Evening star., 1919-08-24


had been great enough to mark faint
trail. There was nothing unusual
about this path and a description OF
It might At any wood trail in the re-
gion around Washington at this sea-
son, when plant life Is at midsummer
maturity and the yellow and red flow-
ers of autumn are coming into bloom.
The damp of the night had not been
clearly dissipated by the sun and a
faint pale gray vapor fingered among
the green, wet trees. 1t was not
dense bit of woodland and the path
was splashed or mottled with irregu-
lar patches Of sun and shade. The yell
low slanting rays tof the early sun
where they fell on green herbage or
foliage gave to 1t that yellow-green
tinge which one sees only in an early
morning outlook. Through the
branches of the trees and in crossing
those parts of the woods where trees
were relatively far apart one could
look up to the misty gray-blue sky.
very different from the clear deep
blue summer sky which the late-ris-
ing Washingtonian sees.
1t was very quiet and peaceful, yet
there were numerous sounds on the
air. There were locusts whose dron-
ing swelled into rather loud tone and
then diminished until 1t was scarcely
audible, and then some nearby locust
would begin droning on an ascending
scale. When he or she seemed to
weary of the effort. another locust
would take up the dry and rafting
song.
From parts of the woods came the
unmistakable call of the pewee, a
migrant bird which spends the sum-
mer in the United States and spreads
its species from the plains to the At
lantic and north to Manitoba and New
Brunswick. and which passes the win
ter in Central America. The note of
this bird Is so common around Wash
nigton that everybody has heard it,,
but for those who do not know the
bird the Rambler takes the following
from the works of one of his orni-
thologist friends: 'In life the pewee
Can best be distinguished from the
larger phoebe, with which Vi is often
confounded, by its sad. plaintive pc
ah-wee'! 'pee-wee'! which is strik-
ingly different from the brusque call
of the phoebe. Pewees are also found
more in high. dry woods. whore they
build their little moss-covered homes
on horizontal boughs at quite height
from the ground. Like the other fly
catchers. they always perch on dead
twigs, where their view is as little
obstructed as possible. Its nest is
one Of the most exquisite of bird
creations, being composed of plant
fbers quilted together and ornament
ed with rock -lichens and preferably
set on the limbs of oak or chestnut
trees, though the bird often chooses
an apple tree in an orchard as the site
for its home"
One can also hear the notes of the
cardinal, and it is pleasant to record
that these birds of gay plumage have
multiplied around Washington as
well as elsewhere, no doubt because
of the protection given them against
bird-butchers and because of the
growth of popular friendly interest in
birds. Out Of the patches Of briers
and tangles of wines comes the song
of the white-eyed viree, and from the
more open parts of the woods, and es-
pecially where an old road passes
throughg 1t. come the persistent notes
of that migrant warbler which is
called the red-eyed viree and of which
bird student says
"All through the spring and summer
months their warble is heard from
woodland and roadside, often Decom-
ing so monotonous as to be irritat-
mig" There is one trait of this bird
which the Rambler would like to
mention. Its nest is basket of WOW
en- strips Of bark and fbers and the
enterprising bird often works into it's
nest pieces Of newspaper and then
lines the nest with fine grass. The
Rambler hopes that some of these
virees have paid him the compliment
OF working into their nests the RAM
bler's page.
One cannot walk far through woods
near Washington without coming