540 LAND BIRDS 
were very friendly, feeding them without much. fear 
while I sat within three or four feet of the nest and on 
a level with it. They usually came with nothing to be 
seen in their beaks, but the insect food they had gleaned 
and carried in their own throats was regurgitated into 
the throats of the young. When the latter were five 
days old the mother bird, for the first time, brought an 
insect large enough to be seen, and crammed it into the 
open bill of one of the nestlings, and from that time on 
most of the food brought was eaten by the young while 
fresh. 
In the brood whose incubation was closely watched, 
I found that twelve days elapsed between the laying of 
the last egg and the advent of the young. The female 
did most of the brooding; the male was found on the 
nest only once, but was usually perched on a neighbor- 
ing tree warbling his enthusiastic little song, “ cheree- 
cheree-cheree-cheree.” After the young were feathered 
enough to leave the nest, — which occurred when they 
were two weeks old,—the male forgot to sing and 
became a veritable family drudge with the brood ever at 
his heels clamoring for food. 
668. TOWNSEND WARBLER. — Dendroica townsendi. 
Famity: The Wood Warblers. 
Length: 4.90-5.30. 
Adult Male in Spring and Summer: Head and throat black, with bright 
yellow superciliary and malar stripes; breast bright yellow ; belly 
and under tail-coverts white ; the latter, also sides and flanks, broadly 
streaked with black ; back bright olive-green, with black arrow-point 
