Produced by Robin Monks, Joseph Cooper, Leonard Johnson and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net IN NESTING TIME BY OLIVE THORNE MILLER [Illustration] BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY The Riverside Press, Cambridge 1893 Copyright, 1888, BY H. M. MILLER. _All rights reserved._ _The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A._ Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company. _"Very few people have the least idea what wild creatures are like. Their notion generally is to shoot them, and then pick them up for examination; which is the same thing as if some being of superior race, seeing children at play, were to shoot a few at long range, and then turn them over and describe them and consider himself learned in their structure, habits, and appearance."_--JEAN INGELOW. INTRODUCTORY. The sketches of bird manners and customs in this little collection are the record of careful observation, and scrupulously true in every particular. The facts may not all be new to Science, but since they are genuine studies from life, and each bird whose acquaintance I make is as truly a discovery to me as if he were totally unknown to the world, I venture to hope that lovers of birds may find in these pages real, live, individuals in feathers, honestly "brothers of ours." OLIVE THORNE MILLER. CONTENTS. PAGE I. BABY BIRDS 1 Purple Crow Blackbird. _Quiscalus quiscula._ Redwing Blackbird. _Ageloeus phoeniceus._ Yellow-Throated Warbler. _Dendroica dominica._ Baltimore Oriole. _Icterus galbula._ White-Bellied Nuthatch. _Sitta carolinensis._ American Robin. _Merula migratoria._ Phoebe. _Sayornis phoebe._ II. BIRD-STUDY IN A SOUTHERN STATE 19 Great White Heron. _Ardea occidentalis._ Bald Eagle. _Haliæetus leucocephalus._ Wilson's Tern. _Sterna hirundo._ Ring Plover. _Ægialitis hiaticula._ III. THE MOCKING-BIRD'S NEST 33 Mocking-Bird. _Mimus polyglottos._ IV. A TRICKSY SPIRIT 65 Mocking-Bird. _Mimus polyglottos._ V. THE "WISE BLUEBIRD" 95 Bluebird. _Sialia sialis._ VI. THE GOLDEN-WING 113 Golden-Wing Woodpecker. _Colaptes auratus._ VII. A STORMY WOOING 129 Orchard Oriole. _Icterus spurius._ VIII. FLUTTERBUDGET 145 Brown Thrush, or Thrasher. _Harporhynchus rufus._ IX. "O WONDROUS SINGERS" 159 Wilson's Thrush. _Turdus fuscescens._ Gray-Cheeked Thrush. _Turdus aliciæ._ X. A BIRD OF AFFAIRS 173 Blue-Jay. _Cyanocitta cristata._