
+When she had flown off, I jumped up, ran to the oak, and stuffed the
+doorway full of feathers. Before I had finished, the family sentinel
+caught me--I had been in too much of a hurry and he had heard me walking
+over the cornstalks. He eyed me suspiciously and gave vent to his
+disapproval, but I addressed him in such friendly terms that he soon
+flew off and talked to his mate reassuringly, as if he had decided that
+it was all right after all. After their conversation she came back and
+made the best of her way right down through the feather-bed! I went away
+delighted with her perseverance, and charmed by her confidence and
+pretty performances.
+
+The next day I heard the titmouse singing in an elder by the kitchen,
+and went out to see how the birds acted when gathering their own
+material. The songster was idly hunting through the branches, singing,
+while his mate--busy little housewife--was hard at work getting her
+building stuff. She had something in her beak when I caught sight of
+her, but in an instant was down on the ground after another bit. Then
+she flew up in the tree looking among the leaves; in passing she swung
+a moment on a strap hanging from a branch; then flew down among the
+weeds, back up in the tree again; and so back and forth, over and over,
+her bill getting fuller and fuller.
+
+I was glad to save her work, and interested to see how far she would
+accept my help. Once when I blocked the entrance with feathers and
+horsehair she stopped, and, though her bill was full, picked up the
+packet and flew out on a branch with it. Was she going to throw away my
+present? For a moment my faith in her was shaken. Perhaps her mate had
+been warning her to beware of me. She did drop the mat of
+horsehair--what did such a dainty Quaker lady as she want of
+horsehair?--but she kept tight hold of one of the feathers, although it
+was almost as big as she was; and flew back quickly to the nest with it.
+
+This performance proved one point. She would not take everything that
+was brought to her. She preferred to hunt for her own materials rather
+than use what she did not like. Now the question was, what did she like?
+
+My next experiment was with some lamp wick to which I had tied bits of
+cotton. The titmouse took the cotton and would have taken the wicking, I
+think, if it had not been fastened in too tight for her. After that I
+tried tying bits of cotton to strings, and letting them dangle before
+the mouth of the nest. Though I moved up to within twenty feet of the
+nest, she paid no attention to me but hurried in. She liked the cotton
+so well she stopped in her hallway, reached up to pull at the white
+bundles, and tweaked and tugged till, finally, she backed triumphantly
+down the hole with one.
+
+Her mate, less familiar with my experiments, started to go to the nest
+after her, but the sight of the cotton scared him so he fled
+ignominiously back into the treetop. He stayed there singing till she
+came out, when he flew up to her with a dainty he had discovered--at
+least the two put their bills together; perhaps it was just a caress,
+for they were a tender, gentle little pair.
+
+Having proved that my bird liked feathers and cotton, I wanted to see
+what she thought of straws. Apparently she did not think much of them.
+She looked very much dashed when she came home and found the yellow
+sticks protruding from the nest hole. She hesitated, turned her head
+over, flew to a twig on one side of the oak and then back to one on the
+other side. Finally she mustered courage, and with her crest flattened
+as if she did not like it, darted down into the hole. When she flew out,
+however, she went right to her mate, and forgetting all her troubles at
+sight of him, fluttered her wings and lisped like a young bird as she
+put up her bill to have him feed her.
+
+Perhaps it was unkind to bother the poor bird any more, but I meant her
+no harm and the fever for experiment possessed my blood. I tied some of
+the straws to a piece of wicking and baited it with feathers, thinking
+that perhaps she would take the straws for the sake of the feathers and
+wicking. I also stuffed the hole with horsehair. She did pull at the
+feather end of the line; I saw the straw jerk, and, when she had left,
+found a round hole the brave little bird had made right through the
+middle of the mat of horsehair I had stopped the nest with.
+
+Straws and horsehair the titmouse evidently classed together. They were
+not on her list of building materials. On reflection she decided that
+the horsehair would make a good hall carpet, so left it in the
+vestibule, though she would have none of it down in her nest; but she
+calmly threw my straws down on the ground at the foot of the oak.
+
+I don't know what experiments I might have been tempted to try next had
+I not suddenly found myself dismissed--the house was complete. My pretty
+Quaker lady sat in the shade of the oak leaves with crest raised and the
+flickering sunlight flecking her gray breast. She pecked softly at one
+of the white feathers that blew up against her as she listened to the
+song of her mate; and then flew away to him without once going to the
+nest. Evidently her work was done, and she was waiting till it should be
+time to begin brooding.
+
+Ten days later I saw her mate come with his bill full of worms and lean
+down by the hole to call her. She answered with a sweet pleading
+twitter, and reached up to be fed. When he had gone, perhaps she thought
+she would like a second bite. At any rate, she hopped out in the doorway
+and flew off to another tree, calling out _tsche-de-de_ so sweetly he
+would surely have come back to her had he been within hearing.
+
+A few days later I saw him feed her at the nest five or six times in
+half an hour. He would come to the next oak, light and call to her, when
+she would answer from inside the tree trunk and he would go to her. I
+was near enough to see her pretty gray head and black eyes coming up out
+of the crack in the oak. Sometimes when he had fed her he would call out
+and she would answer as if saying good-by from down in the nest. One
+morning I found the devoted little mate bringing her breakfast to her at
+half past six.
+
+Nearly a month later they were feeding their young. The winsome mother
+bird, who had looked so tired and nest-worn the last time I saw her, was
+now as plump and happy as her spouse. When I thought the pair were away,
+I went to try to get sight of the nestlings down the hole. The old birds
+appeared as soon as I set foot by the oak and took upon themselves to
+scold me. They chattered softly in a way they had never done before.
+They quickly got used to me again, however, and fed the little ones
+without hesitation right before me, knowing full well that a person who
+had helped them build their nest would never harm their little brood;
+and it was a disappointment when I had to go away and leave the winning
+family.
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+IN OUR NEIGHBOR'S DOOR-YARD.
+
+
+THE little German girl with the scarlet pinafore was a near neighbor,
+living at the head of the valley in a cottage surrounded by great
+live-oaks. These trees were alive with birds. Bush-tits flew back and
+forth, busily hanging their gray pockets among the leafy folds of the
+drooping branches; blue jays flew through, squawking on their way to the
+brush; goldfinches, building in the orchard, lisped sweetly as they
+rested in the oaks; and a handsome oriole who was building in the grove
+flew overhead so slowly he seemed to be retarded by the fullness of his
+own sweet song. But I had become so fond of the gentle gray titmouse
+whose nest I had helped to build, that of all the bird songs in the
+trees, its cheery _tu-whit', tu-whit', tu-whit'_ was most enticing to
+me. How delightful it would be to watch another pair of the winning
+workers! I did see one of the birds enter a hollow branch, one day, and
+not long after saw it go down a hole in an oak trunk; but never saw it
+afterwards in either place. Back and forth I followed that elusive
+voice, hoping to discover the nest, but I suspect the bird was only
+prospecting, and had not even begun to work.
+
+The little German Gretchen became interested in the search for the
+titmouse's nest, and told me that a gray bird had built in an oak in
+front of her house. I rode right over to see it, but found the gray bird
+a female Mexican bluebird, whose brilliant ultramarine mate sat on the
+fence of the vegetable garden in plain sight. The children kept better
+watch of the nest after that, and a few days later, when in my attic
+study, I heard the tramp of a horse, and, looking out, found my little
+friend under the window, come to tell me that the eggs had hatched. When
+her older sister came for the washing I asked her if she had seen the
+old birds go to the nest, and she said, "Yes; one was blue and the other
+gray."
+
+When I rode up again, the young had grown so that from the saddle I
+could look down the hole and see their big mouths and bristling
+pin-feathers. The mother bird was about the tree, and her soft dull
+coloring toned in well with the gray bark. The bluebirds had a double
+front door, and went in one side to come out the other. I saw both of
+them feed the young, the male flying into the hole straight from the
+fence post.
+
+It seemed such hard work finding worms out in the hot sun that I
+wondered if birds' eyes ever ached from the intentness of their search,
+and if there were near-sighted birds. Perhaps the intervals of feeding
+depend on the worm supply rather than the dietary principles of the
+parents.
+
+Gretchen's mother was bending over her wash-tubs out under the oaks, and
+I called her attention to the pretty birds brooding in her door-yard,
+telling her that they were good friends of hers, eating up the worms
+that destroyed her flowers and vegetables. "So?" she asked, but seemed
+ready to let the subject drop there, and hurried back to her work. A
+poor widow with a large family of children and a ranch to look after can
+find little time, even in beautiful California, to enjoy what Nature
+places in her door-yard.
+
+Three weeks later Gretchen came riding down to tell me that there were
+eggs in the tree again. The bluebird bid fair to be as hardworked as the
+widow, at that rate, I thought, when I went up to look at them. The
+children showed me the nest of a goldfinch, near the ground, in one of
+the little orange-trees in front of the house. They also pointed out
+linnets' nests in the vines by the door, and the oldest child said
+eagerly, "When we came home from school there was a hummingbird in the
+window, and we caught it," adding, "I think it must have been a father
+hummingbird." "Why?" I asked, "was it pretty?" "Yes, it just shined,"
+she exclaimed enthusiastically.
+
+When the family were at home, their puppy would bark at us furiously,
+and follow us about suspiciously, but when he had been left on the
+ranch alone he was glad of our society. Then when I watched the
+bluebirds, he came and curled down by my side, becoming so friendly that
+he actually grew jealous of Billy, and turned to have me caress him each
+time that the little horse walked up to have the flies brushed off his
+nose, or having pulled up a bunch of grass by the roots, brought it for
+me to hold so that he could eat it without getting the dirt in his
+mouth.
