Sept., 1909 
NESTING NOTES ON THE LUCY WARBLER 
167 
The Warblers appeared at Blackwater and Sacaton, both seasons, the last of 
March, and soon began nesting. The full quota of birds seemed to arrive at once; 
as the first day I saw any — March 29 — they were apparently as numerous as at any 
time afterwards. They are very active little sprites, flitting about usually in the 
extreme tops of the trees, whether mesquite, cottonwood or willow. They are 
most numerous in groves of mesquites not far from water, tho this may be from the 
fact that more trees and other cover are found not far from the river. 
They utter a cheerful little call note, and during nesting, a rather pleasing 
song which recalls, without really resembling, that of the Yellow Warbler. The 
song has the effect of impressing the idea of extreme heat upon the listener, the 
same as that produced by the noise of the cicada on a hot, breathless day. 
In nest-building the female seems to do all the work, her mate somtimes 
accompanying her on trips to and from the tree, but more frequently flitting about 
the tops of adjacent trees, occasionally uttering his little warble. One pair I watcht 
had a nest in a Texas Woodpecker hole in a palo verde tree about 15 feet from the 
ground. The female brought material to the nest three times in two minutes, then 
a seven minute interval, followed by two trips in three minutes. The male accom- 
panied her on two trips and then made himself scarce. He indulged in no singing 
and both birds were silent, tho in many cases one or both birds gave the call note 
at intervals. 
Shyness about the nest seems to be a characteristic of these birds. It was 
rarely I could see the bird leave the nest when approacht, and only two nests were 
discovered by flushing the female from the tree. In one case I brusht against a 
mesquite stump that had been cut back and had started a new growth, and the bird 
darted out so near the ground that I did not think much about a nest. But force 
of habit made me look carefully and a nest was discovered only 18 inches from the 
ground. By carefully concealing myself and waiting, the birds would return to 
the nest; but sometimes quite a wait was necessary. 
The male birds were erratic in their behavior about singing. I found that 
they did more singing during nest-building than after completion or during incuba- 
tion. They took good care not to sing in the nest-tree, preferring to confine their 
performances to trees some distance away. The male would frequently meet me 
several rods from the nest and flit from tree to tree singing at short intervals. 
Once I made a complete circuit of the nest tree and he accompanied me the entire 
distance. This was an exceptional case of course. While going from tree to tree 
and singing, the bird usually tried to keep hidden as much as possible and was 
rather successful in the effort. In about half of the cases coming under my 
observation the male bird sang somewhere near the nest. In the other half no song 
was heard, and in some instances no sound at all. 
In three cases only, did the parent birds show what might be called the proper 
amount of solicitude when the nest was approacht. Some of them seemed rather 
touchy about their nests, leaving them if the nest were toucht even so lightly. 
The first nest I found was easy of access and I put my finger on the rim in order 
to depress it sufficiently to look inside. A later visit showed the nest deserted, tho it 
was about completed at my first trip. Another nest had one egg when found and 
was not disturbed other than by looking into it, but another visit showed it 
deserted. It may depend on the individuality of the bird, as another nest found 
containing one egg was not deserted, tho I had to enlarge the opening in order to 
see into it. Another incomplete nest was cut into and upon concealing myself the 
bird went on with her work. A later visit showed three eggs. It is either the 
personal equation, or else some other disturber visits the nest after the first time. 
