wengerI AN OVENBUILDER 161 



deposits from two to five eggs, leaving them to be hatched and the 

 young to be cared for by the faithful warblers. 



The young nestlings remain with the parents and are fed by them 

 until they are fully grown. Should you by accident or intention 

 locate the nest, the frightened mother will feign disablement of 

 some kind, flutter close to you, drag herself along the ground away 

 from the nest, and utter piteous cries to distract your attention. 

 The male will also show his intense excitement by darting among 

 the bushes in a nervous, bewildered fashion, until you retreat. 



The following accounts of young nestlings are too interesting to 

 pass by: 



Florence Merriam writes, in her book, "Birds through an Opera 

 Glass," of three eggs that she had found hatched, "Such absurd 

 looking nestlings! They seemed all mouth and eyeball! Small 

 red appendages answered for wings, and tufts of gray down on the 

 skin did for a coat of feathers. Even when feebly throwing up 

 their heads and opening their big yellow throats for worms, the 

 birds' eyes were closed so fast that they had an uncanny appear- 

 ance." 



Again she writes, "On June nth, I found a family of full grown 

 young being fed in the branches of a maple-tree. The same day I 

 found a nest full of eggs. June 12th three of these eggs hatched, 

 and I found a nest of young a quarter grown. Jun 13th, I found 

 the family I have just described, well out of the nest. These could 

 hardly have been first and second broods, as they were in all stages 

 of development." 



The plumage of the male and female is much alike in spring. 

 The male has a brighter crown, while the famale is more widely 

 tipped with brownish. The young nestlings are a bright cinnamon 

 brown above, streaked with black, the breast and sides are a paler 

 brown and faintly streaked with black, while the underparts are 

 white, and the wing coverts black tipped with rusty. In fall the 

 adults and young resemble each other closely. 



Giving closer attention to the bill you will find that it is of the 

 long slender type possessed by warblers, of value in procuring its 

 chief diet of insect food. You may have seen the bird pick up food 

 from among the leaves carpeting the floor of the woodland. It 

 shows great preference for birch plant-lice and larvae, especially the 

 hairy caterpillars of the Gypsy Moth so destructive during April, 

 May and June. But its diet also includes cankerworms and other 



