SECOND ANNUAL MEETING 43 



exact time ■when nest building begins, how long a time the bird con- 

 sumes in this work, etc. That the birds do not all deposit eggs at the 

 same time is evident from the fact that nearly fresh eggs and young 

 of various ages were found on the same day. 



For two seasons I had noticed the birds in that locality and in the 

 spring of 1900 I resolved to locate a nest if possible. With this end in 

 view I went down as soon as school closed at the State University. 



The second day after mj' arrival, June 5. while sitting on the bank 

 of the stream idl}' watching my float, a Prothonotarj^ Warbler alighted 

 on a stub standing in the Avater about twenty feet from the bank where 

 I sat. I was all attention in a second, and as it clung for a moment to 

 the edge of an old hole in the stub, I saw that it held a worm in its 

 bill. Then the slender bill of the female appeared at the opening, fol- 

 lowed by the beautiful golden head. After uttering a few purring 

 notes the male gently put the worm in its mate's mouth and then flew 

 to the grove on the opposite side of the stream, into which it disap- 

 peared. Keeping myself well hidden I watched for perhaps twenty 

 minutes, during which time the male came four times ^vith a worm for 

 the incubating female. When I approached the nest, the female flushed 

 as the boat g-razed the stiib. She fle^v into the grove opposite and I did 

 not see her again until an hour afterward as I was passing, ^vhen both 

 birds were clinging to the stub, but flew away at the approach of the 

 boat. The large nest cavity was half filled with twigs and decaying 

 shreds of bark and leaves, while the top of the mass Avas hollowed out 

 and lined with fine bark shreds to form a receptacle for the eggs. 

 Owing to the fact that the stub stood in the water and the nest was 

 only a short distance above it, the nest materials were quite damp and 

 much decayed. The nest contained six almost fresh eggs with a pure 

 white ground color and profuselj^ spotted and specked with reddish 

 lilac. The eggs measure, respectively, .70x.5.5; .75x.57; .74x.57; .73x.56; 

 .78X.56. Farther down stream two nests were located by watching the 

 birds as they carried food to the occupants, which in these cases 

 proved to be young birds instead of the incubating female as in the 

 first instance. These nests were in stubs standing in deep water but 

 the holes were six and eight feet respectively above its surface. I did 

 not ascertain the number of young in the nests, not wishing to break 

 open the holes and expose the young. 



One thing about the action of the parent birds was strange to me 

 and wholly different from anything I had ever noticed before in regard 

 to the actions of warblers when their young Avere disturbed or in 

 danger. If one of the birds happened to be present when the nest was 

 disturbed or even approached, it merely flew away without any of the 

 usual manifestations of alarin so common among- birds and did not 

 return until the intruder had disappeared. As a general rule the birds 

 are shy, occasionally ajipearing- singly on the outskirts of a grove and 

 before 30U are fully aware of its presence, it has flashed away through 



