144 BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



less peculiar to all true Warblers. This song is so common here 

 as to be a universal characteristic of our tall forests. The bird is 

 shy when started from the nest, and has the sharp chipping alarm - 

 note common to the family. The nest is saddled on a horizontal 

 limb of considerable size, some distance from the tree, and somo 

 forty or fifty feet from the ground. Small, and very neatly and 

 compactly built." (Rev. J. H. Langille, in Ornithologist and Oolo- 

 gist, Dec. 1882, p. 191.) 



In History of North American Birds, Vol. III., page 505, Dr. Brewer 

 describes a nest of this species, as follows : 



"A nest, containing one egg, of the Cserulean Warbler, was ob- 

 tained in June, 1873, by Frank S. Booth, the son of James Booth, 

 Esq., the well known taxidermist of Drumrnondville, Ontario, near 

 Niagara Falls. The nest was built in a large oak-tree at the height 

 of fifty feet or more from the ground. It was placed horizontally 

 on the upper surface of a slender limb, between two small twigs, 

 and the branch on which it was thus saddled was only an inch and 

 a half in thickness. Being nine feet from the trunk of the tree, it 

 was secured with great difficulty. The nest is a rather slender 

 fabric, somewhat similar to the nest of the Redstart, and quite small 

 for the bird. It has a diameter of 2f inches, and is 1^ inches in 

 depth. Its cavity is 2 inches wide at the rim, and 1 inch in depth. 

 The nest chiefly consists of a strong rim firmly woven of strips of 

 fine bark, stems of grasses, and fine pine needles, bound round with 

 flaxen fibres of plants and wool. Around the base a few bits of 

 hornets' nests, mosses, and lichens are loosely fastened. The nest 

 within is furnished with fine stems and needles, and the flooring is 

 very thin and slight. The egg is somewhat similar in its general 

 appearance to that of D. festiva, but is smaller and with a ground- 

 color of a different shade of greenish white. It is oblong-oval in 

 shape, and measures .70 of an inch in length by .50 in breadth. 

 It is thinly marked over the greater portion of its surface with 

 minute dottings of reddish brown. A ring of confluent blotches of 

 purple and reddish brown surrounds the larger end." 



In the extreme northern part of the State, the Cerulean Warbler 

 is, according to Mr. Nelson, "a regular but rare migrant. May 12th 

 to 20th, and the first of September. Prefers high woods. Very 

 abundant in the southern half of the State. Rare summer resident 

 here, but near Detroit, Michigan, I am informed it is one of the 

 common species at this season." 



