. American ornithology, for home and school . tless tostay there long at a time. An ash tree nearby and a young maple were alsopopular perches. A porch which wis nearly always occupied by people wasnot ten feet from the ash tree. Occasionally he would drop down to agrindstone, not far away, or to the pump, and play hide-and-seek with us,only there was no seeking on our part, for he would be sure to peep aroundevery minute to see what we were doing. One day tiny lives began to stir in the nest and then there were busytimes. The mother wren darted out .and in quietly, like a little brown
. American ornithology, for home and school . tless tostay there long at a time. An ash tree nearby and a young maple were alsopopular perches. A porch which wis nearly always occupied by people wasnot ten feet from the ash tree. Occasionally he would drop down to agrindstone, not far away, or to the pump, and play hide-and-seek with us,only there was no seeking on our part, for he would be sure to peep aroundevery minute to see what we were doing. One day tiny lives began to stir in the nest and then there were busytimes. The mother wren darted out .and in quietly, like a little brown so did Mr. Wren. He became livelier than ever. He was a goodworker but stopped often to express his happiness in song. Sometimes hewould sing wheetle-chew, wheetle-chew with the falling inflection untilhe would become so excited the song would be changed to chew-wheetle,che~w-wheetle, repeated rapidly several times with the rising he would suddenly remember his fatherlv cares and dart awav. to re- AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 129. Photo by H. K. and Eggs of Carolina Wren; Built on a Window Sill. turn in a minute with a delicious morsel for the nestlings. After a momentsrest he would be on his roof perch again, and this time, perhaps, the songwould he sic eel Hard, sweetliard with the rising inflection. Nearly everyday I would think I heard a new bird song, only to find on investigationthat the Carolina wren was the singer. Woe be to any bird which approached his nest after the birdies came! Hewas there like a flash, scolding in characteristic wren-fashion, for his temperis very short indeed. Even a brown thrush, as large as lie is. had to fly be-fore the furious attack of the wren. One day the wrens were seen carrying grass and straws to their of the little birds. 1 thought they could not be building a new nest,and I was eurious to know what they could be doing with this material. Pro-curing a ladder. 1 climbed to the nest amid the serious a
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1901
