IN NESTING TIME

BY

OLIVE THORNE MILLER

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 forexamination; 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 thenturn them over and describe them and consider himself learned in theirstructure, habits, and appearance."—Jean Ingelow.

INTRODUCTORY.

The sketches of bird manners and customs in this little collection arethe record of careful observation, and scrupulously true in everyparticular. The facts may not all be new to Science, but since they aregenuine studies from life, and each bird whose acquaintance I make is astruly a discovery to me as if he were totally unknown to the world, Iventure 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. Agelœus phœniceus.
  • Yellow-Throated Warbler. Dendroica dominica.
  • Baltimore Oriole. Icterus galbula.
  • White-Bellied Nuthatch. Sitta carolinensis.
  • American Robin. Merula migratoria.
  • Phœbe. Sayornis phœbe.
• 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....