FEATHERED GEMS 



reddish spots. They were cold, so I thought the bird 

 would lay another egg, for some warblers occasionally 

 lay six. However, I took a photograph of the nest and 

 eggs and came back several days later, in a downpour 

 of rain — a genuine lover of birds doesn't mind such a 

 trifling inconvenience, if one is dressed for it. There 

 the same five eggs were, cold and wet. I took them 

 and the nest home and found that incubation had 

 proceeded three or four days before the mother dis- 

 appeared. I suspected the Cooper's Hawks of the 

 murder of the female, so Ned and I went and robbed 

 them of their eggs that there might not be four more of 

 them there to eat warblers. It was fortunate that I 

 identified the Nashville the first time, or I should never 

 tave known to what bird the nest belonged and the 

 experience would have been without scientific value. 



Another good warbler find I shall have to lay to the 

 credit of my wife. Ned and I conducted a party, con- 

 sisting of a bird-club of ladies, up a steep road back 

 into the hill country where the Black-throated Blue 

 Warblers nested quite abundantly in the woods where 

 there was an undergrowth of mountain laurel. As two 

 of the ladies were following an old wood road, up flitted 

 a little olive-colored bird from close beside them, and 

 my wife discovered the nest in the fork of a low sassafras 

 sprout, about a foot from the ground. It was a neat, 

 compactly woven little cup and contained four eggs. 

 They called to me and I examined the nest and then 

 hid, to try to see the owner. Presently she began to 



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