J 64 BULLETIN 20 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



bush, and a currant bush. One of these latter, in an unspecified bush, 

 was 14 feet from the ground, and another, in a wild grapevine climbing 

 on a tree beside a coalbin, was 8 feet from the ground; those in the 

 elms were 12 and 14 feet, respectively, from the ground. The re- 

 mainder were mostly 5 feet or less above ground, the lowest being at a 

 height of 2 feet, in a currant bush near a vegetable garden. He tells 

 of a nest that was built in a wild rose bush at the edge of a small run 

 near his vegetable garden ; "this nest was so compactly fabricated as 

 to hold water for some time; I saw about one-fourth inch of water 

 standing in the bottom of it after a heavy rain." 



On two occasions, he has found the new nest to have been built on 

 top of the old nest of the previous year. 



F. G. Schrantz (1943) has published the results of a careful study 

 of 41 nests of the eastern yellow warbler in Iowa, during 1938 and 

 1939, on the restricted grounds of the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory. 

 Among those at heights from II/2 to 5 feet from the ground were 27 in 

 wolf berry bushes {Symphoricarpos occidentalis) , 8 in young sap- 

 lings of boxelder {Acer negundo), 2 in wild gooseberry {Ribes 

 gracile)^ 1 in wild currant {Ribes floridum), and 1 in an introduced 

 species of honeysuckle. One nest was in a cottonwood at a height of 

 about 10 feet, and another in a boxelder about 15 feet above ground. 



Dr. Roberts (1936) says that in the prairie regions of Minnesota, 

 where underbrush is scarce, the yellow warblers build their nests in 

 the cottonwoods in the tree-claims, "against the trunks of the large 

 trees, supporting them on small lateral branches and twigs. * * * 

 These arboreal nests are often fifteen to twenty-five feet from the 

 ground and occasionally still higher." And in the huge cottonwood 

 trees along the river, he has seen nests placed at elevations of 40 to 

 60 feet. Others have also recorded nests at heights of 40 and 60 feet. 



In Dr. Kendeigh's (1941) prairie community, "twenty out of 

 twenty-nine nests were placed in buckbrush, with the rest in box- 

 elder, lilac, willow, or currant. The buckbrush is a low bush usually 

 three or four feet high, growing in rather dense thickets in the open, 

 especially in grassy areas of Poa and Agropyron. Nests placed here 

 varied between two and three feet above the ground. The nest found 

 closest to the ground (18 inches) was, however, in a small boxelder. 

 In taller shrubs and trees, the nests were found up to about seven 

 feet above the ground." 



Mr. Schrantz (1943) watched the building of a nest from the first 

 stages of construction to its completion and the laying of the first 

 6gg? covering a period of 4 days. 



Construction was first observed at 7 :45 a. m., on June 12, 1939, when a female 

 Yellow Warbler was seen carrying a tuft of plant-down into a small boxelder 

 sapling. Upon examination, a mass of plant-down about one and one-half inches 

 in diameter was found at a measured height of two feet three inches from the 



