Michigan Ornithological Club 49 



June 2nd — fourteen days are passed in brooding the eggs — this brings our 

 date June 17th. During the brooding time all Held naturalists know that the 

 males of all birds are beside themselves with joy and wild with song, so 

 much so, that it seems at times as if their little breasts must burst with 

 gladness ; is it the knowledge that reproduction of their kind is about to 

 take place? We cannot tell, but we can think. The female sets close now, 

 hardly leaving the nest to feed. 



Mr. Frothingham was on the ground June 15th, he saw no female, the 

 males were wild with song, singing everywhere. He tells me, "it seems as 

 if a dozen were singing at a time," he saw and thoroughly recognized three 

 and secured the fourth. He is an accurate observer, a museum worker and 

 a fine field naturalist, able to name three-fourths of our Michigan warblers 

 by their songs and call notes. When I asked him why he did not secure 

 more specimens, he answered like a true gentleman, "I did not feel justified 

 in killing more than was absolutely necessary to identify the species." I 

 would to heaven there were more like him that we could say it of all. 



My studies prove to me that these birds are mated before leaving their 

 winter homes. We know that the males precede the females by about two 

 weeks, passing this point May 1st; the females pass here May 15th. In the 

 case of every specimen taken the ovaries have been iexamined and were 

 fertile, proving that copulation must have taken place before the migrations 

 commenced. Accurate observations with domestic birds teach us that eggs 

 to prove fertile must be impregnated at least two weeks before being laid. 

 Closer attention should be given these points. What we need and want 

 is more accurate field workers, not closet specia-makers. There are too 

 many of that kind at work now and it is hard to get birds enough to go 

 around so that they can all have one to name. 



Ann Arbor, Mich. 



