ty of expectation."

How many provisions nature has for keeping us simple-hearted and
child-like! The Song Sparrow is one of them.

--C. C. MARBLE.

[Illustration: From col. F. M. Woodruff.
SUMMER YELLOW-BIRD.
Copyrighted by Nature Study Pub. Co., 1897, Chicago.]

THE YELLOW WARBLER.

In a recent article Angus Gaines describes so delightfully some of the
characteristics of the Yellow Warbler, or Summer Yellow-bird, sometimes
called the Wild Canary, that we are tempted to make use of part of it.
"Back and forth across the garden the little yellow birds were flitting,
dodging through currant and gooseberry bushes, hiding in the lilacs,
swaying for an instant on swinging sprays of grape vines, and then
flashing out across the garden beds like yellow sunbeams. They were
lithe, slender, dainty little creatures, and were so quick in their
movements that I could not recognize them at first, but when one of them
hopped down before me, lifted a fallen leaf and dragged a cutworm from
beneath it, and, turning his head, gave me a sidewise glance with his
victim still struggling in his beak, I knew him. His gay coat was yellow
without the black cap, wings, and tail which show in such marked
contrast to the bright canary hue of that other yellow bird, the
Gold-finch.

"Small and delicate as these birds are, they had been on a long journey
to the southward to spend the winter, and now on the first of May, they
had returned to their old home to find the land at its fairest--all
blossoms, buds, balmy air, sunshine, and melody. As they flitted about
in their restless way, they sang the soft, low, warbling trills, which
gave them their name of Yellow Warbler."

Mrs. Wright says these beautiful birds come like whirling leaves, half
autumn yellow, half green of spring, the colors blending as in the outer
petals of grass-grown daffodils. "Lovable, cheerful little spirits,
darting about the trees, exclaiming at each morsel that they glean.
Carrying sun glints on their backs wherever they go, they should make
the gloomiest misanthrope feel the season's charm. They are so sociable
and confiding, feeling as much at home in the trees by the house as in
seclusion."

The Yellow-bird builds in bushes, and the nest is a wonderful example of
bird architecture. Milkweed, lint and its strips of fine bark are glued
to twigs, and form the exterior of the nest. Its inne