ISO NATURAL HISTORY READER. 



the author of it. It is quite a noticeable strain, sharp and 

 sibilant, and sounds well amid the old trees. In the up- 

 land woods of beech and maple it is a more familiar sound 

 than in these solitudes. On taking the bird in your hand, 

 even if you are not a young lady, you will probably ex- 

 claim, " How beautiful ! " So tiny and elegant, the small- 

 est of the warblers ; a delicate blue back, with a slight, 

 bronze-colored, triangular spot between the shoulders ; up- 

 per mandible black ; lower mandible yellow as gold ; throat 

 yellow, becoming a dark bronze on the breast. Blue yel- 

 low-back he is called, though the yellow is much nearer a 

 bronze. He is remarkably delicate and beautiful — the 

 handsomest, as he is the smallest, of the warblers known to 

 me. It is never without surprise that I find amid these 

 rugged, savage aspects of nature, creatures so fairy and 

 delicate. But such is the law. Go to the sea or climb 

 the mountain, and with the ruggedest and the savagest you 

 will find likewise the fairest and the most delicate. The 

 greatness and the minuteness of nature pass all understand- 

 ing. 



6. In a little opening quite free from brush and trees I 

 step down to bathe my hands in the brook, when a small, 

 light, slate-colored bird flutters out of the bank, not three feet 

 from my head, as I stoop down, and, as if severely lamed 

 or injured, flutters through the grass and into the nearest 

 bush. As I do not follow, but remain near the nest, she 

 chips sharply, which brings the male, and I see it is the 

 speckled Canada warbler. I find no authority in the books 

 for this bird to build upon the ground, yet here is the nest, 

 made chiefly of dry grass, set in a slight excavation in the 

 bank, not two feet from the water, and looking a little 

 perilous to anything but ducklings or sandpipers. 



1. There are two young birds and one little speckled 

 egg, just pipped. But how is this ? what mystery is here ? 

 One nestling is much larger than the other, monopolizes 



