()C) SOME CANAI)[A\ IUIU)S. 



not find in your gurden a place that suits — thoy arc quite fastidious — 

 they will leiul you to some retired barberry busli or, perbaps, across 

 the field and down to the stream that winds its zig-z;i(4 way through 

 thy marsh. The marsh ! Why the blackl)irds are there, with harsh 

 cry and fierce military look, and on the hillside, among the daisies 

 the bobolinks keep up their incessant clink. Why choose such a 

 lutisy place ? And there is danger here as well as noise, for a band 

 of grackles have possession of that grove yonder, and their partiality 

 for eggs is too well known to make them [doasant neighbors to such 

 dainty, delicate, btitterfly birds as yellow warlilors. But, my friend, 

 our birds are neither timid nor foolish, and they know a good site 

 for a nest when they see it. They have chosen that low bunch of 

 willows standing (piite ahme just at the bend of the stream, and 

 if you examine the situation you will find it strong in strategetical 

 features. The marsh on every side is free from bushes for full 

 thirty yards, and if any piratical puss-cat attempted an attack mider 

 cover of the grass the sharp eyes of the warbler would detect the dip 

 of the blades at every step. Then what an opening for safe retreat, 

 and what opportunity for carrying in building material and food 

 without being seen. The bank rises several feet above the water, 

 and the birds can drop below the brink before leaving the screening 

 branches and steal away under the protection of the escar|)ment. 

 You may think this too clever— too shrewd — for a warbler's concep- 

 tion ; but I spent the whole of one June morning, with a friend, 

 on the marsh below Hampton, in an effort to identify a yellow 

 warbler's nest fixed in precisely that position. We discovered the 

 nest accidentally by opening the branches, but though the eggs were 

 very warm no sign of a parent was in sight. We were eager to 

 make certain of the parents' identity, for we had evil thoughts 

 concerning that nest and its five dainty gems, but the birds eluded 

 us time after time. We knew that they returned during our 

 absences, because the eggs were kept warm, but how did the birds 

 get back without our seeing or hearing them, for not one note came 

 from that direction while we watched. At last a happy thought 

 came to us. We crossed the stream, and from the opposite shore, 

 with our glasses, traced one of these skilled tacticians as it skim- 

 med the surface of the water close to the bank and disappeared 

 under the branches of their chosen willow. 



