“When the trees are putting on their best and greenest leaves, many new
sounds mingle with the hum of insects among the branches. You pause and
look up in the confusing mass of fluttering green and sunbeams to find,
if possible, the origin of these sounds.
“Many feathered shapes are fluttering about, some flying after the
manner of birds, while others flit and move in the irregular fashion of
butterflies, while the notes they utter, instead of being full-throated,
have a sort of childish lisp.
“These birds belong to the tribe of _Warblers_; a few do really warble,
but for the majority the _Lispers_ would be a more appropriate title.
Listen! there comes a little call now, as if the bird had kept his beak
half closed, ‘Sweet-sweetie-sweazy!’ and a bird of light build and no
larger than a Chippy flits backward from the twig where he was perching
and alights on one below, following in his flight one of the insects of
which he is a valiant destroyer, as he belongs really to both the order
of Tree Trappers and Sky Sweepers.
“Now is your chance; he is at rest for a moment; look at him,—black of
back, head, and breast, some salmon-red feathers on wings and tail, and
the sides of breast rich, pure salmon, and the belly white. What a brave
little uniform, almost the Oriole colours. One of the Wise Men who has
met the Redstart in his winter home in Cuba says that there he is called
‘_Candelita_, the little torch that flashes in the gloomy depth of
tropical forests.’
“There is nothing secluded about him, however, except the depths of
shade where he feeds and weaves his nest, in texture much like the
Vireo’s. His mate is also a very dainty bird, but his flame colour and
black is replaced by pale yellow and gray.
“The Redstart is a bird to know in May and June, though it does not
leave until early in October.
_The Summer Yellowbird_
“From the apple trees or shrubs near the house comes a cheerful lisping
song that constantly declares that life up among the leaves is
‘Sweet-sweet-sweet-sweet-sweeter,’ ending this remark by a warble full
of melody. Then a little bird smaller than a Chippy flits out with a bit
of green worm hanging from his beak and disappears in another tree.
Brief as the glimpse is, you see that the bird is rich olive-yellow,
with cinnamon streaks on the breast. If he pauses a moment, you will
notice that the underparts are almost the colour of gold. This is the
_Yellow Warbler_ of many names,—_Wild Canary_, _Summer Yellowbird_, or
simply _Yellowbird_; though this name is also commonly given to the
seed-eating Goldfinch of the Sparrow tribe who wears a jaunty black cap,
and stays with us all the year, while the Yellow Warbler goes southward
before leaf-fall in September.
“The Yellow Warbler’s nest is one of the most beautiful and interesting
bird-homes, and shares the fame of that of the Baltimore Oriole, Wood
Pewee, Humming-bird, and Vireo. It is cup-shaped and deep, woven of
fibres and plant-down, and is placed in the fork of a bush or in a fruit
tree, where it is as firmly lashed by cords of vegetable fibre and
cobwebs. The female is the builder and a very rapid workwoman. This nest
is often used by the Cowbird, but little Mrs. Yellow Warbler is more
clever than many other small birds and refuses to be imposed upon. She
is evidently afraid to push out the alien egg, so she swiftly walls it
in by building a second nest on top of the first. If this does not check
the Cowbird, a third nest is sometimes added, like the one that Tommy
brought me last fall, and there is a two-story nest in Goldilocks’
cabinet.
“This Warbler is not only beautiful to look at and pleasant to hear, but
he is a very valuable tree trapper, for he eats the spinning cankerworms
and also tent-caterpillars, pulling apart webs of the latter and using
them ‘for cordage’ to bind the nest. He is also a destroyer of
plant-lice and something of a flycatcher as well.
_Maryland Yellowthroat_
“Here is a merry bird that you cannot miss seeing or fail to name if you
have eyes and ears. Olive on head and back, this bird certainly has a
yellow throat, also much yellow on tail, wings, and underparts, but if I
had the naming of it I should call him the ‘Yellow, Black-masked
Warbler,’ for he wears a narrow mask of black across his face, through
which his keen eyes peer provokingly as he flits ahead calling for you
to follow, ‘Follow me—follow me—follow!’ When you see the bird, of two
points you may be sure at once; it is yellow, and it wears a black mask,
but whether it is yellowest on back, throat, or breast will require a
second look.
“This bird is here about the garden and lane from May to September, and
last June we found its long, bulky nest, partly covered like an Indian
cradle, in the bushes between the garden and orchard, but it usually is
so clever at going into the bushes and then darting along close to the
ground to its nest, that we had known of this nest for several days
before we discovered that it belonged to Black Mask, for his wife, who
kept the nearest to the nest, wears no mask, and we thought her some
other kind of Warbler.