BREWSTER'S WARBLER. 59 



fatigued in the pursuit of the ekisive little Warblers rests with a sense of relief 

 upon the exquisite tracery of Purdie's Fern.^ 



As July advances, tall stalks of Meadow Rue lift their white plumes to a 

 height of six to ten feet above the ground, while beneath them Canada Lilies 

 swing their golden bells and ring out, to the spirit, "ditties of no tone." 



Abutting on one side of the swamp is a tract of long-abandoned tillage land 

 now appropriated by young Gray Birches, with one or two Red Oaks of a much 

 older and larger growth. The areas between the trees form a veritable jungle 

 of Raspberry vines and Poison Dogwood. On another side the swamp is bounded 

 by a grove of Birch with a more recent undergrowth of Raspberry. On the 

 third side one passes by an abrupt transition into an open meadow, the haunt 

 of Meadowlarks and Bobolinks, while the limit of the swamp on the fourth side 

 is fixed by the edge of a woodland of upland Oak cleared of every vestige of 

 undergrowth — the kind of woodland beloved of man but abhorred by most 

 kinds of birds. 



To return to the Brewster's Warbler and nest: the sixth and seventh of 

 June were rainy days and the female bird sat so close that I could peer into the 

 nest with my face within a few feet of her without her once abandoning her 

 charge. The male Brewster's spent most of the time singing in a Red Oak in 

 the Birch jungle within forty-five yards of the nest, while the male Golden-wing 

 was never heard to sing from this time onward. 



On the morning of the eighth there were five little naked newly-hatched 

 birds in the nest. 



On the ninth Messrs. William Brewster and H. A. Purdie accompanied me 

 when I visited the nest, and on that day we got the first inkling of the marital 

 relations of the birds under observation : the male Golden- wing was seen feeding 

 the female Brewster's Warbler in the shrubbery near the nest. After this day 

 he was constant in supplying food to the female or the young, while the male 

 Brewster's spent most of the time singing in his favorite tree and was never seen 

 to feed anything but himself. He would, it is true, make occasional visits to 

 the immediate neighborhood of the nest, particularly if any commotion was 

 excited there by the presence of a squirrel or other unwelcome intruder. On 

 such occasions he showed as much concern as if he had a personal interest in 

 the nest; but every field observer will recognize that this alone is no evidence 

 of proprietorship in the nest. It is a matter of every day observation that birds 



^ Aspidium concordianum, a delicate, finely-cut form of ^4. spinulostim, discovered by Mr. H. A. 

 Purdie in the neighboring town of Concord. 



