SYLVICOLID.K — THE W'xVRBLERS. 309 



Audubon states that in their migrations they move from bush to bush by 

 day, and frequently continue their marcli by night. Their iiight at all times 

 is short and irregular. He also states that when on the ground they squat, 

 jerk their tails, spring on their legs, and are ever in a state of great activ- 

 ity. Although the existence of this bird north of Pennsylvania is generally 

 disputed, I have no doubt that it has always l.)eeu, and still is, a constant 

 visitor of Massachusetts, and has been found to within a score of miles of 

 the New Hampshire line. Among my notes I find that a nest was found 

 in Brookline, in 1852, by Mr. Theodore Lyman ; in Danvers, by Mr. Byron 

 Goodale ; in Lynn, by Messrs. Vickary and ^Yelcll ; and in many other parts 

 of the State. It certainly breeds as far south as Georgia on the coast, and 

 in Louisiana and Texas in the southwest. On the Pacific coast it is replaced 

 by the long- tailed variety, longicauda. 



A nest of this species from Concord, Mass., obtained by Mr. P>. P. Mann, 

 and now in the collection of the Boston Natural History Society, has a 

 diameter of four inches and a height of three and a half The cavity has a 

 depth of two and a quarter inches, and is two and a half wide. This is built 

 upon a base of coarse skeleton leaves, and is made of coarse sedges, dried 

 grasses, and stems of plants, and lined with long, dry, and wiry stems of 

 plants, resembling pine-needles. Another from Pomfret, Conn., obtained by 

 Mr. Sessions, is a much larger nest, measuring five inches in diameter and 

 three and three quarters in height. Tiie cup is two and a half inches deep 

 by three in width. It is made of an interweaving of leaves, bark of the 

 grapevine, and stems of plants, and is lined with fine, long wiry stems and 

 pine-needles. 



Their eggs are of a sliglitly rounded oval shape, vary in length from .85 

 to .95 of an inch, and in breadth from .65 to .70. They have a white ground 

 with a very slight tinge of yello^\', and are marked with reddish -brown and 

 a few fainter purplish and lilac spots. 



Icteria virens, var longicauda, L.vwk. 



LONG-TAILED CHAT. 



Icteria longicauda, L.vweexce, Ann. N. Y. Ljc. VI, Ajiril, 1853, 4. — Baird, Birds N. 

 Am. 1858, 249, pi. xxxiv, fig. 2 ; Rev. 230. — ScLATER, Catal. 42, no. 253. — FiNSCH, 

 Abh. Nat. Bvem. 1870, 331 (Mazatlan). — Cooper, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 98. ? Icteria 

 auricoUis (Light. Mus. Berl.), Bon. Coiisp. 1850, 331. 



Sp. Char. Similar to var. virens. Fourth quill loncf.^t ; third and filth shorter ; first 

 shorter than the seventh. Above ash-color, tinged with olive on the back and neck ; the 

 outer surface of the wings and tail olive. The under parts as far as the middle of tlie belly 

 bright gamboge-yellow, with a tinge of orange ; the remaining portions white. The super- 

 ciliary and maxillary white stripes extend some distance behind the eye. Outer edge of 

 the first primary white. Length, 7 inches; wing, 3.20 ; tail, 3.70. 



Young (SMI. Loup Fork of Platte, August 't ; P. V. Tlayden). Above light grayish- 



