536 LAND BIRDS 



appearance. It is placed in an upright crotch of a low 

 bush with little attempt at concealment. One little nest 

 that we found had two of the leaves fastened down over 

 it in the weaving, probably by accident, and they formed 

 a complete shelter and protection from the wind. The 

 female flew in at one side and usually sat facing the 

 opening, perfectly concealed, yet seeing all that occurred 

 around. But the typical Yellow Warbler nest is built 

 with an eye to sunshine and fresh air and recklessly ex- 

 posed to the gaze of every passer-by. 



The small bluish eggs, wreathed with minute brown 

 spots at the larger end, are very like the eggs of the 

 German canaries, and I have placed them under a sit- 

 ting canary hen for hatching. The only drawback was 

 that they hatched in twelve days, which was two days 

 sooner than those of their adoptive mother, and caused 

 her to throw them out of the nest and go on sitting on 

 her own eggs. Under normal conditions they hatch 

 under their own mother in twelve days, and sitting is 

 never begun until the full complement is laid, so that 

 the whole brood emerge from the shell on the same day. 

 At first, like most young birds, they are naked except for 

 sparse down on the head, but at the end of a week they 

 have pinfeathers on wings and tail and thin down on the 

 other parts of the body. In another week the feathers 

 have burst their sheaths, and the nestlings are the pret- 

 tiest things in the wood. They are fed upon insects by 

 regurgitation for the first few days, and later upon the 

 fresh food. 



