The Worm-eating Warbler 139 



nest proving of no avail after they became panic-stricken. At three days of 

 age they made no outcry but opened their mouths for food, w^hich consisted 

 of a species of white moth, or 'miller,' and soft white grubs, supplied by either 

 of the parent birds. At that period they were naked except a fluff on head 

 and wing quills, just showing feathers at tips. In the presence of an intruder 

 and absence of the parents, they will sit motionless if not threatened, and, 

 but for the blinking, beady eyes, one might mistake them when well fledged, 

 at very close range, for dead leaves. The head stripes became visible under 

 the nestling down on the seventh day, and they left the nest ten days after 

 leaving the shell, in the one case I have kept record of. The parents keep 

 the young together for several days at least, just how long is impossible to 

 say. One brood is all that is reared in the season, I think. 



Enemies. — This Warbler's enemies are wood-mice, red squirrels and 

 hunting dogs; the latter will sometimes push up and overturn the nest; an 

 occasional weasel or blacksnake may destroy a few young. The percentage 

 of loss while in the nest cannot be high. 



A Vote for the National Association Bird 



St. Louis, Mo., February lo, 1905. 

 Dear Mr. Dutcher: — 



You want a thoroughly representative bird, suitable for a seal of the N. A. A. S., 

 a bird found throughout North America from the Arctic to Panama. 



There is really not much material to choose from. It should be a truly American 

 bird, identifiable by i(s contour alone, — one in which no color is needed to distinguish 

 it from other birds of similar outline, as would be the case with the Bluebird, Robin, 

 Swallow and others, all of which have resemblance in outline to Old World relatives. It 

 shall not be a commonplace bird, like a Hawk or an Owl, though they need our attention 

 as much as anything else ; even more so, because misunderstood and maligned. Neither 

 would it do to take a game-bird for an Audubon Society, which has no sympathy with the 

 hunter and is unwilling to recognize any of its protegees as game. I know of no bird 

 which would fill the place on the seal better than a Hummingbird. North American 

 Hummingbirds are found from Alaska to Panama and from Labrador to Alberta. The 

 outline of a Hummer is unmistakable in any position in which it may be pictured; it is the 

 exponent of elegance and grace in form and action, and of brilliancy in plumage. It is 

 one that needs protection more than any other bird, because so much sought after by taxi- 

 dermists, milliners and makers of artificial flowers. The destruction has been such that 

 certain species with a restricted habitation are said to be already exterminated or at the 

 point of extinction. I therefore ask, could anything be more appropriate than a Hum- 

 mingbird? Universally known, popular throughout, unmistakable, truly admired for beauty 

 and behavior, exclusively American, a fit subject for protection wherever it occurs, a living 

 incentive to immediate extension of Audubon work over the entire Western Hemisphere. 



Yours truly, 



O. WlDMANN. 



