1 6 Birds of Lakeside and Prairie 



warbler migration they turn their steps to the city's parks. 

 It is not at all unusual in a good warbler year to find every 

 park tree that offers a food supply of insects bearing a burden 

 of these little creatures, in gold, brown, red, yellow, black, 

 blue, and scarlet. Some of them, with seemingly barely 

 feather surface enough to show one color, are attired in 

 almost every hue known to the eye of man. 



The yellow warblers nest by scores within the limits of 

 the parks of all Northern cities. I found the nest of this bird 

 once fastened to the slender stem of a rose-bush in the rose- 

 garden at Jackson Park, Chicago. It was not more than three 

 feet from the ground, and at the edge of a walk upon which 

 passed the thousands of visitors who went daily to enjoy the 

 bloom of the flowers. The little home was flanked on either 

 side by a great blossom, while another opened its petals just 

 above. Within the space of a few cubic inches there was as 

 much of beauty as it is the province of this world to hold 

 anywhere within like restricted limits. The people poked 

 inquisitively into the warblers' housekeeping, but the birds paid 

 little heed, though their hearts probably fluttered with an 

 unutterable fear. The mother bird fed the little ones while 

 trespassing human beings lifted the red rose roof to look into 

 the nest. Though disaster was feared, the devoted parents 

 finally successfully led the young forth for their first flight in 

 life. 



The bluebirds, the scarlet tanagers, the cerulean warblers, 

 the Baltimore orioles, the robins, nearly the whole tribe of 

 native sparrows, the woodpeckers, and not infrequently the 

 hawks and the owls, find rest and food within sound of the 

 clanging bells of surface cars and of the rumble of the wheels 

 of elevated roads. I once flushed a woodcock at the base of 



