STARLIGHT AND SUNSHINE. 



day I surprised the true burglar in the act. I observed a small 

 black bird rummaging suspiciously in the grass, and suddenly 

 saw him fly to a branch near by with a tiny puff in his bill a 

 downy tuft on one side and a bundle of seeds on the other 

 the spot from which 

 he flew disclosing one 

 of the telltale rifled 

 calyces of the dande- 

 lion. The bird, 

 not immediately _/ 



identified, soon spread its name abroad 

 in the rosy gleam from its fan -shaped tail 

 the redstart. I subsequently discovered 

 the nest in a low-hanging fork of an apple- 

 tree, and a dainty structure it was, exquisitely 

 adorned with gray moss and skeleton leaves, and in this case 

 showing an unusual preference for dandelion seeds, with which 

 its soft bulk was well felted. Inasmuch as there were thousands 

 of the dandelion balls opening every sunny day this feat of for- 

 age was not one of anticipation of a natural harvest; rather a 

 question of economy of labor a whole dandelion ball at one 

 compact pinch. 



Wilson gives the nest material of the yellow warbler as " silk- 

 weed floss and willow cotton," which present a singular incongru- 

 ity as to chronology, the willow cotton being a buoyant feature 

 of the May breeze, while the asclepias does not take wing until 

 late August and September, the silky seeds of the previous year 

 being then of course obliterated. Is it possible that the warbler, 

 like the redstart, may anticipate the bursting pod by an occasional 

 burglary, assisted, perhaps, by those hairy caterpillars which so 



