68 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 part i 



and compact structure, entirely different from what I had read about it. Exter- 

 nally it was constructed of corn-leaves mixed with long fibrous rootlets, large pieces 

 of snake-skin and small dry leaves. The rim was made of catkins of the oak, 

 intermingled with spider's nests and caterpillar's silk. A little cotton also entered 

 into the composition. The cavity was hned with fine brown rootlets. * * * All 

 other nests found subsequently were built in the same manner, and all were dis- 

 covered near dwellings. Several domiciles found in gardens in rose-bushes, and 

 one in a dense sweet myrtle (Myrius communis), displayed in their construction 

 also a few pieces of paper, parts of strings, and muslin and in the lining a few horse 

 hairs. Snake-skins, with the Blue Grosbeak, always are a favorite and character- 

 istic nest-building material, forming sometimes almost the entire exterior of the 

 nest. * * * 



* * * In the following year I discovered the first nest on May 13, in a peach 

 orchard. It was built between the trunk and a sapling of a peach tree about six 

 inches above the ground. Weeds in great luxuriance grew aU around, screening 

 the nest from observation. It was a very peculiar, though beautiful and artistic 

 structure, built externally of broad shreds of corn-husks, a few plant-stems, and 

 mostly of snake-skin, the latter arranged in a turbanlike way. All over it was 

 decorated with cinnamon-brown caterpillar nests, which gave the domicile a very 

 odd appearance. A few days later I found another peculiar nest, which was 

 placed in a half-pendulous way in a horizontal branch of a black-jack oak, about 

 twelve feet from the ground. Above and below it was protected by a canopy of 

 dense foliage. * * * A third nest was also in a rather extraordinary position. It 

 was built in an almost pendulous branch of an oak on the woodland border and far 

 from the trunk, about twenty-five feet above the ground, and entirely out of my 

 reach. All the other nests were built in orchard trees and ornamental shrubs. 



Charles K. Stockard (1905) mentions finding an unusual nest 

 beside a country road in Mississippi, of which he says: 



This road was used in the fall and winter for hauhng cotton and some of the 

 lint remained tangled in the bushes throughout the year. The nest was placed 

 three and one half feet from the ground in a crotch of a small gum bush, and the 

 outer part of it was cotton giving the whole much the appearance of a ball of lint 

 caught in the branches. This nest and set of four eggs were taken. Two weeks 

 later, June 1, on chancing to pass along the same road and glancing toward the 

 former nest bush a second nest was seen. This was exceedingly hke the other, 

 its outer part being of cotton, and was placed in the identical crotch from which 

 the first had been removed. On approaching it was found also to contain four 

 fresh Blue Grosbeak's eggs. Tliis was rather quick work, building a nest and 

 laying four eggs within fourteen days. 



Mrs. Nice (1931) mentions an Oklahoma nest that "had been built 

 almost entirely of newspaper, but was lined with reddish roots," 



There is in my collection, sent to me by Eugene E. Murphey, of 

 Augusta, Ga., a nest that is almost entirely covered externally with 

 cast-off snake skins. 



Frederick V. Hebard has sent me notes on five nests of the eastern 

 blue grosbeak, all of which were built in oaks at from 6 to 12 feet above 

 ground, in southern Georgia. 



Daniel L. McKinley has written me about a nest in south-central 

 Missomi which includes sassafras leaves in the base. Materials also 



