VERMONT BIRD CLUB 27 



though it did not offer to fly for some time. At length, 

 however, it flew into a tree with a slow and heavy motion 

 and apparent effort. Then we left it, thinking it safe. 

 Soon after it flew to the roof of the house and back again 

 to its original position on the bush. At intervals it hopped 

 about, pecking a little here and there on the ground, but 

 we could not be sure that it ate anything. We tried to 

 toll it along to a place where we could watch it more easily 

 from a window, and it moved slowly as we walked behind, 

 but soon returned to the door step and remained in that 

 vicinity the rest of the day. In the afternoon it made an 

 effort to fly into a tree, but only fluttered a little and 

 dropped back to the ground, apparently too weak to fly up. 

 As we watched it we saw it cough as our canary had done. 

 In the latter part of the afternoon a member of the 

 family who was watching the warbler saw it totter and 

 fall and ran to pick it up, when the bird breathed its last 

 in her hand. It has been claimed by some observers that 

 no wild bird ever died a natural death. When we consi- 

 der the multitude of their enemies, their struggle with the 

 elements, sudden changes of temperature, and perils en- 

 countered on their long semi-annual migrations, it would 

 seem that the statement is not an exaggeration. Mr. Wil- 

 liam J. Long, however, describes the death of a warbler, 

 which he witnessed, and which he ascribes to old age. The 

 whole appearance and manner of death of our yellow war- 

 bler were so similar to that of a pet canary which had been 

 one of our family for years and had recently died of old 

 age that it seems probable this bird, too, died a natural 

 death at the end of his soan of life. 



SOME BIRD ACQUAINTANCES. 



(An Abstract.) 

 EMMA E. DREW. 



This paper tells in an interesting way of the bird ac- 

 quaintances made by the writer in Jay, N. Y., the obser- 

 vations being made from the piazza of the house. A pair of 

 red-eyed vireos built their nest in the near-by branches of 

 an apple tree. She watched the process of home building, 

 the eggs and finally the young which she fed with meal 

 worms to the evident satisfaction and appreciation of the 

 parents. A white-breasted nuthatch became svtch a close 

 friend that she called him "chum". He came to her in the 



