140 BULLETIN 203, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



ing the nest, which in this case, was really an acrobatic performance, 

 there being of course no apparent nest to mould, just a few strands, 

 through which the bird's tail and wings protruded." 



Outside New England, where Usnea is scarce, the nests are often 

 built in hanging clusters of twigs of hemlocks or spruces, with the 

 use of more or less of this lichen when available. In the lower Mis- 

 sissippi Valley, Spanish moss {Tillandsia usneoides) offers a popular 

 substitute and is generally found growing in profusion. But some 

 nests are built of various other materials. George H. Stuart, 3d, 

 writes to me of a nest he found at Pocono Lake, Pa., on June 22, 1916 : 

 "This remarkable nest was placed in a horizontal limb of a spruce, 20 

 feet up and 12 feet from the trunk, near the tip and overhanging a 

 road near the lake." It was "composed mainly of fine dry grasses 

 and the thinnest of bark shreds, with a few bits of down, fashioned 

 together oriole-like, though loosely, with a few coarse grasses project- 

 ing suggesting the handiwork of the magnolia warbler. The tiny 

 basket was suspended from the under side of the branch, partially 

 supported by inclining twigs. In form it is an inverted cone or pear, 

 measuring 3 inches deep by 3 inches wide at the rim, the thin walls 

 tapering down to a narrow, pointed bottom. The thinness of the 

 walls in places revealed the eggs from a side view." 



Mrs. Nice (1931) reports a curious nest, found by Mr. Kirn near 

 Copan, Okla. ; it was fastened to ivy leaves and to a stick which was 

 hanging down, held by the vine. "In this hanging, swaying cluster 

 about two feet long, the nest was built almost entirely of box elder 

 blossoms held together by spider webs on the outside, and sycamore 

 seed down on the inside with a light lining of fine strips of weed 

 stems." 



Several nests have been reported as built of various materials in 

 bunches of leaves and other rubbish deposited by f reshlets on branches 

 over streams. 



Because of the bird's habit of using various materials and sites in 

 its nest building, it may be well to mention some nesting records from 

 the southern Gulf States. Andrew Allison wrote to Dr. Chapman 

 (1907) : 



The invariable nesting site is a clump of Spanish moss — where this it to be had ; 

 I have not observed nests from beyond the range of this plant. The nest is 

 generally placed near the branch from which the long filaments of the 'moss' 

 depend, so that it is well concealed. The height from the ground varies from 

 about eight feet upwards. * * * The nest is nearly hemispherical in shape, 

 opening directly upward. The usual material, in lower Louisiana, is thistle 

 down, which is abundant during the nesting season. Animal hairs are not 

 used, I think. A nest from Bay St. Louis was composed of the very black 

 horse-hair-like inner fiber resulting from the decay of Tillandsia. 



