68 BLUE-WINGED WARBLER 



the grass and weeds have not been choked out by a too thick growth of 

 briers, bushes, saplings and vines. While not precisely a bird of the 

 semi-cultivated fields, it has a wider local range than any of our home 

 Warblers with the possible exception of the Chat. 



"Perched inconspicuously near the top and well out in the 

 branchlets of a tree or sapling, preferably facing an opening, if in a 

 thicket; it is in itself so minute an object as to be passed unseen by 

 many, more especially as it is much less active than most of our 

 Warblers. With body feathers puffed out to a delightful plumpness, 

 except for the backward sweep of the head while in the act of sing- 

 ing, it remains motionless for quite a while. When it moves it is 

 with a combination of nervous haste and deliberation, and its song 

 may be heard from quite another part of the landscape with no 

 apparent reason for the change. While it has its favorite song perches, 

 it is quite a wanderer and not infrequently sings beyond possible 

 hearing of its brooding mate, but oftener within fifty to two hundred 

 feet of the nest. 



"Deposition of eggs occurred daily, in one instance, when five 

 eggs were laid, and before nine a. m. Incubation commences soon 

 after the completion of set, the female sitting on eggs on the after- 

 noon of the day in which she completes the set. In an exceptional 

 case in which three eggs formed the clutch, the embryo was large 

 in one, commenced to form in the**- second, and the third egg was 

 fresh, showing that several days elapsed between deposition, and ths 

 commencement of incubation before the set was complete. 



"The task of incubation falls on the female alone. It appears that 

 an airing is taken in the early morning or a little before midday, and 

 again in the early evening, though perhaps not regularly every day. 

 I have not seen the male about the nest with food at this period. 

 The female will allow a close approach, looking into one's eyes with 

 that hunted look so common in wild animals, and often flushing 

 without a protesting note. The period of incubation in the one 

 instance was exactly ten days. 



"On June 13, at 6.30 p. m., five young just hatched were blind, 

 naked and prostrate from chin to sternum. The shells were 

 disposed of immediately, in what manner I am unable to state; the 

 female was reluctant to vacate. 



"On June 15, at 2.45 p. m., the young were able to raise their 

 heads slightly and a fluffy bit of down had appeared about the head, 

 also a dark stripe along the back bone. The female appeared, accom- 

 panied by the male, and fed the young with small green larvae— such 



