394 BULLETIN 2 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



interior of the structure consisted of plant fibers and fine rootlets, 

 some hair, and a liberal lining of white gull feathers. The lining 

 of feathers is characteristic, being as essential to the nest structure as 

 the spruce tree is for a nesting site. The kind of feathers used, of 

 course, depends on the kind that are available; on Grand Manan 

 Island, New Brunswick, it is commonly goose feathers, in the Mag- 

 dalen Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, duck feathers ; in Labrador, 

 duck or ptarmigan feathers; and at Lost River in the White Moun- 

 tains I have seen nests lined with grouse feathers and odd feathers 

 of song birds. The myrtle warbler also uses feathers in lining its 

 nest, which is more compactly built than the blackpoll's and is gen- 

 erally placed on a horizontal limb away from the trunk of the tree. 



J. P. Norris (1890a) describes 17 sets of eggs of the blackpoU and 

 gives the location of 15 nests collected on Grand Manan Island as 

 follows : "They were all found in spruce trees, one of them was found 

 only a foot from the ground; another was eighteen inches; a third 

 two feet up ; a fourth three and a half feet ; two more were each four 

 feet high; five were five feet up ; two were seven feet from the ground ; 

 another was eight feet and still another was ten feet high." William 

 Brewster (1882a) describes a nest containing three eggs which he 

 found in the Magdalen Islands on June 23, 1882 : 



The nest was built in a low, thick spruce, which stood on the edge of a swamp, 

 near a brook. It was placed on a horizontal branch at a height of about three 

 feet, and was well concealed by the clusters of densely-imbricated needles above. 

 * * * The main body of the structure is composed of Usnea moss, weed- 

 stalks, and dry grasses, closely matted and protected outwardly by coarser stalks 

 and a few dead spruce twigs. The lining is of slender, black moss-stems (which 

 curiously resemble horse hair) cow's-hair and a few feathers. The whole affair 

 is remarkably solid and bulky for a Warbler's nest. 



R. M. Anderson (1909) cites an exception to the rule that the black- 

 poll nests in trees saying of a nest he found June 24, 1908, on Moose 

 Island near Fort Resolution, Great Slave Lake : 



I stepped across a small dead spruce lying on the ground, and a small plainly 

 colored bird darted from the mass of tall dead grass which surrounded the 

 trunk of a fallen tree. The bird disappeared in the underbrush at once without 

 uttering a sound. Concealing myself, I watched about twenty minutes and the 

 bird stealthily approached the nest hopping from bush to bush, occasionally 

 uttering a sharp, nervous tsip like the alarm note of the Junco, The bird proved 

 to be a female BlackpoU Warbler. The nest was placed directly on the ground 

 in the middle of a clump of dead grasses, immediately underneath a small, fallen 

 spruce, the trunk of which was lying about ten inches above the ground. The 

 nest was composed of dead grasses, mixed with cottony substances and a little 

 moss, lined with finer grasses, and a few feathers including one tail feather 

 of a fox sparrow. The four eggs were advanced in incubation. 



R. MacFarlane (1891) found several nests of the blackpoU on the 

 ground along Anderson River of northwestern Mackenzie well above 



