To find a hummingbird's nest, snugly saddled on a branch of a maple or apple tree, ten feet or more above the ground, requires patience and keen eyesight. Unless you have seen one, you almost surely would mistake it for a bunch of lichens. It is a neat little structure of downy material covered with bits of lichens, fastened with spider and caterpillar webs. May Seventeenth It would interest you to visit a zoological park to study the growing antlers of a deer or an elk. A pair of black antlers, "in the velvet," as the hunters call it, have taken the place of the bony-colored ones shed in March. Just now they are somewhat flexible, and feverishly hot from the steady flow of blood that feeds them. If they are injured at this time, the owner might bleed to death. May Eighteenth "_Caw, caw, caw, ka, ka, ka, ka-k-k-k-r-r-r-r_." It sounds as though a crow were being strangled. Looking in that direction you see a large black bird fly from the woods to a meadow. After filling her beak with food she returns. No sooner is she within sight of the young crows, than they flap their wings, open their mouths and _caw_ until the stifled, guttural sounds tell you that the morsel is being swallowed. Notes May Nineteenth When perched or flying the bobolink sends forth his jolly song in such a flood of ecstasy that you would scarcely be surprised to see him suddenly explode and vanish in a cloud of feathers. Would that we could overlook the damage he does to Southern rice crops. May Twentieth Before now you have noticed the dainty little Jack-in-the-pulpit in the damp, shady woods and marshes. Would you suppose that this innocent looking plant is really an insect trap? The thick fleshy "corm" when boiled is quite palatable, but who would think so after digging it from the ground, cutting into it, and feeling the sharp prickly sensation it gives when touched with the tongue? May Twenty-first The song of the brown thrasher can easily be mistaken for that of a catbird, particularly as both birds inhabit roadways, thickets, and open brush lots. The male, while singing to his mate, nearly always perches _in the top_ of a tall bush or tree. His song is a disconnected combination of pleasant musical tones, which might be arranged so as to sound thrush-like in effect, but they are usually uttered in pairs or trios, rather than in the modulated phrase of the hermit or the wood thrush. [Illustration: Photograph by J. Alden Loring. MALE BOBOLINK IN SUMMER PLUMAGE.] Notes May Twenty-second Look intently at the bottom of shallow streams or ponds and you will see what appear to be small twigs and sandy lumps moving about like snails. These are the larvæ of the caddis fly. Pick up one and poke the creature with a straw. You now discover that it lives in a case made of gravel, or sand, or tiny shells, or pieces of bark, all glued together in a perfect mask. May Twenty-third