108 BULLETIN 203, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Ora W. Knight (1908) mentions a Maine nest that "was situated 

 on the ground on an open wooded hillside at the foot of and between 

 two small spruce trees, and was well imbedded in the moss. It meas- 

 ures in depth outside one and three- fourths inches, and inside one inch, 

 the diameter outside was three and a quarter. * * * Nest building 

 begins soon after the birds have arrived, and presumably the female 

 does most of the work, while the male perches in a near by sapling and 

 sings. * * * It takes from seven to nine days to build the nest, 

 and on its completion an egg is laid each day until the set is com- 

 pleted. The eggs are usually laid between six and ten in the morning." 



A nest fomid by Henry Mousley (1918) near Hatley, Quebec, "was 

 located at the foot of a spirea bush on a little mound, well sunk into 

 the surrounding hair-cap moss {Polytrichum commune) and dwarf 

 cornel or bunchberry {Gornus canadensis) of which the mound was 

 carpeted. It was entirely hidden from sight and would never have 

 been found had I not flushed the female from her set of five eggs." 



The only local nest of which we have any record was found by 

 Owen Durfee (MS.) in Kehoboth, Mass., on June 2, 1892. It was only 

 partially concealed among some very low bushes, grass, and other 

 herbage near the foot of a small hill in neglected pasture land; the 

 hill had a scattered growth of oak and beech saplings and had been 

 tramped over by cattle. 



Frank A. Pitelka (1940a) found the Nashville warbler breeding in 

 northeastern Illinois in "oak-maple-hickory climax woodland with 

 semi-dense undergrowth, * * * with the stream cutting it and a 

 semi-swampy, sedge-grass area with willow thickets and scattered 

 elms and ashes." In northern Michigan, he found it "in spruce and 

 cedar bogs and in sandy woods of aspen, birch, and Norway pine." 



Richard C. Harlow tells me that most of the nests he has found in 

 New Brunswick, about 10, are very frail, but are lined with moose 

 hair. He has found 7 nests in the mountains of Pennsylvania, where 

 the normal lining is deer hair. 



Eggs. — The first set of eggs for the Nashville warbler seems to be 

 always either 4 or 5 ; reported sets of 3 are probably incomplete or 

 late sets. The eggs are ovate or short ovate and are only slightly 

 lustrous. They are white or creamy white, speckled with shades of 

 reddish brown, such as "chestnut" and "auburn," mixed with "light 

 brownish drab." On some eggs the markings are fairly evenly scat- 

 tered over the entire surface, but usually they are concentrated and 

 form a wreath at the large end. Occasionally eggs are more boldly 

 marked with spots and small blotches or short scrawls; others are 

 nearly immaculate. The measurements of 50 eggs average 15.7 by 

 12.1 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 17.2 by 

 12.7, 1^.4 by 13.0, 14.5 by 11.6, and 15.2 by 11.5 millimeters (Harris). 



