over the leaves, disappeared in different directions. This brought the
parent birds on the scene in an agony of alarm. Their distress was
pitiful. They threw themselves on the ground at our very feet, and
fluttered, and cried, and trailed themselves before us, to draw us away
from the place, or distract our attention from the helpless young. I
shall not forget the male bird, how bright he looked, how sharp the .
contrast as he trailed his painted plumage there on the dry leaves.
Apparently he was seriously disabled. He would start up as if exerting
every muscle to fly away, but no use; down he would come, with a
helpless, fluttering motion, before he had gone two yards, and
apparently you had only to go and pick him up. But before you could
pick him up, he had recovered somewhat and flown a little farther; and
thus, if you were tempted to follow him, you would soon find yourself
some distance from the scene of the nest, and both old and young well
out of your reach. The female bird was not less solicious, and
practiced the same arts upon us to decoy us away, but her dull plumage
rendered her less noticeable. The male was clad in holiday attire, but
his mate in an every-day working-garb

The nest was built in the fork of a little hemlock, about fifteen
inches from the ground, and was a thick, firm structure, composed of
the finer material of the woods, with a lining of very delicate roots
or rootlets. There were four young birds and one addled egg. We found
it in a locality about the head-waters of the eastern branch of the
Delaware, where several other of the rarer species of warblers, such as
the mourning ground, the Blackburnian, the chestnut-sided, and the
speckled Canada, spend the summer and rear their young.

Defunct birds'-nests are easy to find; when the leaves fall, then they
are in every bush and tree; and one wonders how he missed them; but a