WOOD NOTES AND NEST HUNTING, 1 35 



This barberry bush has character and a signifi- 

 cance now that a belated yellow warbler has 

 selected it for a building site, and is busily engaged 

 in fashioning her exquisite cup-like nest in the 

 midst of its thorny branches. From a human 

 standpoint she seems to be a very improvident 

 bird, for she has chosen a bush growing close to a 

 foot-path, where scores of young marauders are 

 daily passing, and it is reasonable to predict that 

 their sharp eyes will soon discover it, and accom- 

 plish their mischievous work of plunder before 

 the full complement of eggs is laid. I have often 

 noticed a tendency in these birds to place their 

 nests in exposed situations. They appear to have 

 a kind of trustfulness in man which is truly 

 pathetic when you consider how surely it will be 

 betrayed by these barbarians. Oftentimes the 

 female will choose a spot in the immediate vicinity 

 of the last rifled nest and, without the least cau- 

 tion or forethought, proceed to turn out, in open 

 sight, with the same neat workmanship, another 

 delicate structure. 



I have known a yellow warbler to build three 

 successive nests all within an area of a dozen rods, 

 before a favorable issue rewarded her efforts. 



But this one that I watch this afternoon works 



