AUDUBON'S WARBLER. 79 



seed-sterns. The weeds have grown since last 

 fall's mowing, and gone to nothing but wrinkles 

 and empty seed-pods. The seed-pods are gaping 

 open, making snug little hiding-places for insects. 



Warbler turns somersaults, pecking into these 

 tiny rifts and wrinkles for the insects. 



Then you may catch him eating the belated 

 "cheeses" of the mallow which every Californian 

 child has tasted for himself. From the cheeses 

 he goes to the banana stalks. The wilted edges 

 of last year's leaves are keeping insects warm, and 

 he hunts them out. He hunts in the narrow 

 leaves of the carnations for lice folk. And then 

 he flies to the tall blue-gum trees and makes a 

 supper on the tender white stamens of the blos- 

 soms. Audubon's warblers are fond of sweet pre- 

 serves from our table. We fed them many a 

 saucer of quince last winter, and there is more in 

 the cellar for this winter. Indeed, it is seldom 

 that a jar of preserves is opened at our house, that 

 a good portion is not set out for the birds. 



Audubon's warblers are friends of the Cali- 

 fornian farmer. This very morning, we saw a 

 couple of them take the black scale from a pep- 

 per-bough that hung over the path, lifting the 

 dark shells very carefully to get at the point. 

 Under the black shells or scales are eggs, and 



