208 BIRDS 



they are not endowed with excavating tools with which 

 to build their own nest holes. (Fig. 121.) 



Last summer, while I was stopping at the clubhouse, 

 the keeper asked me if I would like to photograph some 

 Wild Canaries, and informed me that every June a large 

 number nested in the holes in the willow stumps down in 

 the swamp. 



On investigating I found, as I had already surmised, 

 that the "Wild Canaries" were really the beautiful and 

 rarely seen Prothonotary Warblers. There were many 

 of them, the nest holes in most instances being within 

 a few feet of the water. The nest material consisted of 

 the chips from the natural excavating, but the finished 

 nests were of fine dead grass and contained, in most 

 cases, five white eggs, marked with many small brown 

 spots. 



This is one of the few W ar ^ ers remaining in the 

 vicinity of Kansas City during the breeding season. 

 Most of them continue their northward journey after 

 pausing a few days during their migration. This War- 

 bler has been found nesting as far north as Minnesota. 



In striking contrast the Black-poll Warbler con- 

 tinues its journey northward to the shores of the Arctic 

 Ocean, where, with the Eskimo, the musk-ox and the 

 polar bear as its neighbors, it builds its nest and rears its 

 young, and in the fall returns to its winter home in South 

 America. Twice each year this frail but brave bird makes 

 this ten- thousand-mile journey. 



