324 BULLETIN 2 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



being of light grayish weed stems, bleached pine needles and other light materials 

 held secnrely together by cobwebs and wooly substances. The nest cavity is 

 lined with strips of red cedar bark (Libocedrus) and the ends, instead of being 

 woven smoothly, project out of the nest. The inner lining is of a fine brownish 

 fiber resembling shreds of soap-root. The composition of the nest gives it a 

 very pretty effect. 



J. H. Bowles (1906) found a nest in northwestern Washington on 

 June 11, 1905, "in a grove of young hundrecl-foot j&rs near a small 

 swamp." The female sat so close that he was obliged to lift her from 

 the nest with his hand — 



and she then flew only a few feet where she remained chipping and spreading 

 her wings and tail. * * * The nest was placed twenty feet from the ground 

 in a young fir, and was securely saddled on a good sized limb at a distance of 

 six feet from the trunk of the tree. It is a compact structure composed ex- 

 ternally of small dead fir twigs, various kinds of dry moss, and down from the 

 cotton-wood flowers^ showing a strong outward resemblance to nests of D. audu- 

 boni. But here the likeness between the two is at an end ; for the lining consists 

 of fine dried grasses, and horsehair, with only a single feather from the wing of 

 a western bluebird. The measurements are, externally, four inches in diameter 

 and two and three-quarters inches deep; internally, two inches in diameter by 

 one and a quarter inches deep." 



A nest in the Thayer collection in Cambridge was collected by 

 O. W. Howard "70 feet above ground, near the end of a limb of a 

 yellow pine, in a bunch of needles," in Tulare County, Calif. Gordon 

 W. Gullion tells me of an Oregon nest that was "about 125 feet above 

 the ground." 



Eggs. — The hermit warbler lays 3, 4, or 5 eggs to a set ; 5 are appar- 

 ently not rare. Bowles (1906) says of his 5 eggs : "They have a rather 

 dull white ground with the slightest suggestion of flesh color, heavily 

 blotched and spotted with varying shades of red, brown and laven- 

 der. « * * J \\^YiS}s. they may be considered the handsomest of all 

 the warblers' eggs." The 4 eggs in the Thayer collection in Cambridge 

 are ovate, with a very slight lustre. They are creamy white, finely 

 speckled and spotted with "chestnut" and "auburn," with interming- 

 ling spots of "light brownish drab." The markings are concentrated 

 at the large end, forming a broad, loose wreath. The measurements 

 of 50 eggs average 17.0 by 13.1 millimeters ; the eggs showing the four 

 extremes measure 18.0 by 13.4, 17.0 by 13.7, 15.2 by 12.7, and 16.3 by 

 11.8 millimeters (Harris). 



Young. — We have no information on the incubation of the eggs, nor 

 on the care and development of the young. 



Plumages. — I have examined the nestlings sent to Brewster by C. A. 

 Allen ; they are about two-thirds fledged on the body and wings ; the 

 heads still show the long natal down, "hair brown" in color ; the feath- 

 ers of the back are "olive brown" ; the wings are "clove brown," with 



