56 Birds Every Child Should Know 
as most of his kin. Seven times he rapidly 
repeats “ Sweet — sweet — sweet — sweet — sweet — 
sweeter-sweeter” to his sweetheart, but this 
happy little lovemaker’s incessant song is apt 
to become almost tiresome to everybody except 
his mate. 
What a clever little creature she is! More 
than any other bird she suffers from the per- 
secutions of that dusky rascal, the cowbird. 
In May, with much help from her mate, she 
builds an exquisite little cradle of silvery plant 
fibre, usually shreds of milkweed stalk, grass, 
leaves, and caterpillars’ silk, neatly lined with 
hair, feathers, and the downy felt of fern fronds. 
The cradle is sometimes placed in the crotch 
of an elder bush, sometimes in a willow tree; 
preferably near water where insects are abun- 
dant, but often in a terminal branch of some 
orchard tree. 
Scarcely is it finished before the skulking 
cowbird watches her chance to lay an egg 
in it that she may not be bothered with the 
care of her own baby. She knows that the 
yellow warbler is a gentle, amiable, devoted 
mother, who will probably work herself to death, 
if necessary, rather than let the big baby cow- 
bird starve. But she sometimes makes a great 
mistake in her individual. Not all yellow 
warblers will permit the outrage. They prefer 
to weave a new bottom to their nest, over the 
