The Yellow Warbler J95 



former, it is likely that the longest migration trips of black- 

 polls exceed those made by any yellow warblers." 



The yellow warbler is a very sprightly, unsuspicious and 

 familiar little bird; is often seen in our towns and cities as 

 well as in the country, in and about our gardens, among the 

 blossoms of fruit trees and shrubberies ; and on account of its 

 color, is very noticeable. 



"Have you walked beneath the blossoms in the spring? 



In the spring? 

 Beneath the apple blossoms in the spring?" 



It is then in the early May that the yellow warbler will 

 be found building her nest. Usually it is built in a tree in the 

 orchard or in a bush and is a remarkable specimen of bird ar- 

 chitecture. It is cup-shaped and generally built in the triangu- 

 lar fork of a small shrub and of very neatly woven plant-fibres,, 

 fine strips of bark, fine grasses and plant down. Its inner lin- 

 ing is made with plant down, soft feathers and often woven to- 

 gether with horse-hair. The one pictured in the illustration is 

 not a good specimen. In the dainty nest is laid four or 

 five bluish white eggs, spotted and blotched with different 

 shades of brown. Often it raises two families in a season. 

 It is frequently imposed upon by the cowbird which drops one 

 or more eggs into its nest. It seems to have learned from ex- 

 perience that the strange eggs are dangerous, and not infre- 

 quently constructs a false bottom over them, even though in 

 doing so it encloses some of its own eggs, and builds the wall 

 of the nest high enough to give the proper depth to the cup- 

 shaped cavity. If a cowbird continues its imposition and lays 

 its eggs in the second story a third story may be added, and 

 even four storied nests have been reported. 



Most of the warblers tarry with us only long enough to 

 procure the necessary food for their journey and even this 

 short stay with us majces of them a very beneficial class of 

 birds, for they come at the very time that the insects which are 

 most injurious are depositing their eggs in the leaf buds and 

 upon the new leaves of our trees, and they destroy immense 

 numbers of these. The Yellow Warblers, however, remain 

 with us in large numbers in our cities, towns and about our 



