BLUE-WINGED WARBLER 61 



small green larvae — such as may be found on the under-side of oak and chestnut 

 leaves — and then shielded the callow young from the hot rays of the sun. 



On June 16, at 6.30 p. m., when the young were three days old, a downy puff 

 appeared between the shoulders, wing quills being dark. The strongest bird 

 had the eyes partly open and the mouth wide open for food. 



On June 18, at 7 p. m., the heads and bodies were no longer flesh-colored but 

 were well enough covered to appear dark. The eyes were open. At a cluck 

 from me their mouths flew open. Both parents fed them with green-colored 

 larvae. When the male rested a moment on a brier above the nest, the female 

 flew down and drove him away, fed the young, re-appearing with excrement in her 

 beak, which was carried in an opposite direction from the regular approach via 

 maple bough and poplar sapling. The male fed the young from a mouthful of 

 very minute larvae or eggs, which were gathered from the silken nests in the 

 unfolding leaves of a nearby poplar ; after this (7.30 p. m.) the female covered the 

 young for the night. 



On June 20, at from 6.50 to 7.35 p. m., the young had been seven days in the 

 nest. They were well feathered and of a yellowish-green cast, the short tails 

 being tipped with yellow. The parents were more suspicious. The female came 

 to the maple bough with something in her beak and flew down to the briers and 

 back again several times before she dropped to the edge of the nest and fed her 

 young. The male appeared immediately but swallowed a green grub himself 

 upon discovery of me twenty-five feet away. The female came again in five 

 minutes with a brownish object in her bill, but appeared more timid and refused 

 to drop to the nest until the male set her an example of courage. 



On June 21, at 6.12 p. m., the young were fully fledged in green plumage above 

 and dirty yellow beneath. They showed fear of me for the first time, eyeing 

 me in the same manner as the parent bird when on the nest. They were evi- 

 dently ready to vacate at a moment's notice or hasty movement on my part. The 

 parents appeared, scolding rapidly. The female fed the young as soon as I 

 retired to my old stand under a bush, with a rather large green grub (6.20 p. m.) 

 and flew out to the top of a blackberry bush, followed immediately by the toi)- 

 most fledgling. It could do little more than run. The adults flew to within a 

 yard of my head, making a great outcry, and in the midst of the excitement the 

 remainder of the young vacated the nest with feeble chips. The male gave his 

 attention to them, while the female followed me as I beat a hasty retreat to 

 enable them to collect their little family before dark. Eight days had elapsed 

 since incubation was completed, and it is not at all unusual for the young of 

 this species to leave the nest while so tiny and ragged. 



Plumages. — Dr. Dwight (1900) calls the natal down "mouse-gray," 

 and describes the juvenal plumage, in which the sexes are alike, as, 

 "entire body plumage olive-yellow darkest on the back and throat. 

 Wings and tail slate-gray largely edged with plumbeous gray, the 

 tertiaries and coverts with olive-yellow ; the greater and median coverts 

 tipped with white, yellow tinged. Rectrices largely white. Lores 

 dusky." 



A partial postjuvenal molt begins early in July, involving the con- 

 tour plumage and the wing coverts, but not the rest of the wings or 

 the tail. This molt produces the first winter plumage in which the 

 sexes are very much alike, the female being duller in color, especially 



