BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 371 



descriptions vary extremely from on the ground near the root 

 of a decaying tree to a hole in a tree, or a niche in projecting 

 rocks, the drain of a house, and elevated all the way from the 

 first mentioned position, to several feet from the ground. Its 

 composition certainly does not vary so remarkably, for all 

 reports corroborate my own observation that it is formed of 

 coarse fibres of different barks and leaves, with grasses. My 

 specimen embraces little or no grass, but a few bits of thread 

 or strings. The note of this Warbler is very pleasing 

 although humble, and may be described as somewhat resembl- 

 ing the formulation — pits-ee, pits-ee, pits-ee, pits ee, rather mo- 

 notonously repeated, with brief interruptions while flitting from 

 the trunk or lower limbs of one tree to the roots of another. 



They commence to build about the 15th of May, as indicated 

 by the nest obtained on the island alluded to, as observations 

 were maintained from the first, and bring out their brood in 13 

 days after the female takes finally to her nest. The eggs were 

 four in number, and of a creamy white, speckled irregularly 

 with fine dots of reddish- brown, thickest near the larger end. 



They breed extensively in the forests bordering the northern 

 lakes, as Mr. Lewis and others have found. In common with 

 its family, it migrates southward very soon after the earlier 

 frosts. Breeds at Vermilion lake, St. Louis county. (Mr. U. 

 S. Grant's Report.) 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Bill with the upper mandible considerably decurved; the 

 lower one straight, general color of the male black, the feathers 

 broadly edged with white; the head all round black, with a 

 median stripe in the crown and neck above, a superciliary and 

 maxillary stripe of white. Middle of belly, two conspicuous 

 bands on the wings, outer edges of tertials, and inner of all the 

 wing and tail feathers, and a spot on the inner webs of the 

 outer two tail feathers, white. Rump and upper tail coverts 

 black, edged externally with white. 



Length, 5; wing, 2.85; tail, 2.25. 



Habitat, eastern United States to the Plains, 



HELMINTHOPHILA PINUS (L.). (641.) 



BLUE-WINGED WARBLER. 

 What this little warbler has denied it in the force, and 

 melody of its song, is made up to it in the beauty of its colors. 

 It is a thing of beauty and therefore "a joy forever." The 

 eye that having seen it in its freshness of vernal plumage, 

 does not feel a thrill of joy at its return after the long months 



