THE NESTING SEASON 95 



around. There was no need to extend the search. 

 Right between my feet, in a small tussock of coarse 

 grass, with the leaf of a skunk cabbage arching over 

 it, was a little nest with five white, sparsely spotted 

 eggs. The owner had not left till I was fairly tread- 

 ing on her, and now kept carefully out of sight. 

 Though I thought it was the nest of a yellow-throat, 

 there was no telling but that it might belong to a 

 mourning or Connecticut warbler, or some rarity. So 

 I crouched down behind a bush and waited a quarter 

 of an hour, when I saw the female yellow-throat 

 slinking anxiously through the tangle, chirping her 

 disapproval of my wayward course. What business 

 had I to be in a lonely swamp tramping over her 

 nest! 



When the young are hatched, the parent bird will 

 be more in evidence, searching for food and carrying 

 it to the nest. This gives an excellent opportunity to 

 trace it out by watching the old birds. 



Do not imagine, when the twentieth of June is 

 reached, that the nesting season is over. Some indi- 

 vidual pairs of birds have been tardy, or have had 

 some accident to their first nest and have built again. 

 Various species often, and in some cases habitually, 

 raise a second brood. The robin, bluebird, phoebe, 

 catbird, quail, red-winged blackbird, all the swallows, 

 and most of the sparrows, notably the song, swamp, 

 chipping, field, vesper, and savanna, habitually raise 

 two broods. Others which sometimes do, most of 

 them to my personal knowledge, are the house and 



