Mexico, and only a comparatively small number travel to Florida and the Bahama 

 Islands. 



The song of the Chestnut-sided Warbler is confused in the minds of some 

 listeners with that of the Yellow Warbler. Mathews says the song resembles the 

 words, *'I wish, I wish, I wish to see Miss Beecher." 



Mr. Clinton G. Abbott, writing in Bird-Lore in 1909, told most entertainingly 

 of the fortunes of a pair of these Warblers and their nest, which he watched one 

 summer. After telling of finding a nest from which all the eggs had been thrown 

 but one, and in their place had been deposited two eggs of the Cowbird, he says : 



'The nest was found at Rhinebeck, New York, on July 6, 1900, incubation 

 having apparently just started. Four days later I discovered that one of the 

 Cowbird's eggs was infertile ; so I removed it from the nest, disappointed that I 

 should not, after all, enjoy the somewhat unique experience of observing two 

 young Cowbirds growing up in the same nest. It was some time during the night 

 of July 13-14 that the first of the remaining two eggs hatcli^d — the Cowbird's of 

 course. The Warbler's hatched between twelve and twelve-thirty o'clock on the 

 14th. The nicety with which matters had been so arranged that the young Cow- 

 bird would have just a convenient start in life over its unfortunate rival com- 

 manded at least my admiration if not my sympathy. Cowbirds must indeed be 

 sharp nest-finders to be able to discover at short notice not only the nests of cer- 

 tain suitable kinds of birds, but even nests containing eggs at a certain stage of 

 incubation ! 



''After the hatching of the eggs, I spent considerable time at the nest-side, 

 and observed with interest the many pretty little incidents of a bird's domestic 

 life — the constant and tender brooding of the newly hatched young by both 

 Warblers in turn ; the never-ceasing search among the neighboring trees and 

 bushes for small caterpillars ; the deliver}' of the food by the male to the brooding 

 female, who, in turn, would raise herself and pass it to the young; the careful 

 cleansing of the nest ; and many other intimate details of the birds' loving and 

 happy lives. When I drew aside the leaves that sheltered the nest and allowed 

 the sun to shine upon it for purposes of photography, the mother, realizing with 

 that wonderful instinct common to all birds which nest in the shade, the fatal efi:ect 

 on her babies of the sun's direct rays, would take her stand on the edge of the 

 nest and with outstretched wings would form of her own body a living shield for 

 the comfort and protection of her young. Although herself in evident distress 

 from the heat, and with parted mandibles continually gasping for air, she would 

 remain in this position as long as the sun shone upon her, only stepping aside 

 occasionally when a well-known signal announced that her husband had arrived 

 with a meal for the little ones. It was a beautiful picture of parental devotion. 



"As the young birds began to grow, the Cowbird not only maintained, but 

 rapidly increased its lead over its small nest-mate. At every visit of the parent 

 bird with food, its capacious gullet could be seen violently waving aloft and almost 

 completely hiding the feeble little mouth of the Warbler, whose owner was path- 

 etically doing its best in a dumb appeal for food. The Cowbird's appetite seemed 



588 



