Page:The Singing Tree - William Henry Mousley - The Auk 36(3) - P0339-p0348.pdf/5

Vol. XXXVI 1919 Of course there are many birds that actually sing on the nest itself, such as Purple Finches, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and some of the Vireos, to say nothing of others which, like the Tree Swallows, do so on and at the entrance to the nesting boxes, as well as Barn Swallows, which sing as they fly in and out of the barn and on the rafters. Many others again, such as Kingbirds for example, make use of the nesting tree to constantly perch in, whilst others will be found singing from it also.

Now in order to illustrate my 'modus operandi,' I propose to give an account of the finding this season (1918) of a Blackburnian Warbler's (Dendroica fusca) nest, as well as the one of the Baybreasted Warbler (Dendroica castanea) already referred to. As regards the former, the male had been noted during the migration time as always occupying a certain little belt of spruce and fir trees, on the outskirts of a large wood, and close to a country cross road, and as he was still there after the bulk of the migrants had gone, I came to the conclusion that it was about time to pay special attention to him.

I therefore on June 10 repaired to the site, having already noted one particular tree that he seemed to favor most for his vocal performances. From this tree I measured out twenty yards to the north, south, east and west of it, marking the spots with rough stakes, hoping sooner or later (it is more often than not the latter) to discover the nest within the magic circle. After having done this the next thing I always do is to inspect the ground carefully within the area of the stakes, in order to find out what likely spots (one gets to know these by experience) are dominated by the 'singing tree.' In this particular instance the most likely one seemed to lie to the north, although I rather favored one to the east, from having previously seen the male take that direction on several occasions when leaving the singing tree. However, one can never be sure, and the only way is to watch the male's every movement. This I proceeded to do for the next two hours, with very little result, as he merely kept flitting round about the magic circle whilst ever and anon singing from a few special trees. However, the critical moment came at last, as a downward swoop, so to speak, of his, into a spruce tree to the north brought out the female. I at once made for this tree, mentally congratulating myself that the nest was as