64 JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



June 17th, 1908, on my way to the Boiling Spring, not far from 

 the bars, on the hillside above a swale, in a growth mostly evergreen 

 but sparsely interspersed with gray birches, I came upon a Black 

 and White Warbler with a caterpillar in her beak, calling as if to 

 young. I waited a few minutes. The bird went to her nest, close 

 by the footway, fed five young birds and carried away the excre- 

 ment. The birds were very dark gray, nearly black, with yellow 

 beaks, the point having already turned gray. On the wings was a 

 little white. I judged the nestlings were about six days old. 



Two days later, when I visited the birds, the mother crouched 

 on the ground outside the nest facing the young. I made so much 

 noise crawling under the branches, I was startled to see the bird, 

 but she trusted to her coloration, and remained immovable. I was 

 about five feet from the nest. I counted sixty slowly more than 

 twenty times. During that period the female removed excrement 

 from the nest on three occasions. I was unable to decipher her act 

 for some time; it was performed so rapidly, it was well-nigh invisi- 

 ble. Slowly I understood. She seized the excrement from the 

 restless nestling and tossed it away with a movement so quick and 

 dexterous it was all but imperceptible. Then I crept to within two 

 feet of the nest. The bird flew over my head and settled behind 

 me, spread wings and tail and trailed around me with open beak, 

 emitting the hissing sound. After awhile she flew to a tree, calling 

 a metallic sint! sint! sint! The mate who was near called sptz! 

 sptz! sptz! 



Waiting another two days, I visited the nest again. The 

 young were beginning to resemble the old birds. The female was 

 just leaving the nest and the male coming with food. There was 

 considerable excitement among the old birds, but I bided my time, 

 very still, some distance away, but in full sight. The male finally 

 fed the nestlings. 



The following morning, two of the nestlings were out of the 

 nest. I took up the largest of the remaining three to see its mark- 

 ings and the rest fled. The mother stopped her chipping and with 

 outspread wings and tail, and open beak, flew at the outspread 



