382 BULLETIN 203, XJNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



lining consisted of a very few runners of cinquefoil, a very few pine 

 leaves, and much horsehair and human hair." 



Philipp and Bowdish (1917) during two seasons in New Bruns- 

 wick found nine nests of the bay-breasted warbler. Of the six nests 

 found in 1915, all "were in small spruces, two of them being well out 

 on horizontal limbs, the others close to the trunk, at heights varying 

 from four to ten feet. None were very well concealed and some of 

 them were remarkably open, but they blended so well with their 

 surroundings that they were exceedingly difficult to discern. All of 

 the nests of this species that we found resemble large structures of the 

 Magnolia Warbler, being rather loosely constructed, of fine spruce 

 of similar twigs, exteriorly, a little dead grass and some insect webs 

 entering into the composition, and fine, black rootlets being commonly 

 used as a lining." Two of the nests found in 1916 were higher up ; 

 one was "fifteen feet from ground, supported by two horizontal 

 branches, against the main stem of a small balsam, near its top, in a 

 clump of same, in partial clearing in spruce forest." The other was 

 "twenty feet up against the trunk of a spruce tree at the edge of a 

 clearing. This latter nest was in a very thick portion of the foliage 

 and absolutely invisible from the ground, being found only by flushing 

 the bird." F. H. Kennard mentions in his notes several nests, found 

 in New Hampshire, that were from 25 to 40 feet up, "in the lower, 

 outreaching branches of tall spruces." William Brewster (1938) 

 mentions one that was 50 feet up. 



A nest before me, taken by Richard C. Harlow in New Brunswick, 

 was placed 12 feet up and 10 feet out toward the end of a long hori- 

 zontal limb of a small, slender spruce in a high, dry spruce forest. 

 It is very well and compactly made, mainly of fine spruce twigs 

 firmly woven into a solid and fairly smooth rim, with only a few fine 

 grasses woven in. It is neatly and smoothly lined with a thick bed 

 of the finest black rootlets. The nest was so placed that another 

 limb was only two inches directly above it. 



The measurements of several recorded nests vary from 2 to 2% 

 inches in outside depth, from ly^ to II/2 in inside depth, from 4 by 

 31/^ to 5% in outside diameter, and from 2i/io to 2i/^ inches in inside 

 diameter, according to Mendall (1937). 



Eggs. — The bay-breasted warbler lays large sets of eggs, from 4 

 to 7, but 5 is by far the commonest number, though sets of 6 are not 

 very rare. The eggs vary in shape from ovate to elongate ovate and 

 they are slightly glossy. The ground color is white, creamy white, 

 pale bluish white or pale greenish white. They are handsomely 

 speckled, spotted and blotched with "auburn," "bay," raw umber," 

 "argus brown," "chestnut," "chestnut-brown," "Mars brown," or 

 "snuff brown," with underlying spots of "light Quaker drab," "light 



