The Yellow Warblers 



And that bovine object, the public, when it does con- 

 descend to notice anything so tiny as a Wood Warbler, 

 dubs this bird a "Wild Canary" — and is done. Wild 

 Canary, forsooth ! Why, if I had my way, anyone 

 who insulted one of these woodland exquisites by 

 such an epithet should be sentenced to hard labor — 

 reading bird-books for thirty days, or else tethered 

 solitary beside some brook whose mossy banks 

 rang vocal with a hundred strains of woodland 

 music — music such as never came from cage- 

 wired throats. The name as applied to one 

 of our Goldfinches might be barely tolerated, 

 for the Canary {Serinus canarius) is a Finch 

 (Family Fringillidce), but in the case 

 of the Warbler, it is quite inappro- 

 priate, since the bird has nothing 

 in common with the canary 

 except littleness and yellow- 

 ness. Its bill is longer and 

 slimmer, for it feeds exclus- 

 ively on insects, instead of 

 seeds, and its pure yellow and 

 olive-green plumage knows 

 no admixture, save for the 

 tasty but inconspicuous 

 chestnut stripes on the breast 

 of the adult male. 



The Yellow Warbler, while 

 frequenting wooded streams, is, 

 nevertheless, a bird of sunshine. It 

 does not keep to the depths of the 

 larger trees, but hunts over the thick- 

 ets and saplings, with occasional bold 

 excursions to outlying rose briars or 

 even to the sage. As it moves about, 

 to thread some willow clump with 

 sunshine — that we speak not of such 

 prosaic matters as bug-catching — it pauses momentarily for song. 



The song is sunny, too, and while not elaborate, makes substantial 

 contribution to the good cheer of spring. Heard in the boskage it sounds 

 absurdly as if some wag were shaking an Attic salt-cellar on a great 

 green salad. The notes are almost piercing, and sound better, perhaps, 



463 



AN EXPOSED NEST - 



CALIFORNIA YELLOW 

 WARBLER 