+
+Going home one day, Billy came upon a gopher snake. Now Canello had been
+brought up in a rattlesnake country, and was always on his guard, but
+Billy was 'raised' in the mountains, where snakes are scarce, and did
+not seem to know what they were. He had given me a good deal of anxiety
+by this indifference--he had stepped over a big one once without seeing
+any need for haste--and I had been expecting that he would get bitten.
+Here, then, was my chance to give him a scare. The gopher snake was
+harmless; perhaps, if I could get him so close to it that he would see
+it wriggle away from under his feet, he might be less indifferent to
+rattlers.
+
+The gopher snake was three or four feet long, and lay as straight as a
+stick across our path. As I urged Billy up beside it, he actually
+stepped on the tip of its tail. The poor snake writhed a little, but
+gave no other sign of pain; its role was to remain a stick. And Billy
+certainly acted as if it were. I threw the reins on his neck, thinking
+that if he put his head down to graze he might make a discovery. Then a
+horrid thought came to me. The people said the rattlers sometimes lost
+their rattles. In a general way, rattlers and gopher snakes look alike;
+what if this were a rattlesnake, and at my bidding my little horse
+should be struck! But no. There was no mistaking the long tapering body
+of the gopher, and it lacked the wide flat head of the rattler. But I
+might have spared myself my fears. Billy would not even put his head
+down, and when I tried to force him upon the snake he quietly turned
+aside. To make the snake move, I threw a stick at it, but it was as
+obstinate as Billy himself. Then I slipped to the ground, and picking up
+a long pole gave it a gingerly little poke. Still motionless! I tried
+another plan, taking Billy away a few yards. Then at last the snake
+slowly pulled itself along. But the moment we came back it turned into a
+stick again, and Billy relapsed into indifference. It was no use. I
+could do nothing with either of them. I would see the snake go off,
+anyway, I thought, so withdrew and waited till it felt reassured, when
+it started. Its silken skin shone as it wormed silently through the
+grass and disappeared down a hole without a sound, and I reflected that
+it might also come _up_ without a sound, very likely beside me as I sat
+on the dead leaves!
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+WHICH WAS THE MOTHER BIRD?
+
+
+THE second time I went to California the little whitewashed adobe
+opposite my ranch was still standing, but an acacia-tree had grown over
+the well where the black ph[oe]be had nested, and the shaft was so
+overrun with bushes and vines that it was hard to find a trace of it.
+Drawn by pleasant memories, I rode in one morning, sure of finding
+something interesting about the old place.
+
+I had not waited long before the chip of a young bird came from the
+vines over the well. It proved a callow nestling, with no tail, and
+little to mark its parentage. Presently a brown long-tailed wren-tit
+came with food in its bill and peered down through the leaves at it; and
+then a California towhee came and sat around till satisfied as to whose
+child was crying. A moment later a lazuli bunting flew over with food in
+her bill, and I at once bethought me of the lazuli-like markings, the
+brownish wing-bars and the sharp cry of "quit," which none but a lazuli
+could give. That surely was my bird.
+
+But if so, what did this interest on the part of the wren-tit mean? She
+hopped about the nestling with tail up and crest raised, chattering to
+it in low mysterious tones; and when I suspected her of giving her worm
+to it, suddenly turned her head and looked away with a suspiciously
+non-committal air. The lazuli, however, sat indifferently on a branch
+and plumed her feathers, though when she did fly down toward the young
+one, the wren-tit gave way. But even then the lazuli did not feed the
+small bird. When she had gone, the wren-tit came back. She spoke low to
+the nestling, and drew it down into the thick part of the tangle where I
+could not see them, though there was a hint of tiny quivering wings, and
+I was morally certain that the old bird was feeding it, especially when
+she flew up in sight with the smart air of having outwitted me.
+
+I was getting more and more bewildered. What did it all mean? Were there
+two families of young down in the tangle? If not, why were two old birds
+feeding one little one, and to which mother did the child belong? The
+wisdom of Solomon was needed to solve the riddle.
+
+The wren-tit simply devoted herself to the little bird, going and coming
+for it constantly; while the lazuli, ordinarily the most nervous noisy
+bird when her young are disturbed, sat around silently, or flew away
+without remark. I became so impressed by the wren-tit side of the case
+that I quite forgot the lazuli note and markings.
+
+Just as I thought I had come to a decision in the case, a male lazuli
+flew in, lighting atilt of an acacia stalk opposite the wren-tit. But
+when he saw me he craned his neck and flew off in a hurry--no father,
+surely, scared away at the first glimpse of me! However, I was not clear
+in my mind, and sat down to puzzle the matter out.
+
+At this juncture Madame Lazuli came with food; the young bird turned
+toward her for it, and behold! she took to her wings with all she had
+brought. I had hardly time to congratulate myself on this new piece of
+testimony, when back came the lazuli with her bill full!
+
+In my perplexity I moved so near the little one that, without meaning
+to, I forced the old birds to show their true colors. The situation was
+too dangerous to admit of further subterfuge. Both Madame Lazuli and her
+handsome blue mate--whom I discovered at a safe distance up on a high
+branch out of reach--flew down and dashed about, twitching their tails
+from side to side as they cried "quit," in nervous tones; altogether
+acting so much like anxious parents that I had to relinquish my theory
+that the little bird belonged to the wren-tit. Like the mother whom
+Solomon judged, she forgot all else when real danger threatened the
+child. Having come to my decision from circumstantial evidence, I
+remembered with a start that I had known it all the time, from the
+wing-bars and the call note! Nevertheless, my riddle was only half
+solved, for how about the wren-tit?
+
+A young bird called from the sycamore at the corner of the adobe, and
+when both old birds flew over to it, I thought I'd better follow. I got
+there just in time to see a little bird light in the elbow of a limb,
+totter as if going to fall, and save itself by snuggling up in the
+elbow, where it sat in the sun looking very cozy and comfortable--winning
+little tot. The mother lazuli started to come to it, but seeing me flew
+away to another branch, where, well screened, she stretched up on her
+toes to look at me over the top of a big sycamore leaf. Though the
+fledgling called, the mother left without going to it.
+
+The wren-tit had stayed behind at the well; but while the lazuli was
+gone, who should come flying in but the foster mother! I was astonished.
+Moreover, the instant the youngster set eyes on her, it started up and
+flew to her--actually flew into her in its hurry. She admonished it
+gently, in a soft chattering voice, for she could not scold it.
+
+When the lazuli came back with food, it was only to see her little bird
+flying off to the other side of the tree after the wren-tit! I thought
+she seemed bewildered, but she followed in their wake--we all followed.
+Here came a closer test. Both lazuli and wren-tit stood before the small
+bird. Which would it go to? The lazuli kept silent, but the wren-tit
+called softly and the little one raised its wings and flew toward her,
+leaving its mother behind.
+
+I watched and waited, but the wren-tit did not give over her kind
+offices, and the last I saw of the birds, on riding away, the three were
+flying in procession across the brush, the lazuli following its mother
+and the wren-tit bringing up the rear.
+
+I went home very much puzzled. Was the wren-tit a lonely mother bird who
+had lost her own little ones, or was she merely an old maid with a warm
+spot in her heart for other peoples' little folks?
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.
+
+A RARE BIRD.
+
+
+WE may say that we care naught for the world and its ways, but most of
+us are more or less tricked by the high-sounding titles of the mighty.
+Even plain-thinking observers come under the same curse of Adam, and,
+like the snobs who turn scornfully from Mr. Jones to hang upon the words
+of Lord Higginbottom, will pass by a plain _brown chippie_ to study with
+enthusiasm the ways of a _phainopepla_! Sometimes, however, in
+ornithology as in the world, a name does cover more than its letters,
+and we are duped into making some interesting discoveries as well as
+learning some of the important lessons in life. In the case of the
+phainopepla, no hopes that could be raised by his cognomen would equal
+the rare pleasure afforded by a study of his unusual ways.
+
+[Illustration: THE PHAINOPEPLAS ON THE PEPPER-TREE]
+
+On my first visit to Twin Oaks I caught but brief glimpses of this
+distinguished bird. Sometimes for a moment he lit on a bare limb and I
+had a chance to admire his high black crest and glossy blue-black coat,
+which with one more touch of color would become iridescent. He was so
+slenderly formed, and his shining coat was so smooth and trim, he
+made me think of a bird of glass perched on a tree. But while I gazed at
+him he would launch into the air and wing his way high over the valley
+to the hillsides beyond, leaving me to marvel at the white disks on his
+wings, hidden when perching, but in air making him suggest a black ship
+with white sails.
+
+His appearance was so elegant and his ways so unusual that I went back
+East regretting I had not given more time to a bird who was so
+individual, and resolved that if I ever returned to California my first
+pleasure should be to study him. When the time finally came, an
+ornithologist friend who knew my plans wrote, exclaiming, "Do study the
+phainopeplas!" and added that she felt like making a journey to
+California to see that one bird.
+
+From the middle of March till the middle of May I watched and waited for
+the phainopeplas. There had been only a few of the birds before, and I
+began to fear they had left the valley. When despairing of them,
+suddenly one day I saw a black speck cross over to the hills. I wanted
+to drop my work and follow, but went on with my rounds, and one bright
+morning on my way home after a discouraging hunt for nests, a pair of
+phainopeplas flew up right before my eyes almost within sight of the
+house. I dropped down behind a bush, and in a moment more the birds flew
+to a little oak by the road--a tree I had been sitting under that very
+morning! The female seated herself on top of the oak, watching me with
+raised crest, while her mate disappeared in a dark mat of leaves,
+probably mistletoe, where he stayed so long that the possibility of a
+nest waxed to a probability, and I made a rapid but ecstatic ascent to
+the observer's seventh heaven. A phainopepla's nest right on my own
+doorsill! I could hardly restrain my impatience, and was tempted to shoo
+the birds away so I could go to the nest; when suddenly they opened
+their wings and, crossing the valley, disappeared up a side canyon!
