THE YELLOW WARBLER 289 



small branches. Where everything is as it should be, the 

 nest is built three to five feet above the ground. Weeds 

 form the framework, and any other good nesting material 

 that can be easily found constitutes the filling. Bits of 

 wool, dead wood, horsehairs, cow hairs, feathers — any 

 such material is carefully woven to the sticks with the long 

 tough fiber peeled from the wild grapevine, or if the grape- 

 vine cannot be found, with fine roots or tough dry grass. 

 The nest is much larger than would be expected of so 

 small a bird, because he takes the trouble to make the 

 walls very thick. Building as he does just at the time 

 that the cotton is flying from the willows and the cotton- 

 woods, a great deal of this silky down is woven into the 

 lining. Early thistledown is occasionally gathered and 

 used. When the nest is finished it is as cozy inside as a 

 carpeted parlor, and the builder might well be proud of 

 his job. 



The eggs are greenish white, heavily spotted with brown 

 and lilac, the spots sometimes running together into 

 splotches. The cowbird seems to take especial delight in 

 laying her eggs in the nest of the yellow warbler, doubtless 

 in part because it is so well built. This bird often selects 

 the nest of some small birds so that her young will be more 

 lusty than its fellows. 



The yellow warbler may raise two broods or may be con- 

 tent with only one, according to the part of the country in 

 which it lives. Those that go farthest North probably 

 raise only one brood. Like most of the warblers, its food 

 consists largely of insects and weed seeds, and so this bird 

 is truly a friend of man. 



