“I was sitting on the bank where it goes down a little to the river, and the ground there was humpy with bunches of grass.  A little bird like this Warbler ran from between two of the grass humps and picked about on the ground for a minute and then ran back.  I thought he had gone into a hole, but pretty soon he came out again and flew up through the bushes to a tall tree a little way off.  He went out to the end of a long branch and began to call—­soft at first and then very loud, as if his throat would split before he ended.  It was a very big noise for such a little bird.”

“Did he seem to say ’Teacher, TEACHER, TEACHER’?” asked the Doctor, who knew John Burroughs very well.

“Yes, he kept calling exactly that way.  Then when he stopped, I looked for the hole in the ground where he came from.  I felt round a little, and then I lay down on the bank and looked up hill at the place to try if I could find it that way.  Then I saw a place where the grass and leaves were made into a sort of roof between the grass humps, and in the middle of this was a smooth round hole.  I put my finger in and another bird, just like the first, flew out, and I saw that there were eggs there; so I drove a stick in the ground to mark the place, and went away.

“The miller said it must be a field-mouse’s nest that some birds had stolen.  But in the fall I took the nest home and I saw it was a real bird’s nest, all woven round of strong grass with finer kinds for a lining; and there were dead leaves on the outside, so that the top looked like all the rest of the ground.  I had often heard that loud singing before, but this was the first time I had a good look at the bird and his nest, and the miller won’t believe now that it’s a bird’s nest either.”

“What trade does the Ovenbird belong to?” asked Dodo.  “He ought to be a baker if he lives in an oven.”

“He is a Ground Gleaner and a Tree Trapper,” said the Doctor, while the children laughed merrily at Dodo’s idea of a baker bird.

The Ovenbird

Length about six inches.

Upper parts frog green, with a rusty-yellow streak between two black lines on the crown.

Lower parts white, with black streaks on the breast and sides.

A Summer Citizen as far west as Kansas and north to Alaska, wintering far south.

THE MARYLAND YELLOW-THROAT

“Now we come to three very jolly Warblers with bright feathers and perfectly distinct ways of their own.  They are the Maryland Yellow-throat, the Yellow-breasted Chat, and the American Redstart.  The Maryland Yellow-throat is the merry little bird who puts his head on one side to peep at you through his black mask, and then flits further along to a thicket or clump of bushes, calling persuasively—­’Follow me-e, follow me-e, follow!’ He is trying to coax you into a game of hide-and-seek; but if you play with him you will soon find that you must do all the seeking, for he intends to do the hiding himself.