BIRDS’ NESTS. 
93 
BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER’S NEST. 
the orioles, in the tree where they are occu- 
pied, with bright silks and worsteds, which 
they employ altogether, if liberally provided, 
so that a very gay and party-colored nest 
may swing in your orchard where you can 
see it from the house. Wilson says that an 
old lady, to whom he showed an oriole’s 
nest in which a piece of dry grass, thirteen 
inches long, was passed through thirty-four 
times, asked him, half in earnest, if the birds 
couldn’t be taught to darn stockings. 
Let us go back to the meadows, and, leav- 
ing these, enter into the adjoining swamp, 
where I shall show you several objects worth 
seeing. We might find in this swamp nests 
of several species, but the 
ground is so wet and the 
brambles so thick that I 
will only show you two 
that I found just com- 
pleted two or three days 
ago. We shall come to 
one by following this 
path along the brook- 
side. Of the warblers 
there are many who build 
on the ground in or near 
wet places, but only one 
of these is common, at 
least in a large part of 
the United States — the 
little Maryland yellow- 
throat. The male, who 
is eying us saucily from 
that thicket, is olive-green 
above, with more or less 
bright yellow beneath, 
and has a black patch 
which covers his forehead 
and the sides of his head, 
inclosing his eyes. You 
will often see him on 
road-sides. The female 
is duller above, paler be- 
neath, and has no black. Her nest, a few 
steps further on, owes its attractions to 
the surroundings. Beside it is the brook, 
on which the sunlight plays, as it breaks 
through the bushes on the other side. 
Around it are grasses to conceal it, and be- 
hind it is a cluster of tall, graceful ferns. 
Behind the ferns is a young tree that spreads 
its branches over the whole. How much 
mysterious life is in the group, especially 
in those four little eggs lying together, all 
white, one unmarked, one spotted with 
brown, one speckled with lilac, and one 
marked with both ! Such is the variety 
which we often find in one nest. In the 
nest of a hawk I have found two eggs, one 
almost pure white, and another huffy, with 
dark brown blotches. But the mother be- 
fore us asks us to pass on, and to discuss 
these phenomena where she shall not be 
disturbed. 
In that open spot, bathed in sunlight, on 
that knoll by the bushes, sits another bird 
on her eggs, her soft reddish-brown back 
in contrast to the surrounding green. It 
is the Wilson thrush. The little yellow- 
throat, when we intruded, hopped about 
us, expressing her anxiety openly; but the 
thrush disappears quietly into the bushes, 
disclosing behind her a very pretty picture. 
Her nest, made of dead leaves, strips of 
grape-vine bark, and dry grasses, and lined 
with a few hail's, is set in a bank of rich 
dark green moss ; in it are four light blue 
eggs ; above it is a little plant with bright 
red berries. All the colors in the picture 
are so strong and yet delicate, all the forms 
YELLOW WARBLER S NEST. 
