OF NEW ENGLAND. 107 



eggs average '68 X *50 of an inch, and are generall}^ white 

 with purplish- or redclish-brown spots and blotches, which are 

 sometimes confluent. These markings are either scattered over 

 the egg, more thickly at the larger end than the other, or are 

 grouped in a ring about the crown. An egg of this species 

 in my collection is buflT (darker than that of the Wood Pewee) 

 with a few lilac markings, but I have seen no others like it. 



(c). The Chestnut-sided Warblers are summer-residents 

 throughout New England, but are much more abundant in the 

 southern parts than further to the northward. They reach 

 the neighborhood of Boston in the second week of May, and 

 pass the entire summer here. They are never gregarious, but 

 usually they are particularly common at the time of their 

 spring-migrations, when they frequent considerablj^ the shrub- 

 bery and trees of cultivated estates, before retiring to their 

 summer-haunts. Their habits at this time have often reminded 

 me of those of the " Yellow-rumps," for they are often much 

 in the air, taking flights from one place to another at quite a 

 height from the ground, that is, from thirty to sixty feet above 

 it. At other times they glean quietly among the foliage of the 

 maples, and other budding trees, generally among the lower 

 branches. Occasionally they perform a rapid and graceful 

 movement through the air to seize some passing insect, or stand 

 like a flycatcher to watch the flies and gnats, which they now 

 and then secure by darting after them. They never seek their 

 food upon the ground, so far as I know, and only descend to it 

 when picking up materials for their nests. Their haunts in 

 summer are chiefly pasture-lands, "scrub," and open, moist 

 woodlands, such as contain oaks, chestnuts, and maples, and 

 an undergrowth of bushes, vines, and saplings. I have never 

 met these birds in thick or dark woods, and have but once seen 

 their nest placed in an evergreen, it being in that instance in a 

 low spruce by a brookside. It is to be remembered, however, 

 that in different sections of the country birds show preference 

 for different kinds of land, and often vary their habits to an 

 extent that is surprising, and even confusing. Finally come 

 those variations in coloration, caused by climate, which have 



