536 LAND BIRDS 
appearance. It is placed in an upright crotch of a low 
bush with little attempt at concealment. One little nest 
that we found had two of the leaves fastened down over 
it in the weaving, probably by accident, and they formed 
a complete shelter and protection from the wind. The 
female flew in at one side and usually sat facing the 
opening, perfectly concealed, yet seeing all that occurred 
around. But the typical Yellow Warbler nest is built 
with an eye to sunshine and fresh air and recklessly ex- 
posed to the gaze of every passer-by. 
The small bluish eggs, wreathed with minute brown 
spots at the larger end, are very like the eggs of the 
German canaries, and I have placed them under a sit- 
ting canary hen for hatching. The only drawback was 
that they hatched in twelve days, which was two days 
sooner than those of their adoptive mother, and caused 
her to throw them out of the nest and go on sitting on 
her own eggs. Under normal conditions they hatch 
under their own mother in twelve days, and sitting is 
never begun until the full complement is laid, so that 
the whole brood emerge from the shell on the same day. 
At first, ike most young birds, they are naked except for 
sparse down on the head, but at the end of a week they 
have pinfeathers on wings and tail and thin down on the 
other parts of the body. In another week the feathers 
have burst their sheaths, and the nestlings are the pret- 
tiest things in the wood. They are fed upon insects by 
regurgitation for the first few days, and later upon the 
fresh food. 
