1902] Kells — Nesting of some Canadian Warblers. 227 



human habitations, and contest with the chipping sparrow for the 

 possession of a nesting site among the raspberry vines of the 

 garden. 



The American Redstart. 



In the same woodland, which, with the uncleared parts of the 

 adjoining farm, covers an area of over twenty acres, the active and 

 beautiful redstart is heard intermingling its notes, and found to 

 have its summer home in close community with those of the chest- 

 nut-sided warbler, and its nesting site is always found to occupy a 

 higher elevation, and usually the more open parts of the under- 

 wood, the nest being placed in rather exposed positions, the bird 

 apparently depending for the concealment of the nest more on the 

 fact that the material of which it is composed closely resembles the 

 bark of the saplitag in the fork of which it is placed, rather than on 

 the denseness of the foliage that overhangs and surrounds it. 

 Many nests of this species, in past years, have come under my 

 observation; but it is only of those noted the present season that 

 I purpose here to speak. On May 22nd I noticed a female red- 

 start flying from a partly composed nest, the site of which was in 

 the fork of a small maple sapling, and at an elevation of about 

 eight feet off the ground. This nest could be easily seen, when the 

 searcher's gaze was directed to it, at a distance of four rods; the 

 woods around it were rather open, and the leaves of the sapling 

 were a yard or more above it. Eight days afcer I found that this 

 nest contained four of the warbler's own eggs and one of a cow- 

 bird, all of which were fresh. Of all the warblers, the nest of this 

 species is about the neatest and most firmly put together, the bird 

 evidently emitting a good deal of saliva upon the material of which 

 the nest is composed when she is placing the fragments in position. 

 All this work, as well as that of incubation, appears to be done 

 by the female, though it is probable that her more beautifully 

 plumaged consort occasionally supplies her with food as she incu- 

 bates her eggs; and he certainly largely assists in feeding the 

 young and in trying to defend them if exposed to danger. If the 

 first efforts ot this bird to propagate its species are successful, it 

 does not nest more than once in the season, otherwise it will nest 

 a second time. The materials of which the greater part of the 



