y. But where was
the mother? and where had they nested? But for that untimely sneeze, as
I shall always believe, they would have made their home in that
beautiful nest on the arch, and we should have been there to see.

XVII.

THE WILES OF A WARBLER.

"Hark to that petulant chirp! What ails the warbler?
Mark his capricious ways to draw the eye."

We called him the blue, but that was not his whole name by any means.
Fancy a scientist with a new bird to label, contenting himself with one
word! His whole name is--or was till lately--black-throated blue-backed
warbler, or _Dendroica coerulescens_, and that being fairly set down
for future reference for whom it may concern, I shall call him
henceforth, as we did in the woods, the blue.

For a day or two at first he was to us, like many another of his size,
only a "wandering voice." But it was an enticing voice, a sweet-toned
succession of _z-z-z_ in ascending scale, and it was so persistent that
when we really made the attempt, we had no trouble in getting sight of
the little beauty hardly bigger than one's thumb. He was a wary little
sprite, and though he looked down upon us as we turned opera-glasses
toward him,--a battery that puts some birds into a panic,--he was not
alarmed. He probably made up his mind then and there, that it should be
his special business to keep us away from his nest, for really that
seemed to be his occupation. No sooner did we set foot in the woods than
his sweet song attracted us. We followed it, and he, carelessly as it
seemed, but surely, led us on around and around, always in a circle
without end.

My fellow bird-student became fairly bewitched, and could not rest till
she found his nest. For my part I gave up the warbler family long ago,
as too small, too uneasy, too fond of tree-tops, to waste time and
patience over. In these her native woods, my comrade led in our walks,
and the moment we heard his tantalizing _z-z-z_ she turned irresistibly
toward it. I followed, of course, happy to be anywhere under these
trees.

One morning she tracked him inch by inch till she was fortunate enough
to trace him to a wild corner in the woods given up to a tangle of
fallen trees, saplings, and other growth. She went home happy, sure she
was on the trail. The next day we turned our steps to that quarter and
penetrated the jungle till we reached a moderately clear spot facing an
impenetrable mass of low saplings. There we took our places,