+Pulling myself together and reflecting that I might have known better
+than to imagine there would be a nest so near home, I took up my
+camp-stool and trudged back to the house.
+
+After that came a number of tantalizing hints. When watching the third
+gnatcatcher's nest I had seen a pair of phainopeplas flying suggestively
+back and forth from the brush to the various oaks, and thought the
+handsome lover fed his mate as his relative the gentle high-bred waxwing
+does. Surely the wooing of these beautiful birds should be carried on
+with no less fine feeling, courtesy, and tenderness; and so it seems to
+be. The black knight flew low over my head slowly, as if inspecting me,
+and then came again with his lady, as if having said, "Dear one, I would
+consult you upon this impending danger."
+
+After that, something really delightful came about. Day by day, on
+riding back to our ranch-house, I found phainopeplas there eating the
+berries of the pepper-trees in our front yard. Before long the birds
+began coming early in the morning; their voices were the first sounds we
+heard on awakening and almost the last at night, and soon we realized
+the delightful fact that our trees had become the feeding ground for all
+the phainopeplas of the valley. Altogether there were five or six pairs.
+It was a pretty sight to see the black satiny birds perched on one of
+the delicate sprays of the willowy pepper-trees, hanging over the
+grape-like clusters, to pluck the small pink berries. The birds soon
+grew very friendly, and, though they gave a cry of warning when the cats
+appeared, became so tame they would answer my calls and let me watch
+them from the piazza steps, not a rod away.
+
+When they first began to linger about the house we thought they were
+building near, and when one flew into an oak across the road, almost
+gave me palpitation of the heart by the suggestion. But no nest was
+there, and when the bird flew away it rose obliquely into the air
+perhaps a hundred feet, and then flew on evenly straight across to the
+small oaks on the farther side of a patch of brush that remained in the
+centre of the valley, known to the ranchmen as the 'Island.' The flight
+looked so premeditated that the first thing the next morning, although
+the phainopeplas were at the peppers, I rode on ahead to wait for them
+at their nest. We had not been there long before hearing the familiar
+warning call. Turning Billy in the direction of the sound, I threw his
+reins on his neck to induce him to graze along the way and give our
+presence a more casual air, while I looked up indifferently as if to
+survey the landscape. To my delight the phainopepla did not seem greatly
+alarmed, and, throwing off the assumed indifference that always makes an
+observer feel like a wretched hypocrite, I called and whistled to him as
+I had done at the house, to let him know that it was a familiar friend
+and he had nothing to fear. The beautiful bird started toward me, but on
+second thought retreated. I turned my back, but, to my chagrin, after
+giving a few low warning calls, my bird vanished. Alas, for the
+generations of murderers that have made birds distrust their best
+friends--that make honest observers tremble for what may befall the
+birds if they put trust in but one of the human species!
+
+[Illustration: THE PHAINOPEPLA'S NEST IN THE OAK BRUSH ISLAND]
+
+It was plain that if I would get a study of these rare birds I must make
+a business of it. Slipping from the saddle, I sat down behind a bush and
+waited. When the bird came back and found the place apparently deserted,
+to my relief he seated himself on a twig and sang away as if nothing had
+disturbed his serenity of spirit. But presently the warning call sounded
+again. This time it was for a schoolgirl who had staked out her horse
+on the edge of the island and was crossing over to the schoolhouse. A
+few moments later the bell rang out so loudly that Billy stepped around
+his oak with animation, but the phainopeplas were used to it and showed
+no uneasiness.
+
+Before long a flash of white announced a second bird, and then, after a
+long interval in which nothing happened, the male pitched into a bush
+with beak bristling with building material! My delight knew no bounds.
+Instead of nesting in the top of an oak in a remote canyon, as I had
+been assured the shy birds would do, here they were building in a low
+oak not more than an eighth of a mile from the house, and in plain
+sight. Moreover, they were birds who knew me at home, and so would
+really be much less afraid than strangers, whatever airs they assumed.
+In the photograph, the bare twigs of the perch tree show above the line
+of the horizon; the nest tree is the low oak beside it on the right. One
+thing puzzled me from the outset. While the male worked on the nest, the
+female sat on the outside circle of brush as if having nothing to do, in
+spite of the fact that her gray dress toned in so well with the brush
+that she was quite inconspicuous, while his shining black coat made him
+a clear mark from a distance. What did it mean? I invented all sorts of
+fancies to account for it. Had she been to the pepper-trees so much
+less than he that she was over-troubled by my presence, and therefore
+the gallant black knight who sang to her so sweetly and was so tender of
+her, seeing her fears, took the work upon himself? Perchance he had
+said, "If you are timid, my love, I will build for you while she is by,
+for I would not have you come near if it would disquiet you."
+
+In any event, he built away quite unconcernedly not three rods from
+where I sat on the ground staring at him. He would fly to the earth for
+material, but return to the nest from above, pitching down to it as if
+having nothing to hide. Once, when resting, he perched on the tree, and
+I talked to him quite freely. That noon the phainopeplas were at the
+house before me, and I went out to talk to them while they lunched to
+let them know it was only I who had visited their nest, so they would
+have new confidence on the morrow.
+
+But on the morrow they flew to another part of the island, and when we
+followed, although I hitched Billy farther away from the nest tree and
+sat quietly behind a brush screen, they did not come back. A brown
+chippie plumed his feathers unrebuked in their oak, making the place
+seem more deserted than before. A lizard ran out from the grape cuttings
+at my feet, and a little black and white mephitis cantered along over
+the ground with his back arched and his head down. He nosed around under
+the bushes, showing the white V on his back, exactly like that of our
+eastern species. As I rode home, five turkey buzzards were flying low
+over the edge of the island, and one vulture rose from a meal of one of
+the little black and white animal's relatives, but I saw nothing more of
+my birds that day.
+
+The next day the phainopeplas came again to the pepper-trees and ate
+their fill while I sat on the steps watching. The male was quite
+unconcerned, but when his mate flew near me, he called out sharply; he
+could risk his own life, but not that of his love. Again the pair flew
+back to the high oaks on the far side of the island. All my hopes of the
+first low inaccessible nest vanished. I had driven the birds away. My
+intrusiveness had made me lose the best chance of the whole nesting
+season. But I would try to follow them. It did not seem necessary to
+take Billy. There were only a few trees on that side of the island, and
+it would be a simple matter to locate the birds. I would walk over, find
+in which tree they were building, and spend the morning with them. I
+went. Each oak was encircled by a thick wall of brush, over which it was
+almost impossible to see more than a fraction of the tree, and the high
+oak tops were impenetrable to eye and glass. After chasing phantoms all
+the afternoon I went home with renewed respect for Billy as an adjunct
+to field work. In order to locate anything in chaparral, one must be
+high enough to overlook the mass.
+
+That afternoon I saw a pair of phainopeplas fly up a canyon on the east,
+and another pair fly up another on the west. If I were to know anything
+of these birds, I must not be balked by faulty observing; I must at
+least do intelligent work. Riding in from the back and tying Billy out
+of sight away from the old nest, I swung myself up into a crotch of a
+low oak from which I could overlook the whole island. The phainopeplas
+soon flew in, but to the opposite side, and I was condemning myself for
+having driven them away when, to my amazement, the male flew over and
+shot down into the little oak where he had been building before! My
+self-reproach took a different form--I had not been patient enough.
+Surely if I could wait an hour for an ordinary hummingbird, I could wait
+a morning for an absent phainopepla.
+
+From the nest the beautiful bird flew to the bare oak top behind it
+which he used for a perch, and--alas! gave his warning call. I was
+discovered. He dashed his tail, turned his head to look at me first from
+one side and then from the other, and then flew to the top of the
+highest tree in sight to verify his observations. Whether he recognized
+the object as his pepper-tree acquaintance, I do not know; but to my
+great relief he went back to his work. By this time the little tree
+which had seemed such a comfortable chair had undergone a change--I felt
+as if stretched upon the gridiron of St. Anthony. Climbing down stiffly,
+I kneeled behind the brush and practiced focusing my glass on the nest
+so that it would not catch the light and frighten the bird, when out he
+flew from the nest and sat down facing me in broad daylight! He did not
+say a word, but looked around abstractedly, as if hunting for material.
+
+If he were so indifferent, perhaps it would be safe to creep nearer.
+Following the paths trodden by the bare feet of the school children, and
+spying and skulking, I crept into a good hiding-place about a rod from
+the nest. The ground was covered with dead leaves, and I saw a
+suggestive round hole--a very large rattlesnake had been killed a few
+rods away the week before. I covered the hole with my cloak and then sat
+down on the lid--nothing could come up while I was there, at all events.
+
+The phainopepla worked busily for some time, flying rapidly back and
+forth with material. Then came the warning cry. I drew in my note-book
+from the sun so that it should not catch his eye, and waited. The hot
+air grew hotter, beating down on my head. A big lizard wriggled over the
+leaves, and I thought of my rattlesnake. Then Billy sneezed in a forced
+way, as though to remind me not to go off without him. Growing
+restless, I moved the bushes a little--they were so stiff they made a
+very good chair-back if one got into the right position--when suddenly,
+looking up I saw my phainopepla friend vault into the air from a bush
+behind me, where, apparently, he had been sitting taking notes of his
+own! What observers birds are, to be sure! The best of us have much to
+learn from them.
