JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIKTY. 105 



on the ground, it is apparently in pursuit of some insect knocked 

 from the tree. Frequently it picks up an escaping moth on the 

 wing. If it were possible to speak of a bird as being economical, the 

 term would apply to the Bay-breasted Warbler. 



During incubation the male frequently feeds the female. When 

 the young have once emerged from the egg, he is indefatigable in 

 his efforts, feeding tlie nestlings, often presenting the first caterpil- 

 lar to his mate, coming and going with regularity even when an 

 observer is within a few feet of the nest, never seeming to urge 

 the young to partake of food, or to consider the fact that he is 

 exposed. The female is more cautious, less inclined to come to the 

 nest while anyone is near. When undisturbed the birds generally 

 come and go together, arranging themselves on the opposite sides 

 of the nest to feed the young, often making the most charming and 

 effective groupings. 



The bird is neither timid nor nervous. Possessing an abnormal 

 instinct for the concealment of its nest, it makes everything else sub- 

 servient to that end, but when once the nest has been discovered, 

 no bird, not even the Black-throated Green Warbler, accepts the sit- 

 uation more bravely, or with less apparent concern, 



June 13th, 1908, while observing a nest of young Juncos, in a 

 pasture near the house, a pair of Bay-breasts, apparently attracted 

 by the '^s/ps of tlie Juncos, came to look on. As they fed in the 

 grey birches and firs above the nest, there was nothing to indicate 

 that they resented observation or were even aware of it. Yet even 

 then, I afterwards learned, they were perpetrating a slight ruse. 



I lost sight of this pair, except for an occasional glimpse of 

 them gathering food, until the i8th day of June. That morning 

 early, following a very rainy day, I found the Bay-breasts were 

 gleaning in the trees bordering the path to the boiling spring. A 

 slight investigation revealed their nest, a small structure not far 

 from the footway, about ten feet from the ground, on the horizontal 

 branch of a fir, four feet from the trunk and two feet from the tip of 

 the branch. From below, the nest looked not unlike the nest of the 

 Magnolia Warbler, but a trifle larger. The female was sitting, 



