272 CANADIAN WARBLER. 
half way I accidentally made a slight noise, when the bird flew up, and seeing me 
hurried off out of the woods. Arrived at the place, I found a simple nest of dry grass 
and leaves partially concealed under a prostrate branch. I took it to be the nest of a 
Sparrow. There were three eggs in the nest and one lying about a foot below it as if 
it had been rolled out, as of course it had. It suggested the thought that perhaps when 
the Cowbird finds the full complement of eggs in a nest, it throws out one and deposits 
its own instead. I revisited the nest a few days afterward and found an egg again 
cast out, but none had been put in its place. The nest had been abandoned by its 
owner and the eggs were stale. 
“In all cases where I have found this egg, I have observed both male and female 
of the Cowbird lingering near, the former uttering his peculiar liquid, glassy note from 
the tops of the trees. In July the young, which have been reared in the same neighbor- 
hood, and which are now of a dull fawn color, begin to collect in small flocks, which 
grow to be quite large in autumn. The Speckled Canada is a very superior Warbler, 
having a lively, animated strain, reminding you of certain parts of the Canary’s, though 
quite broken and incomplete; the bird, the while hopping amid the branches with 
increased liveliness, and indulging in fine sibilant chirps, too happy to keep silent. 
His manners are quite marked. He has a habit of courtesying when he discovers 
you, which is very pretty. In form he is an elegant bird, somewhat slender, his back 
of a bluish lead-color becoming nearly black on his crown: the under-part of his body, 
from his throat down, is of a light, delicate yellow, with a belt of black dots across 
his breast. He has a fine eye, surrounded by a light yellow ring. 
“The parent birds are much disturbed by my presence, and keep up a loud 
emphatic chirping, which attracts the attention of their sympathetic neighbors, and one 
after another they come to see what has happened. The Chestnut-sided and the Black- 
burnian come in company. The Black and Yellow Warbler pauses a moment and hastens 
away; the Maryland Yellow-throat peeps shyly from the lower bushes and utters his 
fip! fip! in sympathy; the Wood Pewee comes straight to the tree overhead, and the 
Red-eyed Vireo lingers and lingers, eying me with a curious, innocent look, evidently 
much puzzled. But all disappear again, one by one, apparently without a word of 
condolence or encouragement to the distressed pair. I have often noticed among birds 
this show of sympathy,—if indeed it be sympathy, and not merely curiosity, or desire 
to be forewarned of the approach of a common danger.—An hour afterward I approach 
the place, find all still, and the mother bird upon the nest. As I draw near she seems 
to sit closer, her eyes growing large with an inexpressibly wild, beautiful look. She 
keeps her place till I am within two paces of her, when she flutters away as at first. 
In the brief interval the remaining egg has hatched, and the two little nestlings lift 
their heads without being jostled or overreached by any strange bedfellow. A week 
afterward and they were flown away,—so brief is the infancy of birds. And the wonder 
is that they escape, even for this short time, the skunks and minks and muskrats that 
abound here, and that have a decided partiality for such tidbits.” 
The Canadian Warbler finds a congenial winter home in Central and northern 
South America. 