+
+But though the phainopepla was most watchful, he was open to conviction,
+and he and his mate at last concluded that I meant them no harm.
+Afterwards, when I moved, they both came and looked at me, but went
+about their business quite unmindful of me.
+
+As I had seen from the outset, the male did almost all the building.
+When his spouse came in sight he burst out into a tender joyous love
+song. She went to the nest now and again, but generally when she came it
+was to sun herself on the bare perch tree, where she dressed her plumes
+or merely sat with crest raised and her soft gray feathers fluffed about
+her feet, while waiting for her mate to get leisure to take a run with
+her.
+
+When he had finished his stint and she was not about, he would take his
+turn on the perch tree, his handsome glossy black coat shining in the
+sun. If an unwitting neighbor lit on his tree he would flatten his
+crest and dash down indignantly, but for the most part he perched
+quietly except to make short sallies into the air for insects, sometimes
+singing as he went; or he just warbled to himself contentedly, what
+sounded like the chattering run of a swallow on the wing. One day we had
+quite a conversation. His simplest call note was like the call of a
+young robin, and while I answered him he gave his note seventeen times
+in one minute, and eleven times in the next half minute.
+
+The birds had a great variety of calls and songs, most of which were
+vivacious and cheering and seemed attuned to the warmth and brightness
+of the California sunshine. The quality of the love song was rich and
+flute-like.
+
+The male phainopepla seemed to enjoy life in general and his work in
+particular. He frequently sang to himself when going for material; and
+once, apparently, when on the nest. When he was building I could see his
+black head move about between the leaves. Like the gnatcatchers, he used
+only fine bits of material, but he did not drill them in as they did. He
+merely laid them in, or at most wove them in gently. Now and then, as
+the black head moved in front, the black tail would tilt up behind at
+the back of the nest as if the bird were moulding; but there was
+comparatively little of that. When completed, the nest was a soft felty
+structure.
+
+When working, the male would fly back and forth from the ground to the
+nest, carrying his bits of plant stem, oak blossom, and other fine
+stuff. He worked so rapidly that it kept me busy recording his visits.
+He once went to the nest four times in four minutes; at another time,
+seventeen times in a little over an hour. Sometimes he stayed only half
+a minute; when he stayed three minutes, it was so unusual that I
+recorded it. He worked spasmodically, however. One day he came seventeen
+times in one hour, but during the next half hour came only five times.
+The birds seemed to divide their mornings into quite regular periods.
+When I awoke at half past five I would hear them at the pepper-trees
+breakfasting; and some of them were generally there as late as eight
+o'clock. From eight to ten they worked with a will, though the visits
+usually fell off after half past nine. It was when working in this more
+deliberate way that the male would go to his perch on an adjoining tree
+and preen himself, catch flies, or sing between his visits. Once he sat
+on the limb in front of the nest for nearly ten minutes. By ten o'clock
+I found that I might as well go to watch other birds, as little would be
+going on with the phainopeplas; and they often flew off for a lunch of
+peppers.
+
+Just as the island nest was about done--it was destroyed! I found it on
+the ground under the tree. For a time I felt as if no nests could come
+to anything; the number that had been destroyed during the season was
+disheartening. It seemed as though I no sooner got interested in a
+little family than its home was broken up. Sometimes I wondered how a
+bird ever had courage to start a nest.
+
+But though it was hard to reconcile myself to the destruction of the
+phainopeplas' nest, I found others later. Altogether, I saw three pairs
+of birds building, and in each case the male was doing most of the work.
+Two of the nests I watched closely, watch and note-book in hand, in
+order to determine the exact proportion of work done by each bird. One
+nest was watched two hours and a half, during a period of five days, in
+which time the male went to the nest twenty-seven times, the female,
+only three. The other nest was watched seven hours and thirty-five
+minutes, during a period of ten days, in which time the male was at the
+nest fifty-seven times; the female, only eight. Taking the total for the
+two nests: in ten hours and five minutes the male went to the nest
+eighty-four times; the female, eleven. That is to say, the females made
+only thirteen per cent of the visits. In reality, although they went to
+the nest eleven times, the ratio of work might safely be reduced still
+further; for in watching them I was convinced that, as a rule, they came
+to the nest, not to build, but to inspect the building done by their
+mates. Indeed, at one nest, I saw nothing to make me suspect that the
+female did any of the work. Her coming was usually welcomed by a joyous
+song, but once the evidence seemed to prove that she was driven away;
+perhaps she was too free with her criticisms! In another case the work
+was sadly interrupted by the presence of the visitor, for while she sat
+in the nest her excited mate flew back and forth as if he had quite
+forgotten the business in hand. Perhaps he was nervous, and wanted to
+make sure what she was doing in the new house!
+
+In several instances I found that while the males were at work building,
+the females went off by themselves. Once I saw Madame Phainopepla bring
+her friend home with her. No sooner had the visitor lit than--shocking
+to relate--the lord of the house left his work and drove her off with
+bill and claw--a polite way to treat his lady's friends, surely! On one
+occasion, when I looked up I saw a procession passing overhead--two
+females followed by a male. The male flew hesitatingly, as if troubled
+by his conscience, and then, deciding that if the nest was ever going to
+be built he had better keep at it, turned around and came back to work.
+One day when I rode over to the chaparral island, I found two of the
+males sitting around in the brush. They played tag until tired, and then
+perched on a branch in the sun, side by side, evidently enjoying
+themselves like light-hearted, care-free bachelors. Their mates were
+not in sight. But suddenly I glanced up and saw two females flying in to
+the island high overhead, as if coming from a distance. Instantly the
+indifferent holiday air of their mates vanished. They gave their low
+warning calls, for I was on the ground and they must not show me their
+nests. In answer to the warning the females wavered, and then, when
+their mates joined them, all four flew away together.
+
+At other times when I rode in the males would make large circles,
+seventy-five feet above me, as if to get a clear understanding of the
+impending danger. This was when small nest hunters were about, and the
+birds were some whose nests I did not find, and who had no opportunity
+to become convinced of my good intentions.
+
+After finding that the males did most of the building, I was anxious to
+see how it would be when the brooding began. Three of my nests were
+broken up beforehand, however, and the fourth was despoiled after I had
+watched the birds on the nest one day. Nevertheless, the evidence of
+that day was most interesting as far as it went. It proved that while
+the female lacked the architect's instinct, she was not without the
+maternal instinct. There were two eggs in the nest, and in the one hour
+that I watched, each bird brooded the eggs six times. Before this, the
+female had been to the nest so much less than the male that now she was
+much shyer; but although Billy frightened her by tramping down the brush
+near by, it was she who first overcame her fears and went to cover the
+eggs.
+
+
+
+
+XIX.
+
+MY BLUE GUM GROVE.
+
+
+ONE of the first things I did on getting settled on my ranch, the second
+time I was in California, was to get a wagon and go down to my
+eucalyptus grove for a load of the pale green aromatic boughs with which
+to trim my attic study; for their fragrance is delightful and their
+delicate blue-green tone lends itself readily to decorative purposes.
+When the supply needed replenishing, I rode down on Mountain Billy and
+carried home the sweet-smelling branches on the saddle.
+
+The grove served a more utilitarian purpose, however. The eucalyptus is
+an Australian tree, with narrow straight-hanging leaves, and its rapid
+growth makes it useful for firewood. A tree will grow forty feet in four
+years, and when cut off a few feet above the ground will spring up again
+and soon be ready to yield another crop. My grove had never been cut,
+but would soon be old enough. In the photograph of a eucalyptus avenue
+near Los Angeles, the row of trees on the right have been cut near the
+ground and the branching trunks are the consequence.
+
+[Illustration: EUCALYPTUS AVENUE, SHOWING POLLARDED TREES ON THE RIGHT,
+NEAR LOS ANGELES]
+
+My eucalyptus or blue gum grove was down near the big sycamore, and
+opposite the bare knoll where Romulus and the burrowing owls had their
+nightly battles. On one side of it was a rustling cornfield always
+pleasant to look at. After the bare yellow stubble and all the reds and
+browns of a California summer landscape, its rich dark green color and
+its stanch, strong stalks made it seem a very plain honest sort of
+field, and its greenness was most grateful to eyes unused to the bright
+colors and strong lights of California.
+
+Opposite the little grove, in a small house perched on a hill, an old
+sea-captain lived alone. As I rode by one day, he sat with his feet
+hanging over the edge of the high piazza, looking off; as if on the prow
+of his vessel, gazing out to sea. When I stopped to ask if he had seen
+anything noteworthy happen at the grove, he complained that it shut off
+his view and kept away the breeze from the ocean! I was too much taken
+by surprise to apologize for my trees, but felt reproached; unwittingly
+I had destroyed the old captain's choicest pleasure. He had spoken in an
+impersonal way that I quite understood,--he had been taken
+unawares,--but the next time I rode past, as if to make up for any
+apparent rudeness, he came hurrying down the walk to tell me of a crow's
+nest he had seen in the grove. To mark it he had fastened a piece of
+paper to the wire fence by the road, and another paper to the nest tree,
+binding it on with a eucalyptus twig in true sailor fashion.
