(16 YELLOW WARBLER. 



should if I visited the home of a familiar friend and unexpect- 

 edly found the house empty and no friendly greeting awaiting 

 me. I am sure that other true lovers of nature have felt the 



same. 



What then must the birds feel who have made their homes 

 in these thickets year after year.^ When I enter a place dev- 

 astated in this manner I am at once prompted to turn and leave 

 it and seek some other spot that has been fortunate enough to 

 escape the hands of the spoiler. Unquestionably birds have 

 many of the emotions which we possess, the difference being 

 only in degree; therefore what my outraged feelings prompt 

 me to do is, under similar circumstances, done by the birds. 

 They will not conform to the changed environment about 

 their old homes, but will turn and seek new, undisturbed loca- 

 tions. Undoubtedly he who plants a tree, or spares one that 

 is already growing benefits his race, but he who plants native 

 shrubbery, or w^hat is better, spares that which Nature has al- 

 ready planted, benefits the birds, and through them confers a 

 lasting benefit upon mankind. 



The Yellow Warblers are rather more deliberate in their 

 movem.ents than most members of the family. One will often 

 sit quietly on a twig for a momtcnt, turning its head aljout 

 in search of insects, then when one is discovered, it will hop 

 quickly toward it and seize it. These warblers spend a great 

 deal of time in low shrubbery, but are also fond of apple, pear 

 and other fruit trees and may frequently be found in them 

 searching for insects. Although they very often visit the bor- 

 ders of woodlands, they are seldom, if ever, found in the deep 

 Avoods, in fact, the Yellow Warblers, in common with other 

 members of the genus to which they belong, are preeminently 

 birds of the open country. 



Breeding Habits. While I have often found the pret- 

 ty nest of the Yellow Warbler in apple, pear and other fruit 

 trees, and in various kinds of low trees and shrubs, as well, I 



