THE BIRDS OF NEW ENGLAND 
9S 
ni^ii carpet of leaves and pine needles, 
one will find the Water 1 brush s near 
relative, the Oven-bird. He makes his 
appearance after May the first, sneak¬ 
ing about the woods like a burglar, a 
noisy one it must be said, for his song, 
beginning low and gradually becom¬ 
ing louder, ends abruptly at tbe top 
of his vocal strength. He begins to 
build his nest about June the first. 
Unless the bird is flushed suddenly, it 
is very difficult to discover, and one 
must look very closely for the four 
little eggs in their carefully roofed 
resting place. 
Up in the tall pines are the rarer 
Wood-warblers. Oftentimes, in tramp¬ 
ing through the woods, we hear an 
5 / & 
Blackburnian Warbler 
apparently insignificent chirp from 
some tree-top, and find on careful in¬ 
vestigation that it has come from some 
bird of the Warbler family for which, 
perhaps, we have been looking all day. 
Early in the spring, before the trees 
are well leaved out, is a very good 
time to see these little fellows. The 
Blackburnian Warbler, beautifully ar- 
Yellow-Bellied Flycatcher 
rayed in orange and black, the tiny 
Parula Warbler, with its Quakerlike 
dress of blue gray, set off by a saddle 
of old gold, the Pine 
Creeping Warbler and the 
Black-throated Green 
Warbler will all become 
familiar to you in time. 
The one last mentioned 
nests in the tallest pine 
trees and its nest is so tiny 
that you will hardly find 
it, unless you happen to 
see the bird fly off. 
The Yellow is the com¬ 
monest of all our New 
England Warblers, and is 
known by half a dozen 
names—Yellow Warbler, 
Summer Warbler, Yel¬ 
low Wren, Yellow Spar¬ 
row and Yellow Bird being the ones 
most frequently heard. The female 
is olive green and is most quiet 
and retiring, but the male bird in 
his suit of yellow sprinkled with 
brown, is a familiar figure on tbe 
roadside shrubbery. It nests any¬ 
where, often in barberry bushes, when 
thev can be found, and never over six 
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