614 BULLETIN 203, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



In southern Connecticut, the nests of the hooded warbler are usually 

 built in the low, dense thickets of mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia), 

 which is locally abundant there, often in extensive patches, in well- 

 shaded spots. Judge J. N. Clark (1882) gives the following good de- 

 scription of such a nest : 



Pieces of yellow birch bark, beech and chestnut leaves carefully matted and 

 bound together and to the triangular crotch, formed the base of the structure, 

 rounded and neatly finished at the top with the inner bark of chestnut and 

 cedar, with fine grass and scales from beech buds and a little fern down mixed 

 in, and all secured compactly together with spider webs. I speak advisedly 

 having seen the bird diligently gather the webs. Inside the nest was neatly 

 and smoothly lined with mixed horsehair and very fine grass. Largest outer 

 diameter three inches and a half, inner diameter two inches, and depth two 

 inches, and built in a little kalmia bush about fifteen inches from the ground. 

 This description will answer for most of the many nests I have found of the 

 species, with varying quantities of birch bark and fern down, invariably in a 

 kalmia bush. 



T. E. McMullen has sent me the data on 20 New Jersey nests; 14 

 were in small hollies in thick, dry or swampy woods ; others were in 

 pepper or huckleberry bushes, or in laurels ; the heights above ground 

 varied from 10 inches to 3^ feet. Dr. George M. Sutton (1928) men- 

 tions a very unusual nest in Pymatuning Swamp, Pa., "at the sur- 

 prising height of eighteen feet from the ground in a slender upright 

 shoot growing out from the trunk of a large beech tree." 



In my collection are 22 sets of eggs from North Carolina ; 5 of these 

 were in oak saplings, 3 in myrtles, and 2 each in alders and hollies; 

 the others were in various saplings, bushes, and brier patches; they 

 were found at heights varying from 10 inches to 4 feet. In Georgia 

 and South Carolina, the nests are often built in canes, as well as in 

 low bushes, seldom as much as 5 feet up. In northern Florida, accord- 

 ing to Grimes (1935) — 



the site of the nest may vary considerably, but one feature of the nest itself is 

 quite consistent — its inconspicuousness. I have seen many nests of this species 

 in northeastern Florida and believe I am safe in saying that nine out of ten 

 are built in the fetterbush (Pieris nitida) in this region. I cannot name a 

 second choice, but have found nests in such other shrubs as the button-bush, 

 swamp blackberry, wax myrtle, and red titi, and in seedlings of the laurel oak, 

 water oak, swamp ash, and red bay. * * ♦ I have seen one nest in a low 

 fetterbush directly beneath the center of a large horizontal palmetto frond that 

 shielded it from rain as well as from view. 



There is a good deal of variation in the size, shape, and even the general tone 

 of the exterior of the nest. The type most often met with is small, compact, 

 rather dark in appearance, and an inconspicuous object in its natural surround- 

 ings. Such a nest is made outwardly of dead leaves of swamp ash, red maple, 

 smilax, and water elm held together with strips of bark, spider web, and the 

 black, hairlike heart of dried Spanish moss, these materials forming the founda- 

 tions and shell of the structure. The shell or framework is reinforced with a 