+
+It was always a relief to leave the hot beating sun and the glare of the
+yellow fields and enter the cool shade of the quiet grove. I could let
+down the fence and put it up behind me; thus having my small forest all
+to myself; and used to enjoy riding up and down the fragrant blue
+avenues. The eucalyptus-trees, although thirty or forty feet high, were
+lithe and slender; some of them could be spanned by the hands. The rows
+were planted ten feet apart, but the long branches interlaced, so one
+had to be on the alert, in riding down the lines, to bend low on the
+saddle or push aside the branches that obstructed the way. The limbs
+were so slender and flexible that a touch was enough to bend back a
+green gate fifteen to twenty feet long, and Billy often pushed a branch
+aside with his nose. In places, fallen trees barred our path, but Billy
+used to step carefully over them.
+
+The eucalyptus-trees change very curiously as they grow old. When young
+they are covered with branches low to the ground, and their aromatic
+tender leaves are light bluish green; afterwards they lose their lower
+branches, while their leaves become stiff and sickle-shaped, dull green
+and almost odorless. The same changes are seen in the bark: first the
+trunks are smooth and green; then they are hung with shaggy shreds of
+bark; this in turn drops off so that the old trees are smooth again.
+Some of the young shoots have almost white stems, and their leaves have
+a pinkish tinge. Indeed, a young blue gum is as pretty a sight as one
+often sees; it is a tree of exquisite delicacy of coloring.
+
+[Illustration: EUCALYPTUS WOOD STORED FOR MARKET, IN A EUCALYPTUS GROVE
+NEAR LOS ANGELES]
+
+Mountain Billy and I both liked to wander among the blue gums. Billy
+liked it, perhaps, for association's sake, for we had ridden through the
+eucalyptus at his home in northern California. I too had pleasant
+memories of the northern gums, but my first interest was in finding out
+who lived in my little woods. A dog had once been seen driving a coyote
+wolf out of it, but that was merely in passing. I did not expect to meet
+wolves there. It was said, however, to be a good place for tarantulas,
+so at first I stepped over the dead leaf carpet with great caution; but
+never seeing any of the big spiders, grew brave and sat indifferently
+right on the ground before the nests, or leaning up against the trees.
+The ground was almost as hard as a rock, for the eucalyptus absorbed all
+the moisture, and that may have had something to do with its freedom
+from snakes and scorpions, though it would not explain the absence of
+caterpillars and spiders, which just then were so common outside. Though
+in the grove a great deal, I never ran into but one cobweb, and was
+conscious of the pleasant freedom from falling caterpillars. Moreover, I
+never saw a lizard in the blue gums, though dozens of them were to be
+seen about the oaks and in the brush.
+
+It was a surprise to find so many feathered folks living in the
+eucalyptus, and I took a personal interest in each one of the
+inhabitants. The first time we started to go up and down the avenues we
+scared up a pair of turtle doves, beautiful, delicately tinted gentle
+creatures, fit tenants of the lovely grove. They did not know my
+friendly interest in them, and flew to the ground trailing and trying to
+decoy me away in such a marked manner that when we passed a young dove a
+few yards farther on, it was easy to put two and two together.
+
+Yellow-birds called _cheet'-tee, ca-cheet'-ta-tee_, and the grove became
+musical with the sweet calls of the young brood. There was one nest with
+a roof of shaggy bark, and I wondered if the birds thought it would be
+pleasant to live under a roof, or whether the bark had fallen down on
+them after they built. I could get no trace of the owners of the nest,
+and it troubled me, not liking to have any little homes in my wood that
+I did not know all about. As we went down one aisle, a big bird went
+blundering out ahead of us, probably an owl, for afterwards we stumbled
+on a skeleton and feathers of one of the family.
+
+In one of the trees we came to an enormous nest made of the unusual
+materials that are sometimes chosen by that strange bird, the
+road-runner. It was an exciting discovery, for that was before the
+road-runner had come to the ranch-house, and I had been pursuing phantom
+runners over the hills in the vain attempt to learn something about
+them; while here, it seemed, one had been living under my very vine and
+fig-tree! To make sure about the nest, I spoke to my neighbor ranchman,
+and he told me that when he had been milking during the spring he had
+often seen the birds come out of the blue gums, and had also seen them
+perching there on the trees. How exasperating! If I had only come
+earlier! Now they had gone, and my chance of a nest study was lost.
+
+But my doll was not stuffed with sawdust, for all of that. There was
+still much to enjoy, for a mourning dove flew from her nest of twigs
+almost over Billy's head, and it made me quite happy to know that the
+gentle bird was brooding her eggs in my woods. Then it was delightful to
+see a lazuli bunting on her nest down another aisle. It seemed odd, for
+there was her little cousin nesting out in the weeds in the bright sun,
+while she was raising her brood in the shady forest. The two nests were
+as unlike as the sites. The bird outside had used dull green weeds,
+while this one used beautiful shining oak stems. I thought the pretty
+bird would surely be safe here, but one day when I called, expecting to
+see a growing family, I was shocked to find a pathetic little skeleton
+in the nest.
+
+One afternoon in riding down the rows, I came face to face with two
+mites of hummingbirds seated on a branch. Their grayish green suits
+toned in with the color of the blue gums. It was a surprise when one of
+them turned to the other and fed it--the mother hummer was small enough
+to be taken for a nestling! She sat beside her son and fed him in the
+conventional way, by plunging her bill down his open mouth. When she had
+flown off, he stretched his wings, whirred them as if for practice, and
+then moved his bill as if still tasting the dainty he had had for
+supper. He sat very unconcernedly on a low branch right out in the
+middle of the road, but Billy did not run over him.
+
+I found two hummers' nests in the eucalyptus during the summer. One
+builder was the one the photographer was fortunate enough to catch
+brooding; her nest, the one so charmingly placed on a light blue branch
+between two straight spreading leaves, like the knot between two bows of
+stiff ribbon.
+
+The second nest was on a drooping branch, and, to make it stand level,
+was deepened on the down side of the limb, making it the highest
+hummingbird's nest I had ever seen. It was attached to a red leaf--to
+mark the spot, perhaps--one often wonders how a bird can come back twice
+to the same leaf in a forest. How one little home does make a place
+habitable! From a bare silent woods it becomes a dwelling-place.
+Everything seemed to centre around this little nest, then the only one
+in the grove; the tiny pinch of down became the most important thing in
+the woods. It was the castle which the trees surrounded.
+
+When I first found the nest it held two white warm eggs about as large
+as peas, and I became much interested in watching their progress, often
+riding down to see how they were getting on. The hummer did not return
+my interest. She was nervous, darting off when Billy shook himself or
+when the shadow of a soaring turkey buzzard fell over the nest; but in
+spite of that we made ourselves quite at home before her door. I would
+dismount and sit on the ground, leaning against a blue gum, while Billy
+stood by, in a bower of green leaves, with ears pricked forward
+thoughtfully, and a dreamy look of satisfaction in his eyes.
+Hummingbirds are such dainty things. Once when this one alighted on the
+rim of her nest she whirred herself right down inside. Soon she began to
+act so strangely for a brooding bird that, when she flew, I went to feel
+in the nest. The tips of my fingers touched what felt like round balls,
+but, not satisfied, I pulled down the bough and found one round ball and
+one mite of a gray back with microscopic yellow hairs on each side of
+the spine. The whole tiny body seemed to throb with its heart beats. I
+wondered how such a midget could ever be fed, but found, as in the case
+of the hummer under the little lover's tree, that the mother gave its
+food most gently, reserving her violent pumping for a more suitable age;
+though one would as soon think of poking a needle down a baby's throat
+as that bill.
+
+Often, while watching the nest, my thoughts wandered away to the grove
+itself. The brown earth between the rows was barred by alternate lines
+of sunlight and shadow, and the vista of each avenue ended in blue sky.
+Sometimes cool ocean breezes would penetrate the forest. The rows of
+trees, with their gently swaying, interlacing branches, cast moving
+shadows over the sun-touched leafy floor, giving a white light to the
+grove; for the undersides of the young eucalyptus leaves are like snow.
+From the stiff, sickle-shaped upper leaves the sun glanced, dazzling the
+eyes. Mourning doves cooed, and the sweet notes of yellow-birds filled
+the sunny grove with suggestions of happiness. A yellow butterfly
+wandered down the blue aisles. Such a secure retreat! I returned to it
+again and again, coming in out of the hot yellow world and closing
+behind me the doors of my 'rest-house,' for the little wood had come to
+seem like a cool wayside chapel, a place of peace.
+
+And when I finally left California, deserting Mountain Billy to return
+to the East, of all my haunts the one left the most unwillingly was the
+little blue gum grove, the peaceful wayside rest-house, in whose
+whitened shade we had spent so many quiet hours together.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+
+  Bee-bird, 114-116, 117.
+    catching bees, 114, 115.
+    caught in cobweb rope, 116.
+    defending nest with life, 91-92.
+    domesticity, 116.
+    flycatching, 16, 91, 160.
+    making living off blackbirds, 13.
+    nest, 91.
+    nesting site, 91, 115.
+    noisy, 15.
+    notes, 91, 116.
+    quarrelsome, 91, 115, 116.
+
+  Bird Psychology,
+    association of ideas, 46, 72, 75, 76, 77, 78, 115, 135, 138, 154,
+        198.
+    caution, 9, 22, 28, 36, 65, 66, 67, 82, 85, 87, 88, 94, 156, 196,
+        198, 201, 202, 204.
+    courage, 11-12, 23, 40, 42, 54, 83, 95, 97, 126, 129, 141, 144,
+        175, 177, 180, 181, 210, 215.
+    curiosity, 25, 97, 100, 151.
+    dissimulation, 45, 49, 62, 190, 215.
+    emotion,--
+      fear, 22, 25, 26, 27, 34, 35, 40, 41, 42, 46, 61, 67, 71, 73, 81,
+        87, 88, 105, 133, 135, 154, 164, 177, 180, 191, 215, 218;
+      grief, 46, 47, 92;
+      joy, 30, 204;
+      unusual action under excitement, 30, 58, 63, 64, 81, 87, 88, 191,
+        208.
