THE OOLOGIST. 



57 



with small blotches of pale lilac well 

 scattered over the entire egg. 



My next find was the set sent you 

 by Mr. Stone. It was taken on June 

 5, 1899 and the bird too well seen for 

 any mistake to have occurred. The 

 following day I discovered a nest con- 

 taining three young birds and one 

 egg. On June 11, 1901 I examined a 

 nest of badly incubated eggs and upon 

 my next visit to the nest found the 

 young hatched My next find occurr- 

 ed on June 6, 1902 and I am sending 

 you a photograph of the nest. ( See 

 cut page 5i.) It was in an open place 

 in the woods among weeds which com- 

 pletely concealed it from view and was 

 placed one foot up in one of the weeds 

 but you will notice in the photograph 

 that it rests upon a fallen branch as I 

 mentioned above. In order to photo- 

 graph the nest, I was compelled to 

 break off some of the leaves which hid 

 it from view. The eggs in this set 

 measured .73 x .54, .73 x .53, .72 x .53, 

 .74 X .53— not quite as large as the 

 eggs taken by Mr. Stone. The mark- 

 ings, which are entirely brown, are 

 confined to the large end of the egg in 

 the form of a wreath. On June 9, 

 1903, I discovered a nest situated 22 

 inches up in a fork of a beech bush 

 in woods well grown up to underbrush 

 but the four eggs which it contained 

 were too far incubated to take, but I 

 remember the set as more blotched 

 than any of the previous sets and it 

 was by far the prettiest set I had seen. 



Your speaking of typical sets of 

 Magnolia Warbler causes me to say 

 that I would hardly know just what to 

 consider a typical set of this species. 

 I have seven sets in my collection and 

 have taken others and find them very 

 variable in style of markings. I have 

 those that closely resemble eggs of the 

 Chestnut-sided Warbler, those marked 

 in the form of a wreath and one set 

 with the eggs so heavily blotched that 

 the entire large end is covered and re- 



minds one of the heavily marked eggs 

 of the Red-shouldered Hawk. 



H. C. HiGGINS, 

 Cincinnatus, N. Y. 

 Judging from my experience with some 20 

 sets from Maine and New Hampshire, I 

 should call Mr. Higgins' last set nearest typi- 

 cal of Magnolia Warbler as the heavily 

 blotched type has always predominated. 



Editor. 



The Connecticut Warbler. 



(Geothlypis ay ills). 



This species of the Warbler family 

 received its name from Alexander Wil- 

 son, one of the fathers of American 

 ornithology, from the fact that he dis- 

 covered his first specimen in the State 

 of Connecticut, but it is only a rare 

 summer visitor in that locality. In its 

 general appearance and life habits it 

 closely resembles its near relative, the 

 Mourning W^arbler, but it is a little 

 larger in size; the wings also are longer, 

 and more pointed; and the colors of its 

 plumage of a duller hue. At the period 

 of the spring migration it ranges over 

 a wide extent of eastern North America, 

 north to the Maritime provinces, and 

 across southern Ontario and west 

 into Manitoba; but it does not appear 

 to migrate beyond the low, wooded dis- 

 tricts of that province, certainly not 

 beyond the foot-hills of the Rocky 

 mountains. This species was first 

 added to the list of the Warblers of 

 Canada by Mr. W. E. Saunders of Lon- 

 don, who took a specimen near that 

 city in September, 1883, and afterwards 

 found it tolerably common in that 

 vicinity, and also noted it at Point 

 Pelee. Mr. Mcllwraith noted it on sev- 

 eral occasions at Hamilton and believed 

 it nested in Ontario; where it is probably 

 a more common summer resident than 

 is yet known. He says it is a widely 

 distributed species, but is nowhere 

 abundant, though it seems to be more 

 common in the west than in the eastern 

 portion of its habitat. It is of shy. 



