BREWSTER’S WARBLER. 59 
fatigued in the pursuit of the elusive little Warblers rests with a sense of relief 
upon the exquisite tracery of Purdie’s Fern.’ 
As July advances, tall stalks of Meadow Rue lift their white plumes to a 
height of six to ten feet above the ground, while beneath them Canada Lilies 
swing their golden bells and ring out, to the spirit, ‘“‘ditties of no tone.”’ 
. Abutting on one side of the swamp is a tract of long-abandoned tillage land 
now appropriated by young Gray Birches, with one or two Red Oaks of a much 
older and larger growth. The areas between the trees form a veritable jungle 
of Raspberry vines and Poison Dogwood. On another side the swamp is bounded 
by a grove of Birch with a more recent undergrowth of Raspberry. On the 
third side one passes by an abrupt transition into an open meadow, the haunt 
of Meadowlarks and Bobolinks, while the limit of the swamp on the fourth side 
is fixed by the edge of a woodland of upland Oak cleared of every vestige of 
undergrowth — the kind of woodland beloved of man but abhorred by most 
kinds of birds. 
To return to the Brewster’s Warbler and nest: the sixth and seventh of 
June were rainy days and the female bird sat so close that I could peer into the 
nest with my face within a few feet of her without her once abandoning her 
charge. The male Brewster’s spent most of the time singing in a Red Oak in 
the Birch jungle within forty-five yards of the nest, while the male Golden-wing 
was never heard to sing from this time onward. 
On the morning of the eighth there were five little naked newly-hatched 
birds in the nest. 
On the ninth Messrs. William Brewster and H. A. Purdie accompanied me 
when I visited the nest, and on that day we got the first inkling of the marital 
relations of the birds under observation: the male Golden-wing was seen feeding 
the female Brewster’s Warbler in the shrubbery near the nest. After this day 
he was constant in supplying food to the female or the young, while the male 
Brewster’s spent most of the time singing in his favorite tree and was never seen 
to feed anything but himself. He would, it is true, make occasional visits to 
the immediate neighborhood of the nest, particularly if any commotion was 
excited there by the presence of a squirrel or other unwelcome intruder. On 
such occasions he showed as much concern as if he had a personal interest in 
the nest; but every field observer will recognize that this alone is no evidence 
of proprietorship in the nest. It is a matter of every day observation that birds 
1 Aspidium concordianum, a delicate, finely-cut form of A. spinulosum, discovered by Mr. H. A. 
Purdie in the neighboring town of Concord. 
