224 THE YELLOW WARBLER. 



wings and tail, and by his unique voice and manners in 

 general. The song of the Yellow, Blue-eyed Yellow, 

 Golden, or Summer Warbler for it is known by all these 

 common names may be represented by the syllables, wee- 

 chee-wee-chee-wee-chee; or, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweetie, uttered in 

 sprightly, whistling tones. 



It is awakening and cheerful, and therefore in delightful 

 harmony with its time. No mere promise of spring, like 

 the Phcebe, the Robin, or the Bluebird, the appearance of 

 the Golden Warbler is synchronous with spring itself, and 

 inseparably associated with the most genial sunshine and the 

 fragrance of flowers. The very thought of his melody brings 

 back the fruit blossoms and the merry play of garden-mak- 

 ing. Unlike all the rest of the Warblers, that seem to go and 

 come wholly at the bidding of the sylvan deities, this Blue- 

 eyed Beauty seeks the society of man as well, and may 

 confide his nest to the shrubbery about the walls of human 

 dwellings; aye, he will even be pleased to accept the help of 

 human hands in building that nest constructing it with the 

 materials placed on the clothes-line or on the grass for him. 

 A nest before me, the building of which was thus aided by 

 young friends, is wholly of batting, except a little lining of 

 vegetable down, dried grass and horse-hair, and so looks like 

 a snow-ball or a bunch of wool. This Warbler's nest may be 

 found in the woods, the swamp, the orchard, the garden or 

 the front-yard, and is generally placed in the upright fork of 

 a bush, often stuck into the spray anywhere, rarely on a hori- 

 zontal limb. Firmly built of various gray fibrous and downy 

 materials, it is interlaced and bound together with dried 

 grasses or fine rootlets, sometimes ornamented like bead- 

 work with the fallen catkins of the butternut or black 

 walnut, and is lined with the down of the thistle, the willow, 

 or the reddish wool-like covering of the unrolling fronds of 