+    expression of emotion and ideas,--
+      by use of crests, attitudes, and movements, 8, 9, 11, 16, 26, 30,
+        31, 32, 33, 34, 39, 41, 42, 44, 46, 49, 53, 56, 59, 63, 64, 67,
+        76, 78, 79, 81, 84, 87, 88, 90, 97, 101, 105, 116, 117, 124, 129,
+        132, 138, 139, 149, 156, 166, 180, 190, 191, 202, 205, 208, 215.
+      By voice,--
+        calls of warning, 5, 42, 53, 85, 197, 198, 201, 202, 203, 209;
+        conversation, 15, 25, 28, 33, 35, 36, 41, 42, 43, 44, 46, 48, 49,
+        52, 59, 62, 69, 71, 74, 75, 78, 84, 85, 87, 89, 90, 109, 110,
+        118, 132, 134, 145, 147, 149, 153, 156, 178, 180, 182, 190, 192;
+        cries of anger, anxiety, distress, fear, pain, 12, 45, 46, 47,
+        58, 86, 91, 94, 133, 138, 191;
+        exclamations, 44, 58, 61, 87, 115, 116, 124;
+        scoldings, 34, 36, 37, 58, 60, 86, 95, 96, 162, 172, 182;
+        songs of happiness, 8, 10, 15, 21, 22, 52, 59, 82, 83, 84, 90,
+        93, 95, 96, 97, 122, 126, 142, 169, 175, 178, 198, 205;
+        songs of love, 22, 26, 30, 31, 56, 90, 101, 142, 168, 170, 181,
+        204, 205, 208.
+    humor, 124.
+    individuality, 6, 8, 11, 13, 14, 16, 22, 25, 26, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34,
+        35, 38, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 49, 50, 52, 54, 56, 62, 63, 64,
+        65, 75-80, 81, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 90, 91, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99,
+        100, 101, 111, 115, 124, 125,126, 132, 136, 139, 142, 143, 149,
+        153, 154, 163, 164, 170, 179, 181, 184, 190, 194, 195, 204, 205,
+        208, 209, 216-217.
+    inherited instincts, 75, 76, 78, 79, 156.
+    intelligence shown in,--
+      building, 17, 28, 49, 50, 53, 107, 108, 109, 114, 136, 150, 154,
+        158, 217-218;
+      disciplining young, 85;
+      getting food by others' work, 13;
+      profiting by mistakes, 107, 109, 133, 134, 153-154 (?);
+      protecting young, 8, 9, 12, 36, 37, 85, 135, 156, 191, 215;
+      removing nest from danger, 60, 114, 154;
+      selecting materials for nest, 14, 53, 56, 82, 89, 96, 107, 127,
+        144, 150, 179, 181;
+      selecting nesting site, 23, 28, 83, 93, 95, 99, 124, 127, 130,
+        131, 150;
+      silence of young in danger, 71, 85.
+    keen senses, 59, 74, 97.
+    local attachment, 6;
+      special perches, 57, 62, 126, 129, 167, 202, 204, 206.
+    play impulse, 12, 115, 124, 155 (?), 208-209.
+    pride of possession, 25, 86, 115, 204-205.
+    self-denial, 33, 50, 52.
+
+  Birds,
+    adaptation, 150, 152, 163, 164;
+      protective coloration, 10, 11, 81, 92, 101, 185, 199.
+    domestic life,--
+      accept help in building, 97, 152-153, 175-178, 179-180;
+      affection, 22, 27, 30, 31, 32, 33, 78, 84, 85, 90, 142, 166,
+        180, 182, 196, 201, 204, 208;
+      as parents, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 23, 24, 31-38, 46, 55, 63, 64,
+        69, 84, 85, 87, 88, 110, 111, 129, 135, 137, 154-155, 156,
+        172, 182, 185-186, 189-193, 215, 217;
+      companionship of mates, 22, 26, 27, 30, 31, 42, 46, 53, 56,
+        59, 62, 81, 83, 87, 89, 90, 106, 109, 126, 141, 142, 145,
+        166, 177, 178, 180, 182, 196, 204;
+      coquettish airs, 33;
+      courtship, 31, 90, 101, 148, 149;
+      defense of nest, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 25, 45, 46, 47, 57, 58, 86,
+        91, 92, 115, 124-125, 138, 141, 178, 182, 204-205, 209;
+      excitement when young hatch, 63;
+      family government, 12, 35, 85, 111, 156;
+      friendly birds shy at nest, 65, 66, 67, 86, 87, 88, 93, 94,
+        99, 105, 153, 198, 202, 203;
+      --habits of male at nest:
+        absent, 24, 149-155, 167;
+        brings mate food for young, 32, 63;
+        brings material to mate, 50, 52;
+        broods, 43, 44, 62;
+        builds while female looks on or goes off with other females, 199,
+        200, 203, 204, 207-208;
+        feeds mate, 27, 52, 126, 132, 134, 180, 182;
+        feeds young, 33, 82, 88;
+        guards mate, 27, 42, 53, 201;
+        helps mate build, 48, 50, 52, 61, 106, 108, 109, 126, 135, 142,
+        145;
+        sings while mate builds and broods, 22, 26, 30, 31, 33, 56, 83,
+        84, 90, 175, 177, 178;
+      interval between building and brooding, 59, 145, 181;
+      looking for nesting sites, 25, 26, 129, 184-185;
+      lordly airs of male, 25, 115, 116, 117, 172, 208;
+      paternal instinct, 31-33, 53, 63, 191, 204, 205;
+      persistence in work, 60, 107, 178;
+      reluctance to brood, 43, 44;
+      tenderness to young, 23, 33, 84, 85.
+    food,--
+      ants, 76;
+      bees, 114, 115;
+      carrion, 97;
+      cocoons, 100;
+      gophers, 136;
+      grubs, 12, 13, 111;
+      insects, 4, 6, 7, 16, 31, 36, 82, 91, 101, 150, 160;
+      lizards and toads, 99;
+      pepper berries, 197, 198, 201;
+      rats and mice, 137;
+      scale, 103;
+      seeds, 93, 162;
+      snakes, 132;
+      spiders, 31;
+      worms, 12, 13, 57, 164, 182, 185, 186, 190.
+    flight, 5, 7, 16, 17, 24, 30, 81, 91, 98, 99, 103, 115, 118, 147,
+        149, 153, 156, 161, 166, 168, 184, 195, 196, 197, 209.
+    friendliness when not disturbed, 10, 13, 23, 30, 40, 42, 45, 53,
+        59, 61, 64, 67, 83, 86, 89, 92, 95, 97, 100, 105, 126, 128,
+        129, 144, 148, 150-151, 153, 158, 171, 178, 180, 182-183, 185,
+        186, 197, 200, 201, 204.
+    legends about, 11, 105.
+    local names,--
+      blue jay, 6;
+      burrowing owl, 11;
+      bush-tit, 56;
+      California towhee, 92.
+    neighborly relations, 13, 25, 45-48, 49, 57-61, 62, 80, 86, 96,
+        100, 108, 115, 116, 124, 125, 126, 130, 138, 147, 171-174,
+        189-193, 204-205, 208-209.
+    nervousness, 9, 11, 22, 26, 34, 35, 42, 47, 53, 56, 61, 63, 64,
+        67, 70, 76, 81, 82, 87, 88, 97, 105, 117, 138, 139, 156,
+        166, 177, 180, 191, 208, 218.
+
+  Blackbird, Brewer's, 86-88, 117, 128.
+    afraid of a bath, 16.
+    attacking hawks and owls, 135, 139.
+    a jolly colony, 123, 124.
+    building, 124.
+    common in valley, 92.
+    curiosity about road-runner, 100.
+    following plow for grubs, 12, 13.
+    nervousness at nest, 87-88.
+    nesting sites, 86, 124.
+    pranks, 124.
+    repulsing shrike, 124, 125.
+    ruling dooryard, 86.
+
+  Blackbird, Red-winged, 14.
+    eating grubs in vineyard, 12-13.
+    following plow, 13.
+    nesting in marsh, 118.
+
+  Blackbird, Rusty, 86.
+
+  Blackbird, Yellow-headed,
+    in vineyard, 13-14.
+    on mustard, 14.
+
+  Blackbirds, 15, 114, 118, 120.
+    flocks riding cattle, hogs, and horses, 14.
+
+  Bluebird, Mexican, 187.
+    nesting site, 185.
+    second nest, 186.
+
+  Blue Jay. See Jay.
+
+  Blue Squawker. See Jay.
+
+  Brown Chippie. See Towhee, California.
+
+  Bunting, Indigo, 81.
+
+  Bunting, Lazuli, 81-83, 123, 189-193.
+    call, 190.
+    keeping out of quarrel, 45-46.
+    nest, 82, 216-217.
+    nesting site, 27, 82, 216.
+    song, 6, 44, 83, 117.
+    taking insects to nest, 82.
+    young fed by wren-tit, 189, 190.
+
+  Bush-tit, California, 28, 56, 59, 103-111, 117, 161, 162, 166.
+    building, 105-107, 108, 110, 184.
+    call notes, 109, 110.
+    common bird, 103.
+    destroys olive scale, 103.
+    legend of firefly lamps, 105.
+    local name, 56.
+    nest, 103, 104, 105.
+    nesting site, 103.
+    nest roof falls in, 106.
+    second nest better built, 107, 109.
+    snake in nest, 108.
+
+  Butcherbird. See Shrike.
