ly he was seriously disabled. He would start up as if exerting
every muscle to fly away, but no use; down he would come, with a
helpless, fluttering motion, before he had gone two yards, and
apparently you had only to go and pick him up. But before you could
pick him up, he had recovered somewhat and flown a little farther; and
thus, if you were tempted to follow him, you would soon find yourself
some distance from the scene of the nest, and both old and young well
out of your reach. The female bird was not less solicious, and
practiced the same arts upon us to decoy us away, but her dull plumage
rendered her less noticeable. The male was clad in holiday attire, but
his mate in an every-day working-garb.

The nest was built in the fork of a little hemlock, about fifteen
inches from the ground, and was a thick, firm structure, composed of
the finer material of the woods, with a lining of very delicate roots
or rootlets. There were four young birds and one addled egg. We found
it in a locality about the head-waters of the eastern branch of the
Delaware, where several other of the rarer species of warblers, such as
the mourning ground, the Blackburnian, the chestnut-sided, and the
speckled Canada, spend the summer and rear their young.

Defunct birds'-nests are easy to find; when the leaves fall, then they
are in every bush and tree; and one wonders how he missed them; but a
live nest, how it eludes one! I have read of a noted criminal who could
hide himself pretty effectually in any room that contained the usual
furniture; he would embrace the support of a table so as to seem part
of it. The bird has studied the same art: it always blends its nest
with the surroundings, and sometimes its very openness hides it; the
light itself seems to conceal it. Then the birds build anew each year,
and so always avail themselves of the present and latest combination of
leaves and screens, of light and shade. What was very well concealed
one season may be quite exposed the next.

Going a-fishing or a-berrying is a good introduction to the haunts of
the birds, and to their nesting-places. You put forth your hand for the
berries, and there is a nest; or your tread by the creeks starts the
sandpiper or the water-thrush from the ground where its eggs are
concealed, or some shy wood-warbler from a bush. One day, fishing down
a deep wooded gorge, my hook caught on a limb overhead, and on pulling
it down I found I had missed my trout, but ha