TENNESSEE WARBLEK 77 



(1907) remarked: "The Tennessee Warbler awaits a biographer." 

 Since then, we have learned much about it, mainly through the writ- 

 ings of B. S. Bowdish and P. B. Philipp, who found it breeding 

 abundantly in New Brunswick. In their first paper (1916) they 

 describe the summer haunts and the nesting habits of this warbler as 

 follows : 



The region in question is particularly well adapted to the nesting requirements 

 of the Tennessee Warbler, as we noted them during the above period. Extensive 

 lumbering has removed the greater part of the large growth spruce and balsam 

 timber, which forms the great bulk of the forests of this region, leaving areas 

 of small trees, which, in the older clearings, have grown thickly, and to an 

 average height of ten feet. These are interspersed with areas of more or less 

 open, large timber, and others where the second growth has reached little more 

 than the proportions of somewhat scattered shrubbery. The essentially level 

 surface is frequently scored by slight depressions which form the beds of tiny 

 streams, bordered on either side by boggy ground, dotted with grass tussocks, 

 bushes and small trees, and overspread with a luxuriant growth of moss. Such 

 areas are most numerous in cleared tracts, but not infrequent in the edges and 

 the more open portions of the woods. These are the summer home-sites of the 

 Tennessee Warbler. • * * 



At the time of our visit to the breeding country, in the middle of June, nest 

 building was completed and full sets of eggs had been laid. Altogether, ten 

 nests were located, all built on the ground in substantially the same general 

 sort of situation, and all but two were found by flushing the bird. The nest is 

 built in the moss, usually in a wet place at the foot of a small bush, and in most 

 cases in woods, somewhat back from the more open part of the clearings. A hollow 

 is dug in the moss, usually beneath an overhanging bunch of grass. The nest 

 is in nearly every case entirely concealed and it is impossible to see it from any 

 view-point without displacing the overhanging grass. Consequently unless the 

 bird is flushed it would be all but impossible to find it. The outer foundation 

 of the nest is of dry grass forming quite a substantial structure. Several nests 

 had whisps of grass stems extending from the front rim, as noted in description 

 of the first nest below. It is lined, usually, with fine dry grass, to which in some 

 instances the quill-like hairs of the porcupine, or white moose hairs, are added, 

 and more rarely still, fine hair-like roots which were not identified. * » * 



This species seems to be somewhat gregarious. In 1914, in one small clearing, 

 five males were heard singing at the same time. In 1915, in the same clearing, 

 three males were heard singing at once, and two nests were found. In almost 

 every clearing of suitable size at least two pairs of birds were found, the nests 

 being sometimes located rather close together. * * * 



On the second day of our sojourn, .June 19, we visited one of the typical nesting 

 places of this warbler, a boggy cleared swale, with scattering, small second 

 growth, and soon flushed a female from a nest containing six fresh, or practically 

 fresh, eggs. This nest, typical of the majority of those found in both construc- 

 tion and situation, was placed in the side of a small tussock, bedded in moss and 

 completely overhung by the dead grass of the previous year's growth. The nest 

 was composed entirely of fine, nearly white, dead grass stems. From the front 

 rim protruded outward and downward, a wisp of dead grass tips, lying over 

 the lower grasses in the tussock, and shingled over by the overhanging grass, 

 establishing a continuity of the side of the tussock, thus cunningly adding to 



