Wildwood Minstrels 39 



knowing too well how to keep their procreant secrets. 

 They have evidently learned the use of strategy, as you 

 will see: One day a pair began to chirp vigorously as I 

 approached their demesne in a lonely hollow, and I felt a 

 thrill of joy at the prospect of finding a nest. One of 

 them even flitted about with a worm in its bill a sure 

 sign of nestlings in the neighborhood. For nearly four 

 hours I watched the chirping couple, and peered, as I 

 thought, into every nook and cranny of the place, but 

 all in vain; neither nest nor bantlings could I find. Yet 

 in some way that seemed almost mysterious enough to 

 be uncanny, the mother bird got rid of the tidbit which 

 she held in her bill. She probably decided to eat it her- 

 self rather than betray the whereabouts of her younglings. 

 I have seen more than one parent bird do that. 



A few days later, in the same hollow, a Kentucky 

 warbler was singing contentedly, showing no signs of 

 uneasiness. The female was not to be seen or heard. 

 I stalked about a long time, hoping to flush her from her 

 nest, but all my efforts were as futile that day as they had 

 been on my previous visit. In another hollow, on the 

 same day, I watched a Kentucky warbler flitting about 

 with a worm in her bill. Again and again she disap- 

 peared somewhere in the tanglewood, and came back 

 with an empty bill to chirp her disapproval of my spying; 

 but look as I would in the very places where she went 

 down, I could discover no nest. In Warbledom it is 

 evidently no violation of ethical principles to act a lie in 

 order to protect a nestful of bantlings. 



