172 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 
with its roots dries out very rapidly. In California, when 
moving orange trees, great care is used to prevent drying 
out. The leaves are stripped, while the branches are tied 
in burlap and kept moist constantly. It is claimed to be a 
sure sign of failure if the flowers appear upon the trees the 
same year, while the appearance of new foliage without 
flowers spells success, 
Trees may be transplanted during the winter with a 
frozen ball. In the fall a mulch of manure ‘is placed around 
the tree 2-3 feet wider than the proposed ball. After the 
advent of freezing weather the mulch is removed and the ball 
dug gradually, allowing it to freeze. In this manner the tree 
is easily moved, providing a similar mulch has been placed 
over the new location to insure easy digging and a favorable 
planting condition. | 
BIRDS IN THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN 
The following notes on the yellow warbler and the cowbird 
rt supplied by Mr. E. S. Daniels and Mr. George F. 
atum: 
‘As is well-known, the female cowbirds are feathered para- 
sites; they build no nests of their own and deposit their eggs 
in nests of other birds, usually a species smaller than them- 
selves. A notable instance is the warbler group, twenty-four 
ecies of which Chapman ‘records as being imposed on by 
the cowbird. It is not unusual to find three of her eggs in 
the nest of a small warbler, and Chapman, in ‘Birds of East- 
ern North America,’ says that the ‘ill-gotten offspring are 
born with the cowbird character fully developed, They eat 
by far the greater share of the food and through gluttony 
or mere size alone, starve or crowd out the rightful occu- 
pants of the nest. They accept the attention of their foster 
parents long after they could care for themselves, and when 
nothing more is to be gained, desert them and join the grow- 
ing flocks of their kind in the grain fields.’ 
“Mr. Chapman further writes in his ‘Warblers of North 
America’ that ‘only the yellow warbler appears to avoid in- 
cubating the intruded egg by building a second, and, should 
occasion require, a third story to its home.’ Such a nest is on 
exhibition in the Field Museum in Chicago, and a similar 
one was found by the writers in the Missouri Botanical 
Garden during the month of May, 1917. This particular 
nest was an unusual one for this species to build, in that a 
quantity of newspaper was used in its construction. The nest 
was also not as compact as is usually built by the warblers, 
