"Although I'm a bird, I give you my word That seldom you'll know me to fly; For I have a notion about locomotion, The little Brown Creeper am I, Dear little Brown Creeper am I.
"Beginning below, I search as I go The trunk and the limbs of a tree, For a fly or a slug, a beetle or bug; They're better than candy for me, Far better than candy for me.
"When people are nigh I'm apt to be shy, And say to myself, 'I will hide,' Continue my creeping, but carefully keeping Away on the opposite side, Well around on the opposite side.
"Yet sometimes I peek while I play hide and seek, If you're nice I shall wish to see _you_: I'll make a faint sound and come quite around, And creep like a mouse in full view, Very much like a mouse to your view."
The accompanying illustration shows an interesting Phoebe's nest. It is well-known that this bird prefers to build close to some overhead protection, but I have never seen, and have heard of only one other similar structure, showing such evidence of forethought by the builder; for this bird has constructed a pedestal by means of which her nest was raised to the desired height.
The location chosen was three feet or so back under the piazza roof of a lonely, unused summer cottage by the shore of Webster lake, in Franklin, N. H.
The foundations were begun on a door-cap to the left of, although almost in touch with, an upright cleat. Soon the builder made a turn to the right, that the pedestal might rest firmly against this cleat. From this point the work continued perpendicularly full twelve inches, with the breadth of about three inches and a thickness of one and one-half inches. Upon this the enlargement was made for the nest proper, which was destined to safely cradle her brood of four.--Ellen E. Webster, _Franklin Falls, N. H._
[Two years ago John Burroughs showed us a nest similar to the one here described, built beneath the eaves, on a slight projection in the rough hewn rock of the railway station at West Park, N. Y.--Ed.]
After the leaves fall many deserted birds' nests will be exposed to view. The larger number will still be found serviceable for study, and in collecting them a note of the site, height from the ground, if in a tree or bush, etc., should be made to aid in their identification.