“No, my boy, the bird is not named from that sort of creeping flowering myrtle; his name comes from a Latin word for ‘bayberry,’ because the bird feeds upon its fruit, as Rap told you.”

“And bayberry is that low sweet-smelling shrub that we gather in the rocky pasture, to fill the great jar in the fireplace,” said Olive.  “Some call it candle-berry, and others wax-myrtle.”

“Yes,” said Rap, “and these Warblers stay round that pasture in winter as long as there is a berry left.”

The Yellow-rumped Warbler

(Or MYRTLEBIRD)

Length about five and a half inches

Upper parts dark gray, streaked with black; two white bars on each wing; large white spots on some of the tail-feathers. A yellow patch on the rump and crown.

Under parts white, streaked with black on the breast and sides.  A yellow patch on each side of the breast.

A Summer Citizen of the northern United States and northward.  Much less common in the West than the East.  Travels south, and spends the winter everywhere from southern New England to Panama.

A great Seed Sower and a Tree Trapper.

THE OVENBIRD

[Illustration:  The Ovenbird.]

“I will show you a ‘skin’ of the Ovenbird, because it may be some time before you will see this Ground Warbler at home in the deep woods.”

“‘Skin!’ What is that?” asked Rap, as the Doctor took from his pocket what looked merely like a dead bird.

“A ‘bird-skin,’ so called, is the bird preserved and prepared for stuffing, with all its feathers on, but without glass eyes and not mounted in a natural position.  You see that it takes up much less room than the birds that are set up in my cases, and is more easily carried about.”

“He looks like a little Thrush,” said Olive, “except that he is too green on the back, and the stripe on his head is of a dingy gold color.  That is why he is often called the ‘Golden-crowned Thrush,’ though he is not a Thrush at all, but one of the American Warblers, and the crown is more the color of copper, than like the gold on the Golden-crowned Kinglet’s head.  Perhaps the Kinglet is called after new, clean gold, and this ‘Thrush’ after old dusty gold.”

All this time Rap had been looking intently at the Warbler without saying a word; then he said suddenly:  “Why, it’s the bird that builds the little house-nest on the ground in the river woods!  The nest that is roofed all over and has a round hole in one side for a door!  I’m so glad I know his name, for it isn’t in my part of the Nuttall book and the miller doesn’t know what he is called.  Is he named Ovenbird because he has a door in one side of his nest like an oven?”

“Yes, Rap, the nest is shaped like the kind of oven that Indians used.  Tell us about the one you found.”