+
+  Butterflies, migrating, 160.
+
+
+  California, southern, 147.
+    colors, 212.
+    marsh in, 118.
+    natural irrigation, 21.
+    sky, 67.
+
+  Canello, 2.
+    afraid of boggy land, Mexicans, and rattlesnakes, 2-3, 127-128.
+    indifferent to water snakes, 15.
+    made nervous by hummingbird, 7.
+    miring, 17-19.
+    visiting feathered tenants with, 123-139.
+
+  Chaparral, 5, 6, 55, 61, 94, 100, 103-104, 159, 167, 197, 201.
+
+  Chaparral cock. See Road-runner.
+
+  Chat, long-tailed, 163.
+
+  Chewink. See Towhee.
+
+  Chickadee, 103, 176.
+
+  Coast Mountains, 1, 4, 6, 15, 102, 104, 112, 113.
+    valley in, 1, 2, 4, 5, 20, 112.
+    at morning, 5, 68, 112, 137.
+    in evening, 19, 101, 102, 121, 122.
+    under moonlight, 102.
+
+  Coyote wolves,
+    barking, 91, 102.
+    chasing a dog, 119.
+    in eucalyptus, 214.
+
+  Crow,
+    killed bee-bird, 92.
+    nest, 212.
+
+
+  Dove, Mourning, 21, 118, 141, 161, 169, 219.
+    a gentle pair, 166.
+    brooding, 67.
+    friendliness, 42, 45.
+    nest, 216.
+    nesting site, 40, 166, 216.
+    perches, 57, 160.
+    superior airs of male, 116, 117.
+    timidity, 41, 42.
+    trailing, 215.
+
+
+  Eagle, 13.
+
+  Egret, White, 17.
+
+
+  Finch, Western House, 117, 160.
+    avoids shrike neighborhood, 126.
+    bathing, 16.
+    courtship, 90.
+    common birds, 92.
+    discussions, 28.
+    examining wren's nest, 25.
+    implicated in tragedy, 171-174.
+    nesting sites, 90, 96, 172, 186.
+    songs, 90.
+    stealing wren's material, 171.
+    using swallow's nest, 96.
+
+  Flicker, Red-shafted, 136-137, 160.
+    building, 136.
+    nesting site, 27, 136.
+    notes, 136.
+    works as if wound up, 136.
+
+  Flowers and Plants,
+    blue sage, 61, 147.
+    chilicothe, 168.
+    dodder, 89-90.
+    'fly flower,' 160.
+    forget-me-not, 128.
+    mallow, 128.
+    mustard, 14, 67, 119, 123, 127, 147.
+    on border of pond, 15.
+    poison oak, 167.
+    'poppy,' 160.
+    primrose, 69, 147.
+    wild celery, 120.
+    wild gooseberry, 147.
+
+  Flycatcher, 140.
+    in chaparral, 6.
+
+  Fog, 19, 68, 101, 112.
+
+
+  Goldfinch, 21, 44, 164, 215, 219.
+    feeding, 7.
+    nest, 23.
+    nest destroyed, 27.
+    nesting site, 184, 186.
+    note, 215.
+
+  Gnatcatcher, Western, 38-64, 81, 123, 161, 205.
+    building, 48-60, 61, 62.
+    calls, 43, 44, 45.
+    comical parents, 63, 64.
+    defending nest, 45, 57, 58.
+    egg broken by wren-tit, 46.
+    eggshell carried away, 46.
+    feeding young in new way, 63-64.
+    jaunty nervous manners, 38, 39, 40, 41, 44, 56, 63.
+    nest, 39, 41, 60, 168.
+    nesting site, 39, 48, 60, 61, 167.
+    nest moved, 60.
+    spelling each other, 43, 44, 62.
+    talkative, 41.
+
+  Gophers, 70, 136.
+
+  Grosbeak, Black-headed,
+    migrants, 8, 58.
+    song, 170.
+
+  Grosbeak, Blue, 120.
+
+
+  Hangbird. See Bush-tit.
+
+  Hawk, Buteo, building, 135.
+    more likely to eat gophers than birds, 136.
+
+  Hawk, Fish, 13.
+
+  Hawk, Sparrow, 131-135, 136.
+    chased by bee-bird, 91.
+    nesting site, 131.
+    snakes for breakfast, 132.
+    too small a front door, 131-134.
+
+  Hawks, 16, 86.
+
+  Heron, Green, 17.
+
+
+  Lark, Horned,
+    on roadsides, 10.
+    song, 10.
+
+  Horse, as help in observing, 3-4, 125, 201-204.
+
+  How-do-you-do Owl. See Owl, Burrowing.
+
+  Hummingbird, 147, 186.
+
+  Hummingbird, Black-chinned, 23-25, 147-158, 161, 202, 217-219.
+    around flowers by house, 88.
+    attacking horse and rider, 7.
+    building, 149-155.
+    call, 153.
+    courtship dance, 149.
+    enter house, 89.
+    feeding from primroses, 69.
+    feeding young, 23, 24, 155, 217.
+    help in cross-fertilization, 150.
+    nest, 23.
+    nest destroyed, 26.
+    nesting sites, 23, 89, 130, 147-148, 155, 158, 161, 217-218.
+    perch, 57, 167.
+    probing tobacco-tree flowers, 88.
+    tremulous moulding, 152.
+
+  Hummingbird, Rufous, 147.
+    around wild gooseberries, 147, 168.
+    song, 168.
+
+
+  Irrigation, natural, 21, 38, 159-160.
+
+
+  Jay, California, 59, 61, 84-85, 105, 123, 160, 161.
+    disciplining young, 85.
+    frightening small birds, 28, 58, 60, 84, 141.
+    local name, 6.
+    protecting young, 85.
+    scream, 169, 184.
+    tender to young, 84, 85.
+
+
+  Kingbird,
+    Arkansas. See Bee-bird.
+    Cassin's. See Bee-bird.
+    Eastern, 91.
+
+
+  Linnet. See Finch.
+
+  Lions, colts killed by, 30.
+
+  List of Birds referred to, ix.
+
+  List of Illustrations, vii.
+
+  Lizards, as eggers, 28, 150, 200, 203.
+
+
+  Magpie, 51, 98.
+
+  Mexican bridle, 3.
+
+  Miring, 17-19.
+
+  Mockingbird, thrasher's resemblance to, 6.
+
+  Mountain Billy, 20.
+    a good lope, 42-43, 112.
+    a narrow escape, 120.
+    a petted companion, 165, 187.
+    carrying blue gum boughs, 211.
+    carrying a chair, 60-61.
+    enjoying blue gum grove, 214, 218.
+    frightened by deer, 28-30.
+    ignoring snakes, 187-188.
+    improving his time, 68, 69, 114.
+    inventing a fly brush, 54, 55.
+    rolling, 165-166.
+
+  Mutual help in nature, 150.
+
+
+  Nesting season, date in southern California, 21, 30, 67, 69, 86.
+
+  Nests, broken up, 10, 26, 27, 47, 127, 143, 145, 158, 172, 204,
+        206, 217.
+    building, hard work, 56, 60, 107.
+    building methods, 49-50, 52-54, 82, 107, 108, 109, 127, 135,
+        136, 142, 150-154, 158, 175, 199, 200, 203, 204, 205-206, 207.
+    defective building (?), 106.
+    excessive amount of material, 96, 107, 108.
+    knothole entrance too small, 131.
+    materials of first nest used in second, 60, 107, 109-110, 154.
+    moved to safer place, 60, 154.
+    odd situations, 9, 95, 130, 171.
+    protective coloration, 82, 90, 144, 150.
+    rapid building, 108, 206.
+    second, 48 (?), 60, 107, 154, 186.
+    snakes in, 108.
+    third (?), 60.
+    time taken to build, 60.
+    unusual materials, 14, 89, 90.
+
+
+  Observing, 1, 2, 40, 60-61, 66, 67, 68, 81, 82, 109, 114, 123,
+        130, 135, 139, 141, 166, 195, 196, 197, 198, 201-205, 215.
+    assisting in nest building, 97, 109-110, 175-183.
+    delight of finding a new bird, 13.
+    proportion of birds identified without a gun, 2, 140.
+    temptations in, 92, 93, 194.
+
+  Oden Canyon, 159-160.
+
+  Oregon Robin, 20.
+
+  Oriole, 27, 104, 130, 131.
+
+  Oriole, Arizona Hooded,
+    building, 89.
+
+  Oriole, Bullock's, 162.
+    attacking an owl, 139.
+    nest, 117.
+    song flight, 184.
+
+  Owl, 105, 215-216.
+    asleep in window, 137.
+    diet of rats and mice, 137.
+    hiding in wells and mining shafts, 137, 138.
+
+  Owl, Barn,
+    an old crone, 139.
+    nesting site, 139.
+
+  Owl, Burrowing, 119, 212.
+    battles with a collie, 11, 12.
+    feeding young, 11, 12.
+    nest not shared with rattlesnakes, 11.
+    screws head off, 11.
+
+  Owl, Western Horned,
+    devices to protect young, 8, 9.
+    mobbed by neighbors, 138.
+
+
+  Pewee, Wood, 161-162.
+    building, 57, 59, 61.
+    nesting site, 57, 60.
+    nest moved, 60.
+    perch, 62, 161.
+
+  Phainopepla, 194-210.
+    a distinguished bird, 194.
+    building (done by male), 199, 203, 204, 205, 206.
+    call, 205.
+    eating pepper berries in door-yard, 197.
+    nest, 205.
+    nesting site, 199.
+    song, 205.
+
+  Ph[oe]be, Black, 115, 128-130, 189.
