EASTERN GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET 385 



Frullania, added in footnote] prettily diversified with grayith lichens and Usnea, 

 the general tone of the coloring, however, matching closely that of the surround- 

 ing spruce foliage. The interior at the bottom is lined with exceedingly delicate 

 strips of soft inner bark and fine black rootlets similar to, if not identical with, 

 those which invariably form the lining of the nest of the Black-and-yellow Warb- 

 ler. Near the top are rather numerous feathers of the Ruffed Grouse, Hermit 

 Thrush, and Oven-Bird, arranged with the points of the quills down, the tips 

 rising to, or slightly above, the rim and arching inward over the cavity, forming a 

 screen that partially concealed the eggs. 



The second nest, taken the same day, was in — 



a lonely glen on high land between two ridges. The ridges were covered with 

 young white pines. The prevailing growth in the glen was spruce and hemlock, 

 the trees of large size and standing so thickly together as to shut out nearly all 

 sunlight from the ground beneath. The nest was on the west side of a sturdy, 

 heavily limbed spruce (A. nigra) about fifty feet above the ground, twenty feet 

 below the top of the tree, six feet out from the trunk, and two and a half feet 

 from the end of the branch, in a dense cluster of stiff, radiating (not pendant) 

 twigs, the top of the nest being only an inch below, but the whole structure 

 slightly on one side of the branch from which its supports sprang. Above and 

 on every side it was so perfectly concealed by the dense flakelike masses of spruce 

 foliage that it was impossible to see it from any direction except by parting the 

 surrounding twigs with the hand. From directly below, however, a small portion 

 of the bottom was visible, even from the ground. The foliage immediately over 

 the top was particularly dense, forming a canopy which must have been quite 

 impervious to the sun's rays, and a fairly good protection from rain also. Beneath 

 this canopy there was barely sufficient room for the birds to enter. 



This nest is similar to the other, though somewhat smaller and 

 rounder, and the lining "is wholly of the downy under feathers of the 

 Ruffed Grouse. These are used so lavishly that, radiating inward 

 from every side, they nearly fill the interior and almost perfectly 

 conceal its contents." 



Referring to the third nest, he says: "The position of the third nest 

 is different from that of either of the others. Placed nearly midway 

 between two stout branches which in reality are forks of the same 

 branch, one above the other, and at the point in question about six 

 inches apart, it is attached by the sides and upper edges to the twigs 

 which depend from the branch above, while its bottom rests firmly on 

 a bristling platform of stems which rise from the branch below." 



Mr. Brewster's lowest nest, the third, was 30 feet from the ground. 

 Owen Durfee's experience, near Lancaster, N. H., was quite different; 

 he says in his notes on nine nests: "The nests were all, with exception 

 of two* in small spruces, most of our hunting being done in what we 

 called 'pasture spruces' — really a second growth." Only one of the 

 nests was up in the air, the average of the other eight being only 14 

 feet. His highest nest was 46 feet from the ground, "in a 12 inch 

 spruce, in tall, hard woods growth, with a few scattered evergreens." 



