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often successfully, to evade the task of rear- 

 ing- the young- of others. The little yellow 

 warbler, a species which is frequently impos- 

 ed upon by these advocates of foundling-'s 

 homes, often successfully circumvents the 

 plebeian Cowbird in the following interesting- 

 manner: The Cowbird in its anxiety to se- 

 cure a preferred position, often lays an egg- or 

 two in the warbler's nest before any egg-s are 

 deposited by the rig-htful owner. The little 

 warbler resents this intrusion by building- a 

 platform ever the larg-e eg-gs, thus making- a 

 double storied nest, and in this second story 

 lays its own eg-gs. But even this attempt is 

 not always sufficient to prevent the evil, as 

 the persistent Cowbirds not rarely lay more 

 eg-g-s in the "up stairs" section, and thus ac- 

 complish their object. In rare instances, the 

 warbler has been known to build a second 

 platform over these additions, sometimes 

 g-oing- so far as to entomb one or two of its own 

 eg-g-s in order to avoid the necessity of sitting- 

 on these aliens. I have one of these three- 

 storied nests in which there is a cowbird's 

 eg-g in the lower story and which is nicely 

 covered with nest material. Then two eg-gs 

 were laid by the rig-htful owners, when anoth- 

 er Cowbird's eg-g- was deposited with the 

 smaller ones. After this imposition, the de- 



