1 1 6 NESTS AXD EGGS OF BIRDS. 



70. THE SUMMER YELLOWBIRD. 



DENDRCECA ESTIVA {Gm.) Baird. 



Tellowbird ; Yellow, Olive, Citron, Summer, Golden, and Golden Swamp 

 "Warbler; "Wild Canary; Yellow Titmouse {Catesbij); Yellow-poll, 

 Blue-eyed, Children's and Rathbone's "Wood "Warbler (.Auihihon) ; Blue- 

 eyed Yellow "Warbler { inison) ; Yellow or Willow "Wren (yvt/all); 

 False Yellowbird (Giraud, Long Island); Yellowhammer (Xi'irfound- 

 laml); La Fauvette Jaune, and Ij'oiseau Jaune (Canada); Mule-bird, 

 or Cage-bird (West Indies). 



This charming visitor is known from end to end of the 7vhok 

 continent, and also in the upper part of South America and the 

 West Indies. It is a true herald of coming warmth and brightness, 

 and when the ornithologist hears its slender note he is sure that 

 the host of pretty plumaged, sweet voiced, migratory birds will 

 soon throng among the opening leaves of the rejuvenated woods. 



The summer yellowbird makes its appearance at the Ohio river 

 late in April, in the latitude of Oregon and Massachusetts about 

 May 15 ; and at once begins the construction of its tenement, — 

 one of the most familiar bird-homes in the United States. 



The favorite resort of the summer warbler in breeding time is 

 some rose-embowered village garden, where, secure from all ene- 

 mies but the ubiquitous house-cat, and surrounded with the best 

 of food for its prospective family, it may live in quiet happiness. 

 Other individuals choose to dwell in some roadside bush ; or 

 retreat to the pastures and thickets along the edges of swampy 

 woods, where patches of briers and convenient young saplings 

 are in plenty and to their liking. 



The nest of the yellow warbler is one of the simplest and yet 

 among the most attractive in our whole catalogue. It gives the 

 beholder a most charming impression of the happy home-life 

 which must be led there, and appeals to him not ruthlessly to 

 interrupt the pleasant current of the warblers' lives. Substances 

 for the framework of this pleasant villa, the pair find in the loose 

 shreds of fibrous bark hanging from old willows, elms and other 

 trees, but most of all from the dead wood of the grape-arbor, and 



