EASTERN YELLOW WARBLER 169 



Feeding of the nestlings was carried on about equally by both male 

 and female parents for the first 7 days, after which the male was 

 frightened away by a snake and did no more feeding, the female 

 carrying on for the next 4 days. During observations covering nearly 

 all of 10 full days and part of another there were 2373 feedings, 813 

 by the male and 1560 by the female, there being only 33 feedings dur- 

 ing the whole of the last day, "During the first three or four days 

 when the female was brooding, usually the male gave her the food, 

 which she distributed to the nestlings." Some of the food had to be 

 broken up before it was given to the young ; and sometimes it had to be 

 thrust down their throats. There were 331 feedings of unrecognized 

 food, and 553 of unidentified insects. The identified food consisted 

 of 659 green worms, 326 fly worms, 162 other worms, 147 May flies, 

 103 moths, 75 millers, 65 mosquitos, 26 larvae, 25 grasshoppers, 23 

 spiders, 18 ants, 14 grubs, 8 beetles, 4 damsel flies, 2 tree hoppers, and 

 1 bee. Feeding began at from 4 : 29 to 4 : 50 a. m., and ended at from 

 7 : 36 to 8 : 04 p. m., the average feeding period being 15 hours and 30 

 minutes per day. The parents were not seen to follow any system 

 of rotation in feeding the young. "At no time while the nest was 

 under observation did the parents feed by regurgitation," though the 

 parents on several irregularly occurring occasions were seen to insert 

 an apparently empty bill into the mouth of a nestling, but it was long- 

 after hatching. The excreta were removed by both parents; they 

 were eaten during about the first half of the nest life and carried 

 away after that ; the female did most of this. The parents were very 

 watchful of the young, and were seen to drive away such birds as the 

 cowbird, blue jay, wren, chickadee, brown thrasher, kingbird and 

 blackbird, if they came too near the nest ; the only bird that was not 

 driven away was a catbird. The presence of a garter snake at the 

 base of the bush caused great excitement ; the snake was seen to climb 

 up into the bush and carry off one of the young when it was about six 

 days old ; the young bird was dead before it could be rescued. 



Schrantz (1943) writes: "The Yellow Warblers are hatched naked 

 except for a scanty amount of down and are an interesting sight with 

 their large bulging eyes and abdomen. It was observed that the 

 eyes were commencing to open on the third day after hatching. By 

 the fifth day the young can completely open their eyes, but in many 

 cases would immediately close them when the nest was approached. 

 At this age they would also duck down in the nest as if trying to hide. 

 A slight tapping on the nests would cause a rapid outstretching of 

 necks with open mouths." Bigglestone (1913) found that almost any 

 slight noise near the nest would produce the same results. Studies 

 of weights by Schrantz showed that — 



the young averaged, when hatched, 1.27 gms. ; at one day old, 1.87 gms. ; at 

 two days old, 2.95 gms. ; at three days old, 4.36 gms. ; at four days old, 5.57 gms. ; 



