NORTHERN PARULA WARBLER 139 



began sending eggs to Dr. T. M. Brewer. Thomas Nuttall (1833) re- 

 marked : "The nest and eggs are yet unknown." 



Rawson found the parula warbler nesting in colonies near Norwich, 

 Conn., and says : 



I know a swamp where may be found seventy-five pairs of these summer resi- 

 dents. The first time I visited the Preston colony on the 31st of May, I took 

 eight sets of four. The first time I visited another large community in this 

 county on June 5, on a point of land trending into salt water, I took eleven sets 

 of four. * * * 



The nests are built on dead or green trees, and on savins or deciduous trees, 

 at varying heights. I took one from the single filament of moss caught on the 

 green twig of a birch, within five inches of the ground, and others close to the 

 trunks of great oaks fifty feet in the air. On the lower swamp, huckleberry 

 brush in the littoral colony is a favorite site. 



William Brewster (1906) mentions only one nest taken in the neigh- 

 borhood of Cambridge, Mass., a region where Usnea is scarce : 



In shape and general plan of construction the nest closely resembles that of a 

 Baltimore Oriole. It has no hole in the side but instead a wide-mouthed open- 

 ing at the top through which the bird entered it as the Oriole enters her nest. 

 The upper edges and sides were securely fastened to the fine terminal twigs 

 of a drooping branch where the nest hung suspended among the evergreen 

 foliage of the hemlock, precisely as the Oriole's hammock swings in the dropping 

 spray of an elm. The Warbler's nest has a scanty lining of pine needles and 

 fine grasses but it is otherwise composed entirely of Usnea, loosely woven or 

 perhaps merely felted together, evidently by the parent birds. They must have 

 been at some pains to collect this material, for the closest scrutiny on the part 

 of a friend and myself failed to reveal more than a few small and scattered tufts 

 of Usnea in the surrounding woods. 



Henry Mousley (1924, 1926, and 1928), of Hatley, Quebec, made 

 three attempts to make complete studies of the home life of the north- 

 ern parula warbler, none of which covered the whole cycle for reasons 

 beyond his control. 



The nests were suspended from the branches of coniferous trees, 

 at heights ranging from 26 feet in a spruce to 40 feet in a balsam fir. 

 One of these nests was watched for a total of 24 hours, from May 22 

 to 31, during the process of construction ; during this time the male 

 sang 549 times from a little birch and went with the female to the 

 nest, but brought no material; the female, however, made 206 trips 

 with material, an average of one load every 5.4 minutes. The nest was 

 made entirely of Usnea, all brought in, and lined with "some black 

 hair-like rootlets, with two bits of plant down"; it was strengthened 

 with a few fine grass stems. It weighed only 100 grains, or .23 ounce ! 

 "Outside diameter 3.25, inside 1.75 inches; outside depth 2.50, inside 

 1.75 inches. The female after selecting some of the longest threads of 

 the hanging bunch of Usnea, attached them to a little twig a few inches 

 off, following this up with that curious process — inherent — of mould- 