+    brooding under a pump, 129.
+    in the hen-house, 130.
+    nest, 130.
+    nesting site, 117, 128-129, 130.
+
+  Pipit, American, 16.
+
+  Pond, made by spring rains,
+    rendezvous of birds, 5, 14-17.
+
+  Poor-will, Dusky,
+    call, 101-102.
+    flycatching, 101.
+
+
+  Quail, Valley,
+    call, 5.
+    flight of covey, 30.
+    in chaparral, 55.
+    in vineyard, 73.
+    tracks, 43.
+
+
+  Rabbit,
+    cottontail, 94, 118, 164.
+    jack, 5, 29, 94-95, 97.
+
+  Road-runner, 98-101.
+    around ranch-house, 100.
+    drowned in windmill tanks, 100.
+    eating with hens, 100.
+    fleetness, 98.
+    hunting cocoons, 100.
+    love call, 101.
+    nest, 99, 216.
+
+  Robin, 8, 92.
+
+
+  Shrike, White-rumped, 124-127, 128.
+    absence of birds in neighborhood, 126.
+    building, 125, 126-127.
+    gentle at nest, 125, 126.
+    invading blackbird premises, 124-125.
+    nest, 125.
+    nesting site, 125, 127.
+
+  Snakes,
+    gopher, 43, 71, 120, 187-188.
+    racer, 108.
+    rattle, 43, 120, 121, 203.
+    ringed, 55.
+    water, 15.
+
+  Sparrow, 15.
+
+  Sparrow, Golden-crowned, 16.
+
+  Sparrow, Song, 21, 22, 117.
+    nest, 83-84.
+    young, 83.
+
+  Sparrow, White-crowned, 16, 162.
+
+  Squirrels, ground, 11.
+
+  Swallow, 96.
+
+  Swallow, Eave,
+    drinking on wing, 17.
+    getting mud for nests, 16-17.
+    nests on sycamore, 114.
+
+
+  Tanager, Louisiana, 27.
+    a brilliant stranger, 131.
+
+  Thrasher, California, 163-164.
+    digging with sickle-shaped bill, 163-164.
+    in chaparral, 6.
+    song, 6, 169.
+    straight bills of young, 164.
+
+  Titmouse, Plain, 141, 184, 175-183.
+    building, 175-182.
+    gladly accepts feathers, 177.
+    needs no horsehair or straw, 179-181.
+    nesting sites, 175.
+    song, 175.
+
+  Tit, Wren-, 57, 60, 62, 189-193.
+    breaking up gnatcatcher's nest, 45, 46, 48.
+    skulking manners, 49, 59.
+    song, 6, 169.
+    usurping a mother's rights, 189-193.
+
+  Towhee, California, 28, 46, 47, 57, 58, 59, 92-95, 163, 189, 200.
+    call note, 92.
+    common and tame, 92.
+    nesting, 93, 94.
+    shy at nest, 93-94.
+    song, 93.
+
+  Towhee, Green-tailed, 162-163.
+
+  Towhee, Spurred, 18, 160, 162.
+    singing, 169.
+
+  Trade wind, 68-69.
+
+  Trees,
+    acacia, 189.
+    elder, 15.
+    eucalyptus, 211-220;
+      character of, 213-214, 219-220;
+      grove, 211-220;
+      raised for fuel, 211.
+    live-oaks, 5, 6, 21, 86, 159-170;
+      garden of, 159-160, 170;
+      sapped by mistletoe, 167.
+    pepper, 197.
+    sycamore, 15, 21, 24-25, 67, 68;
+      the big, 112-122, 159.
+    tobacco, 88.
+    willow, 123.
+
+  Turkey Buzzard. See Vulture.
+
+  Turtle Dove. See Dove.
+
+  Twin Oaks Canyon, 5-6, 159.
+
+
+  Ughland Canyon, 21, 38, 123, 159.
+
+
+  Vineyard, birds eating grubs in, 12-13.
+
+  Vireo, Hutton's, 140-146.
+    a devoted pair, 142.
+    building, 142, 145.
+    call note, 145.
+    fond of nest, 143, 145.
+    nest, 144.
+    nesting site, 141, 144.
+
+  Vireo, Least,
+    song, 6, 44, 169.
+
+  Vireo, Warbling, 27, 59.
+    building, 56.
+    scolding jay, 60.
+
+  Vulture, Turkey, 16, 97-98, 162.
+    circle over fighting snakes, 97.
+    eating woodpecker, 70.
+    eating skunk, 201.
+    queer attitude, 98.
+    scavenger, 97.
+    soaring, 97, 98.
+
+
+  Warbler, 160.
+    migrants, 6, 7, 123.
+
+  Waxwing, 69.
+
+  Whip-poor-will. See Poor-will.
+
+  Woodpecker, California, 65-80, 81, 123.
+    building, 28.
+    flycatching, 160.
+    hunting ground distant from nest, 69.
+    long intervals in feeding, 69.
+    lying in wait for prey, 141.
+    nesting site, 28, 71.
+    notes, 69.
+    old birds poisoned (?), 70.
+    rescuing the young, 71-73.
+    young orphans, inherited instincts, 75, 76, 78, 79;
+      notes, 78.
+
+  Woodpecker, Red-headed, 66, 69.
+
+  Wood rat,
+    in chaparral, 55.
+
+  Wren, 9-10.
+
+  Wren, Vigors's, 170-174.
+    linnets quarreling over materials, 171.
+    nesting site, 171.
+    young buried alive by linnets (?), 172-174.
+
+  Wren, Western House, 20-37, 65, 67, 69, 81, 84, 112, 117, 123, 160,
+        219.
+    building, 22, 25, 30, 96, 128.
+    common birds, 95.
+    feeding young on insects, 31.
+    nesting takes six weeks, 35.
+    nests in sycamore holes, 22, 128.
+    odd nesting sites, 95.
+    song, 22, 30, 96, 97.
+    tremulous motion of wings, 30, 33.
+
+
+  Yellow-bird. See Goldfinch.
+
+  Young birds,
+    Bluebird, 185.
+    Brewer's Blackbird, 87.
+    Burrowing Owl, 11-12.
+    Bush-tit, 28, 110, 111.
+    California Jay, 85.
+    California Woodpecker, 69-80.
+    feather tracts, 79.
+    fed at long intervals, 155.
+    fed on insects, 31, 36, 76, 82.
+    first flights, 36, 73-74, 88, 156.
+    Gnatcatchers, 63-64.
+    Horned Owl, 9.
+    Hummingbird, 23, 24, 88, 155-157, 217, 219.
+    interest in each other, 78, 79.
+    Lazuli Bunting, 189-193, 217;
+      adopted by wren-tit, 189-193.
+    Mourning Dove, 47.
+    Owl, 137.
+    Sparrow Hawk, 135;
+      subdued on leaving nest, 36;
+      time kept in nest, 69.
+    Titmouse, 182-183.
+    Vigors's Wren, 171, 172, 174.
+    Western House Wren, 33-37.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+  Bee-birds, 13.
+
+  Blackbird, Brewer's, 13.
+
+  Buntings, Lazuli (old and young), 189.
+
+  Bush-tits (birds and nest), 104.
+
+  Bush-tit (nest in oak), 108.
+
+
+  Chewink, California (head), 93.
+
+  Chewink, Eastern (head), 93.
+
+  Chewink, Green-tailed (head), 163.
+
+
+  Eucalyptus Avenue, showing pollarded trees, 212.
+
+  Eucalyptus Wood stored for Market in a Eucalyptus Grove, 214.
+
+
+  Gnatcatcher, Western (birds and nest), 39.
+
+  Grosbeak, Black-headed (head), 8.
+
+  Grosbeak, Rose-breasted (head), 8.
+
+
+  Hummingbird, Black-chinned (nest), 157.
+
+  Hummingbird, Black-chinned (on nest), 148.
+
+
+  Mountain Billy Deserted, 220.
+
+  Mountain Billy under the Gnatcatcher's Oak, frontispiece.
+
+
+  Oaks, Live, 160.
+
+  Oriole, Arizona Hooded (head), 89.
+
+  Oriole, Baltimore, Eastern (head), 89.
+
+
+  Phainopepla's Nest in Oak Brush, 198.
+
+  Phainopeplas on Pepper-tree, 194.
+
+  Ph[oe]be, Black (head), 129.
+
+  Ph[oe]be, Eastern (head), 129.
+
+
+  Quail, Valley, 99.
+
+
+  Road-runner, 99.
+
+
+  Sycamores, Along the Line of, 124.
+
+  Sycamore, The Big, 114.
+
+
+  Titmouse, Plain (at nest), 176.
+
+
+  Valley in Coast Mountains, 4.
+
+
+  Woodpecker, California, (head), 66.
+
+  Woodpecker, California (young), 78.
+
+  Woodpecker, Red-headed, Eastern (head), 66.
+
+  Wren-tit, 189.
+
+  Wren, Vigors's (at nest), 173.
+
+  Wren, Western House, 32.
+
+  Wren, Western House (singing), 20.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+The oe-ligature is denoted in this text by being enclosed in brackets
+[oe].
+
+Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
+
+Page 33, "delighful" changed to "delightful" (It was delightful)
+
+Page 75, "formicivorous" changed to "formicivorus" (Melanerpes
+formicivorus)
+
+Page 190, "non-commital" changed to "non-committal" (non-committal air)
+
+Page 190, "eeding" changed to "feeding" (feeding it, especially)
+
+Page 257, "2" changed to "216" (nesting site, 40, 166, 216.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A-Birding on a Bronco, by Florence A. Merriam
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