58 BREWSTER'S WARBLER. 



White Pine needles. The outside diameter of the nest was 42 inches, the inside 

 diameter 2h inches, height 4 inches, inside depth 2? inches. 



The male Brewster's Warbler was one of the pure type, with clear gray back, 

 brilliant yellow crown and wing-patches, and silk-white under parts without 

 any trace of yellow. The female displayed the normal plumage of the female 

 Brewster's, differing from the male in having the back and hinder part of the 

 crown lightly veiled with olive, the wing-patch paler yellow and distinctly 

 divided into two parts, and the breast lightly suffused with yellow, leaving the 

 chin and throat clearly white. 



The male Golden-wing that was associated with these Brewster's Warblers 

 was a bird of extraordinary brilliancy and purity of plumage, the white color of 

 the lower breast and belly being less obscured by ash than is the case in many 

 examples, throwing into strong relief the pure black of the throat, the yellow of 

 the wing-coverts and crown and the exquisite blue-gray of the back. The black 

 of the throat extended clear up to the base of the bill, indicating a bird that had 

 attained at least to the second nuptial plumage, if we accept Dr. Dwight's 

 diagnosis. 



Two other places on the border of this prolific little swamp were occupied as 

 singing stations by two male Golden-wings, from the time of their arrival on 

 the fifteenth of May. The nest of neither of these was found, nor for that 

 matter were their mates seen until, in the latter part of June, they led their 

 young forth from the nest to feed in the Maple Swamp. From that time on- 

 ward both of these males, with their mates and young, together with the pro- 

 prietors of the nest discovered on the fifth of June and their young, were followed 

 up to the time when the family ties were dissolved and the young had acquired 

 the full first-autumn plumage, about the twentieth of July. 



The stage upon which the little domestic scenes now to be described were 

 enacted was formed for the most part by the Maple Swamp, a moist area of 

 about 15 acres, grown up chiefly to Red Maples, with a sprinkling of Elms, 

 Red Oaks, and White Pines. The ground beneath, always damp and screened 

 from the parching rays of the sun, is clothed with a rank growth of Cinnamon 

 Fern four to six feet high, interspersed with Spinulose, Boott's, Crested, and 

 Lady Fern, while ample tracts are given over to thickets of Raspberry vines, 

 well-nigh impenetrable. Patches of Jewelweed claim a share of the spongy soil, 

 — spots dear to the Connecticut Warblers in the autumn. Here and there one 

 sees the delicious green of the Clintonia and in a few favored places the eye 



' This nest is now in the collection of Mr. William Brewster. 



