i82 The Ottawa Naturalist. [December 



than assist to drive off the intruder. Both birds, however, came 

 quite close, and I identified them as a pair of the black- 

 throated blue warbler species. Being anxious to secure this nest 

 and a full set of eggs, I remarked the place, and returned four 

 days after. Then the female was seated on the nest, and when 

 she flushed off 1 found that it contained three of her own eggs 

 and one of a cow-bird's. These I collected and prepared for my 

 cabinet, but they have since passed to the collection of a gentle- 

 man in Philadelphia. 



After I had secured the nest and eggs above described, on 

 my homeward way I found another nest of the same species. This 

 was also placed in the fork of a small maple twig, about two feet 

 off the ground, and on the outskirts of a thick patch of low under- 

 wood, and then contained three young of the bird's own, two or 

 three days old, and also a young of the cow-bird. I noted in both 

 cases that the old birds on leaving the nests dropped to the 

 ground and made quite a commotion among the dry leaves, evi- 

 dently with the intention of diverting from the nests. 



On the 24th of May, 1889, I took my usual holiday ramble to 

 the high-woods west of Wildwood, where three years before I had 

 first discovered the nests of the black-throated blue warblers. 

 Two weeks before I had first noted the male birds for the season, 

 and on this occasion, as I advanced into the woods, their 

 melodies, intermingled with those of other species of woodland 

 birds greeted my ears, and although the newly acquired foliage of 

 the underwood rendered the view in some places quite limited, 

 yet I had not gone far when a rather bulky nest of some small 

 bird attracted my attention and led me to the spot. This was 

 placed in the fork of a small hemlock shrub, about eighteen 

 inches off the ground : the bottom was composed of a quantity of 

 dry leaves, but this interior was formed of various woodj fibers, 

 lined with rootlets and a little cattle-hair. At first I thought that 

 this belonged to some new species, but a closer examination of 

 this nest, and the one egg that it contained, caused me to con- 

 clude that it was another nest of the black-throated-blue-warbler, 

 and in this opinion I was afterwards confirmed, for on re-visiting 

 it three days after, I found the mother-bird seated on the nest, 

 where she remained till I almost touched her with my hand, and 



