540 LAND BIRDS 



were very friendly, feeding them without much fear 

 while I sat within three or four feet of the nest and on 

 a level with it. They usually came with nothing to be 

 seen in their beaks, but the insect food they had gleaned 

 and carried in their own throats was regurgitated into 

 the throats of the young. When the latter were five 

 days old the mother bird, for the first time, brought an 

 insect large enough to be seen, and crammed it into the 

 open bill of one of the nestlings, and from that time on 

 most of the food brought was eaten by the young while 

 fresh. 



In the brood whose incubation was closely watched, 

 I found that twelve days elapsed between the laying of 

 the last egg and the advent of the young. The female 

 did most of the brooding ; the male was found on the 

 nest only once, but was usually perched on a neighbor- 

 ing tree warbling his enthusiastic little song, "cheree- 

 cheree-cheree-cheree." After the young were feathered 

 enough to leave the nest, — which occurred when they 

 were two weeks old, — the male forgot to sing and 

 became a veritable family drudge with the brood ever at 

 his heels clamoring for food. 



668. TOWNSEND WARBLER. — Dendroica townsendi. 

 Family : The Wood Warblers. 



Length: 4.90-5.30. 



Adult Male in Spring and Summer: Head and throat black, with bright 

 yellow superciliary and malar stripes ; breast bright yellow ; belly 

 and under tail-coverts white ; the latter, also sides and flanks, broadly 

 streaked with black ; back bright olive-green, with black arrow-point 



