The Project Gutenberg EBook of Upon The Tree-Tops, by Olive Thorne Miller

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Title: Upon The Tree-Tops

Author: Olive Thorne Miller

Illustrator: J. Carter Beard

Release Date: February 13, 2010 [EBook #31269]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: THE TUG OF WAR--THE SHRIKE (PAGE 38)]

UPON THE TREE-TOPS

BY

OLIVE THORNE MILLER

_ILLUSTRATED BY J. CARTER BEARD_

[Illustration]

BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
The Riverside Press, Cambridge

Copyright, 1897,
BY H. M. MILLER.

_All rights reserved._

_The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A._
Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton and Company.

_Do you ne'er think what wondrous beings these,
Whose household words are songs in many keys,
Whose habitations on the tree-tops even
Are half-way houses on the road to heaven?_

LONGFELLOW.

INTRODUCTORY.

In the beginning of my study of bird life, when I had a bird-room for
close observation, I was interested to see that our little neighbors in
feathers possess as much individuality of character as ourselves, and in
Chapters XII. and XIII. of this volume I offer two studies of that
period, illustrative of the point.

Thanks are due to Mr. Frederic A. Ober for the use of his notes on one
of the solitaires, embodied in Chapter XII., and to the Godey Company
for permission to reproduce two shrike pictures.

I wish also to give credit to my daughter, Mary Mann Miller, for the
minute and conscientious collection of the facts recorded in Chapters V.
and VI., which for convenience are related as if they were my own
observations.

OLIVE THORNE MILLER.

CONTENTS.

UPON THE TREE-TOPS.

I. TRAMPS WITH AN ENTHUSIAST 3
Hermit Thrush. _Turdus aonalaschkae pallasii._
American Crow. _Corvus Americanus._
Sandpiper.
Wilson's Thrush. _Turdus fuscescens._
Oven-bird. _Seiurus aurocapillus._