228 NOHTll AMEKICAX BIUDS. 



Spanislitowu, this species has beeu known to breed. In view of the fact that 

 this bird is regarded, with good reason, as one of our most northern species, 

 breeding to the very shores of the frozen seas, the occurrence seems erratic 

 and remarkalile. Yet it is not without corresponding vagaries in other spe- 

 cies, the cccridcsccns breeding in (Juba and the tiijrina in St. Domingo and 

 Jamaica. 



]\Ir. Paine, of East Kandolpli, Vt., states that tliese Warblers arrive in Ids 

 vicinity about the first of May, and remain tliere nearly two weeks, and then 

 all pass north. They do not return on their southern tiiglit until the last 

 of September, when they remain aliout three weeks. It is a very active, rest- 

 less bird, chirping continually and very sharjjly as it tlies around in search 

 of insects, but has not, so far as he knows, any song. 



In Southern Illinois, as Mr. Eidgway informs me, this liird is a common 

 winter sojourner, remaining late in spring with the migratory species. It is 

 very abundant throughout the winter in woods, orchards, and door-yards. 



Mr. Salvin found this species frequenting the more open districts about 

 Duenas, Guatemala, apparently preferring scattered bushes to the denser un- 

 derwood, and was an abundant species there throughout the winter season. 



It is but quite recently lliat we have known ^^'ith certainty its place and 

 manner of breeding. Neither Wilson, Xuttall, n(]r Audtdion ajDpear to have 

 nu:t with its nest, tliough the lattcn- rei'eiv(;il dUc linni Trofessor McCulloch 

 of Halifax. 



In the summer of 1855, early in .luly, I obtained a nest of this species 

 in I'arsboro', Nova Scotia. It was built in a low busli, in the niidst of a 

 small \illage, and contained six eggs. Tlie parents were very shy, and it 

 was with great difficulty that one of them was secured for identification. 

 Though late in the season, incul)ation had but just commenced. 



The nest was liuilt on a horizontal branch, the smaller twigs of which were_ 

 so interlaced as. to admit of its being built upon them, though their extremi- 

 ties were interwoven into its rim. The nest was small for the bird, being 

 only two inches in deptli and four and a half in diameter. The cavity 

 is one and a half inches deep and two and a iialf w idi'. Its base and exter- 

 nal portions consist of Hue, li^ht, dry stalks ol' wild grasses, and slender 

 twigs and roots. Of the hist the firm, strong rim of the nest is exclu- 

 sively woven. Within, the nest is composed of soft, fine grasses, downy 

 feathers, and the fine hair of the smaller mammals. 



Mr. Audubon, who observed very closely the liabits of these birds during a 

 winter in Florida, descrilies them as very social among themselves, skipping 

 along the piazza, balancing themselves in the air opposite the sides of the 

 house in search of s})iders and insects, diving through the low bushes of tlie 

 garden after lar\;e and worms, and at night roosting among the orange- 

 trees. In his visit to Elaine he found them very abundant in early May. 

 The woods seemed alive with them, and wherever he landed, on his way to 

 Labrador, he found them in great numbers. 



