340 BULLETIN 2 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



spots, generally none, or at most a single pair will be found." Of a 

 nest found near Winchendon, Mass., Brewster (1888) writes: 



The nest, which was found by watching the female, was built at a height of 

 about thirty feet above the ground, on the horizontal branch of a black spruce, 

 some six feet out from the main stem. Its bottom rested securely near the base 

 of a short, stout twig. Above and on every side masses of dark spruce foliage, 

 rendered still denser by a draping of Usnea (which covered the entire tree pro- 

 fusely), hid the nest so perfectly that not a vestige of it could be seen from any 

 direction. This nest is composed outwardly of fine twigs, among which some 

 of the surrounding Usnea is entangled and interwoven. The lining is of horse 

 hair, fine, dry grasses, and a few of the black rootlets used by D. maculosa. 

 The whole structure is light and airy in appearance, and resembles rather 

 closely the nest of the Chipping Sparrow. 



The highest nest of which I can find any record is one reported 

 by Dr. C. Hart Merriam (1885), found by A. J. Dayan in a grove 

 of large white pines {Pinus strohus), in Lewis County, N. Y. It was 

 saddled on a horizontal limb of one of the pines, about 84 feet from 

 the ground and about 10 feet out from the trunk. "The nest is large, 

 substantial, and very compact. It consists almost entirely of a thick 

 and densely woven mat of the soft down of the cattail {Typha lati- 

 folia) , with seeds attached, and is lined with fine lichens, horse hair, 

 and a piece of white thread. On the outside is an irregular covering 

 of small twigs and rootlets, with here and there a stem of moss or a 

 bit of lichen." 



The lowest nests that I have heard of are recorded in Frederic H. 

 Kennard's notes from Maine ; one was only 5i/2 feet up and the other 

 9 feet from the ground in small spruces. Mrs. Nice (1932) found 

 a nest near her mother's home in Pelham, Mass., that was "18 feet 

 from the ground near the top of a cedar among comparatively open, 

 young growth, 40 yards south of the house and 150 yards to the east 

 of the great pines and hemlocks where the male habitually sang." 

 The only nest of this warbler that I have ever seen was found by 

 watching the female building it, on June 16, 1913, on an island in 

 Lake Winnipegosis, Manitoba; it was only about 10 feet from the 

 ground, near the end of a drooping branch of a large black spruce 

 that stood on the edge of some coniferous woods next to an open swale. 

 The nest, shaded from above, was partly concealed from below by 

 dense foliage and was, apparently, well made of soft fibers, deeply 

 cupped, and lined with some dark material and a little willow cotton. 

 I was not able to visit the island again. 



In New York State and in Pennsylvania, the nests of the Black- 

 burnian warbler are almost invariably placed in hemlocks. All of 

 the four nests recorded by T. E. McMullen (MS.) from the Pocono 

 Mountains, Pa., were in hemlocks. And Todd (1940) states that 

 with one exception all the nests found by K. B. Simpson, of Warren, 



