"That reminds me," said Peter. "Those folks you have mentioned nest in holes in trees; do you?"
"I should say not," retorted Creeper. "I don"t know of any Warbler who does. I build on the ground, if you want to know. I nest in the Green Forest. Sometimes I make my nest in a little hollow at the base of a tree; sometimes I put it under a stump or rock or tuck it in under the roots of a tree that has been blown over. But there, Peter Rabbit, I"ve talked enough. I"m glad you"re glad that I"m back, and I"m glad I"m back too."
Creeper continued on up the trunk of the tree, picking here and picking there. Just then Peter caught sight of another friend whom he could always tell by the black mask he wore. It was Mummer the Yellow-throat.
He had just darted into the thicket of bushes along the old stone wall.
Peter promptly hurried over there to look for him.
When Peter reached the place where he had caught a glimpse of Mummer, no one was to be seen. Peter sat down, uncertain which way to go. Suddenly Mummer popped out right in front of Peter, seemingly from nowhere at all. His throat and breast were bright yellow and his back wings and tail a soft olive-green. But the most remarkable thing about him was the mask of black right across his cheeks, eyes and forehead. At least it looked like a mask, although it really wasn"t one.
"h.e.l.lo, Mummer!" cried Peter.
"h.e.l.lo yourself, Peter Rabbit!" retorted Mummer and then disappeared as suddenly as he had appeared.
Peter blinked and looked in vain all about.
"Looking for some one?" asked Mummer, suddenly popping into view where Peter least expected him.
"For goodness" sake, can"t you sit still a minute?" cried Peter. "How do you expect a fellow can talk to you when he can"t keep his eyes on you more than two seconds at a time."
"Who asked you to talk to me?" responded Mummer, and popped out of sight. Two seconds later he was back again and his bright little eyes fairly shone with mischief. Then before Peter could say a word Mummer burst into a pleasant little song. He was so full of happiness that Peter couldn"t be cross with him.
"There"s one thing I like about you, Mummer," declared Peter, "and that is that I never get you mixed up with anybody else. I should know you just as far as I could see you because of that black mask across your face. Has Mrs. Yellow-throat arrived yet?"
"Certainly," replied another voice, and Mrs. Yellow-throat flitted across right in front of Peter. For just a second she sat still, long enough for him to have one good look at her. She was dressed very like Mummer save that she did not wear the black mask.
Peter was just about to say something polite and pleasant when from just back of him there sounded a loud, very emphatic, "Chut! Chut!"
Peter whirled about to find another old friend. It was Chut-Chut the Yellow-breasted Chat, the largest of the Warbler family. He was so much bigger than Mummer that it was hard to believe that they were own cousins. But Peter knew they were, and he also knew that he could never mistake Chut-Chut for any other member of the family because of his big size, which was that of some of the members of the Sparrow family. His back was a dark olive-green, but his throat and breast were a beautiful bright yellow. There was a broad white line above each eye and a little white line underneath. Below his breast he was all white.
To have seen him you would have thought that he suspected Peter might do him some harm. He acted that way. If Peter hadn"t known him so well he might have been offended. But Peter knew that there is no one among his feathered friends more cautious than Chut-Chut the Chat. He never takes anything for granted. He appears to be always on the watch for danger, even to the extent of suspecting his very best friends.
When he had decided in his own mind that there was no danger, Chut-Chut came out for a little gossip. But like all the rest of the Warblers he couldn"t keep still. Right in the middle of the story of his travels from far-away Mexico he flew to the top of a little tree, began to sing, then flew out into the air with his legs dangling and his tail wagging up and down in the funniest way, and there continued his song as he slowly dropped down into the thicket again. It was a beautiful song and Peter hastened to tell him so.
Chut-Chut was pleased. He showed it by giving a little concert all by himself. It seemed to Peter that he never had heard such a variety of whistles and calls and songs as came from that yellow throat. When it was over Chut-Chut abruptly said good-by and disappeared. Peter could hear his sharp "Chut! Chut!" farther along in the thicket as he hunted for worms among the bushes.
"I wonder," said Peter, speaking out loud without thinking, "where he builds his nest. I wonder if he builds it on the ground, the way Creeper does."
"No," declared Mummer, who all the time had been darting about close at hand. "He doesn"t, but I do. Chut-Chut puts his nest near the ground, however, usually within two or three feet. He builds it in bushes or briars. Sometimes if I can find a good tangle of briars I build my nest in it several feet from the ground, but as a rule I would rather have it on the ground under a bush or in a clump of weeds. Have you seen my cousin Sprite the Parula Warbler, yet?"
"Not yet," said Peter, as he started for home.
CHAPTER XXVI. Peter Gets a Lame Neck.
For several days it seemed to Peter Rabbit that everywhere he went he found members of the Warbler family. Being anxious to know all of them he did his best to remember how each one looked, but there were so many and some of them were dressed so nearly alike that after awhile Peter became so mixed that he gave it up as a bad job. Then, as suddenly as they had appeared, the Warblers disappeared. That is to say, most of them disappeared. You see they had only stopped for a visit, being on their way farther north.
