OF EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA. 1 07 



north in New York, Massachusetts, Nova Scotia, 

 and south, occasionally in Cuba, according to the 

 authority of De la Sagra, its breeding-quarters 

 have been discovered. To our knowledge of its nest 

 and eggs we are indebted to Mr. John Burroughs, 

 who with his nephew Mr. C. B. Deyce, first discover- 

 ed it breeding in a thicket of hemlocks in Roxbury, 

 Delaware County, N. Y., early in July, 1871. The 

 nest was built in the fork of a small hemlock, at an 

 elevation of fifteen inches above the ground. Ex- 

 ternally it was composed of strips of decayed liber, 

 chiefly of basswood, somewhat loosely arranged 

 and strengthened by rootlets, fine twigs and frag- 

 ments of wood and bark. Within this fabric was 

 placed a compact, well-woven nest, consisting of 

 small roots, pine-needless, twigs and hair, elaborately 

 inter\\oven. The cavity was capacious, two and 

 a third inches in diameter at the rim, and one and 

 a half in depth. 



The eggs are oval in shape, narrower at one 

 end, marked with an umber-broxxn circle at the 

 larger end, with lighter markings of reddish-brown 

 and obscure purple upon a grayish- white ground 

 which is pinkish in the unblown egg; a few dot- 

 tings of the above shades are sparingly scattered 

 over the rest of the egg. They are from four to 

 five in number, and measure .70 of an inch in length 

 snd .50 in breadth. 



During- the breeding-period, the parents are re- 

 markably suspicious and endeavor by an assumed 

 confidence to mislead intruders from the exact 



