AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 159 



At this point yonr first real trouble begins for it is no easy task I as- 

 sure you to assume a :?tatue-like pose while mosquitos of various sizes 

 are doing their best toward emptying your veins of your life-blood. 

 For a full half-hour perhaps, you may listen to the monotonous "chips" 

 with scarcely a change in the position of either bird. When finally con- 

 vinced that you mean to stay it out, a change of tactics is decided upon 

 by Mr. and Mrs. Kentucky. After a short consultation the female be- 

 gins to edge toward the ground, each slight descent being followed by 

 a stop and more chirping, all the while keeping her eye constantly fixed 

 upon you. 



As she disappears in the heavy growth, the chirps grow fainter and 

 faintc-r until at last they cease altogether and you are convinced she 

 has returned to the nest. Before investigating, you wait a few minutes 

 to make sure and meanwhile the male who has suddenly grown indif- 

 ferent, shakes his feathers and leaves for a distant part of the woods. 

 It is evident that the "statue" has at last been dubbed quite harmless 

 and with a sigh of relief for aching joints you rise to your feet. With 

 high hopes of a rewarded patience you advance toward the point of the 

 last "chip." 



Cautiously advancing, step by step you finally peep around a stump 

 and see Mrs. Kentucky sitting on a twig near the ground. She is un- 

 concernedly preening her feathers and at once you feel like one who 

 had been deceived. 



As your thoughts return to Mr. Kentucky, there steals upon you a 

 suspicion (and it is generally a correct one) that he has executed a 

 broad circle and a side approach and is now quietly keeping the eggs 

 warm in the nest that you have not discovered. This is but one of the 

 tricks practised by these wily birds during the nesting season, and your 

 admiration for the Kentucky Warbler grows with each experience in 

 which you are the victim of their clever deceptions. I have so learned 

 to respect their accomplishments, as to feel that each discovery of their 

 nest with eggs is (rather than through any talent possessed by me for 

 out-witting them), to be considered in the nature of an accident. After 

 the young have appeared, this extreme caution is overruled by mother- 

 love. The nest may then, with a little be patience located, for the 

 mother will not remain long from her babies. 



By observing a queer action on the part of a male and taking instant 

 advantage of a suspicion, the nest and eggs of the accompanying photo- 

 graph were revealed to me. As a like incident may never be repeated 

 in my experience, I would hesitate in pronouncing it a habit of so 

 eccentric a bird as the Kentucky Warbler, but it may be one. 



I followed a male at his feeding imtil he became alarmed and flew in 