In his interest in the affairs of others of his feathered friends, Peter had quite forgotten the Warblers. Then one day when he was in the Green Forest where the spruce-trees grow, he stopped to rest. This particular part of the Green Forest was low and damp, and on many of the trees gray moss grew, hanging down from the branches and making the trees look much older than they really were. Peter was staring at a hanging branch of this moss without thinking anything about it when suddenly a little bird alighted on it and disappeared in it. At least, that is what Peter thought. But it was all so unexpected that he couldn"t be sure his eyes hadn"t fooled him.
Of course, right away he became very much interested in that bunch of moss. He stared at it very hard. At first it looked no different from a dozen other bunches of moss, but presently he noticed that it was a little thicker than other bunches, as if somehow it had been woven together. He hopped off to one side so he could see better. It looked as if in one side of that bunch of moss was a little round hole. Peter blinked and looked very hard indeed to make sure. A minute later there was no doubt at all, for a little feathered head was poked out and a second later a dainty mite of a bird flew out and alighted very close to Peter. It was one of the smaller members of the Warbler family.
"Sprite!" cried Peter joyously. "I missed you when your cousins pa.s.sed through here, and I thought you had gone to the Far North with the rest of them."
"Well, I haven"t, and what"s more I"m not going to go on to the Far North. I"m going to stay right here," declared Sprite the Parula Warbler, for that is who it was.
As Peter looked at Sprite he couldn"t help thinking that there wasn"t a daintier member in the whole Warbler family. His coat was of a soft bluish color with a yellowish patch in the very center of his back.
Across each wing were two bars of white. His throat was yellow. Just beneath it was a little band of bluish-black. His breast was yellow and his sides were grayish and brownish-chestnut.
"Sprite, you"re just beautiful," declared Peter in frank admiration.
"What was the reason I didn"t see you up in the Old Orchard with your cousins?"
"Because I wasn"t there," was Sprite"s prompt reply as he flitted about, quite unable to sit still a minute. "I wasn"t there because I like the Green Forest better, so I came straight here."
"What were you doing just now in that bunch of moss?" demanded Peter, a sudden suspicion of the truth hopping into his head.
"Just looking it over," replied Sprite, trying to look innocent.
At that very instant Peter looked up just in time to see a tail disappearing in the little round hole in the side of the bunch of moss.
He knew that that tail belonged to Mrs. Sprite, and just that glimpse told him all he wanted to know.
"You"ve got a nest in there!" Peter exclaimed excitedly. "There"s no use denying it, Sprite; you"ve got a nest in there! What a perfectly lovely place for a nest."
Sprite saw at once that it would be quite useless to try to deceive Peter. "Yes," said he, "Mrs. Sprite and I have a nest in there. We"ve just finished it. I think myself it is rather nice. We always build in moss like this. All we have to do is to find a nice thick bunch and then weave it together at the bottom and line the inside with fine gra.s.ses.
It looks so much like all the rest of the bunches of moss that it is seldom any one finds it. I wouldn"t trade nests with anybody I know."
"Isn"t it rather lonesome over here by yourselves?" asked Peter.
"Not at all," replied Sprite. "You see, we are not as much alone as you think. My cousin, Fidget the Myrtle Warbler, is nesting not very far away, and another cousin Weechi the Magnolia Warbler is also quite near.
Both have begun housekeeping already."
Of course Peter was all excitement and interest at once. "Where are their homes?" he asked eagerly. "Tell me where they are and I"ll go straight over and call."
"Peter," said Sprite severely, "you ought to know better than to ask me to tell you anything of this kind. You have been around enough to know that there is no secret so precious as the secret of a home. You happened to find mine, and I guess I can trust you not to tell anybody where it is. If you can find the homes of Fidget and Weechi, all right, but I certainly don"t intend to tell you where they are."
Peter knew that Sprite was quite right in refusing to tell the secrets of his cousins, but he couldn"t think of going home without at least looking for those homes. He tried to look very innocent as he asked if they also were in hanging bunches of moss. But Sprite was too smart to be fooled and Peter learned nothing at all.
For some time Peter hopped around this way and that way, thinking every bunch of moss he saw must surely contain a nest. But though he looked and looked and looked, not another little round hole did he find, and there were so many bunches of moss that finally his neck ached from tipping his head back so much. Now Peter hasn"t much patience as he might have, so after a while he gave up the search and started on his way home. On higher ground, just above the low swampy place where grew the moss-covered trees, he came to a lot of young hemlock-trees. These had no moss on them. Having given up his search Peter was thinking of other things when there flitted across in front of him a black and gray bird with a yellow cap, yellow sides, and a yellow patch at the root of his tail. Those yellow patches were all Peter needed to see to recognize Fidget the Myrtle Warbler, one of the two friends he had been so long looking for down among the moss-covered trees.
"Oh, Fidget!" cried Peter, hurrying after the restless little bird. "Oh, Fidget! I"ve been looking everywhere for you."
"Well, here I am," retorted Fidget. "You didn"t look everywhere or you would have found me before. What can I do for you?" All the time Fidget was hopping and flitting about, never still an instant.
"You can tell me where your nest is," replied Peter promptly.
"I can, but I won"t," retorted Fidget. "Now honestly, Peter, do you think you have any business to ask such a question?"
Peter hung his head and then replied quite honestly, "No I don"t, Fidget. But you see Sprite told me that you had a nest not very far from his and I"ve looked at bunches of moss until I"ve got a crick in the back of my neck."
"Bunches of moss!" exclaimed Fidget. "What under the sun do you think I have to do with bunches of moss?"