198 BULLETIN 203, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



from the ground. One nest was found by Mr. C. F. Stone in a birch 

 sapling, this being the only instance to my knowledge of its nesting 

 in a tree other than a hemlock." He has sent me a photograph of a 

 nest in a wild blackberry bush. 



T. E. McMuUen has given me the data for 14 nests of the magnolia 

 warbler found in the Pocono Mountains, Pa. ; 10 of these were located 

 in hemlocks from 30 inches to 30 feet above the ground and from 

 6 to 12 feet out on the branches ; one nest was 30 feet up and one 18, 

 but the others were all less than 10 from the ground. The other 4 

 nests were in rhododendrons, in woods, or along the banks of creeks, 

 and were from 2 to 3 feet up. 



Edward A. Preble (Todd, 1940) says that "all but one of more than 

 fifty nests of this warbler that R. B. Simpson has examined near 

 Warren [Pa.] were placed in hemlocks. One nest was at the excep- 

 tional height of thirty-five feet; another was only a foot from the 

 ground in some low hemlock brush." Mr. Simpson's other nest was in 

 a witch-hazel, and Mr. Saunders reported one in a pin cherry, both 

 under hemlocks. 



The magnolia warbler is a poor nest builder; its nests are ap- 

 parently carelessly built and are very flimsy affairs, much like poorly 

 built nests of the chipping sparrow ; and they are usually insecurely 

 attached to their supports. Brewster (1877) gives the following good 

 description of a typical nest : "The framework is wrought somewhat 

 loosely of fine twigs, those of the hemlock being apparently preferred. 

 Next comas a layer of coarse grass or dry weed-stalks; while the in- 

 terior is lined invariably with fine black roots, which closely resemble 

 horse-hairs. In an examination of more than thirty examples I have 

 found not one in which these black roots were not used. One speci- 

 men has, indeed, a few real horse-hairs in the lining, but the roots pre- 

 dominate. This uniform coal-black lining shows in strong contrast 

 with the lighter aspect of the outer surface of the nest." 



Miss Cordelia J. Stanwood, of Ellsworth, Maine, who has sent me 

 some elaborate notes on the magnolia warbler, gives me this descrip- 

 tion of one of her best nests : "In this some hay and the fine tips of 

 cinquefoil served as a foundation, but the greater part of the nest 

 consisted of a fine black, vegetable fibre, resembling horsehair. So 

 much of this hairlike material was used that, when the rim was 

 frescoed with down from the willow pod, a person looking at the 

 dainty abode in its setting of fir twigs could see nothing but the jet- 

 black lining and the fluffy, silvery plant-down around the throat of 

 the nest. The structure was partly pensile, being bound with spiders' 

 silk to the two branches at right angles to the main stem. 



"The front part of the base rested on the branches beneath. It was 

 placed in a small fir, 2 feet from the ground, surrounded by a growth 



