368 HOMING WITH THE BIRDS 



females bviilding a communal nest from the size 

 of a peck measure to a bushel. They breed from 

 February through to November, resting but two 

 months in the year. Mr. Barrows, in his report 



Nest of black-masked warbler, with one surviving warbler out 



of four 



for the Government of the United States, esti- 

 mates the increase of one pair to be two hun- 

 dred and seventy-five billion, seven hundred and six- 

 teen million, nine hundred and eighty-three thousand, 

 six hundred and eighty-nine in ten years. In the 

 face of such a record I am surely speaking advis- 

 edly when I say that to-day they constitute the 

 one greatest menace to our best form of timber 

 and vegetable conservation, which is stringent bird 



