348 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



216. Seiurus aurocapillus (Linn.). 

 Oven-bird. Golden-crowned Thrush. 



Ver)' common summer resident. 



SEASONAL OCCURRENCE. 



Ma)' 2, 1894, two seen, Arlington, W. Faxon. 



May 6 — September 15. (Winter.) 

 September 24, 1895. one seen, Cambridge Region, W. Faxon. 



NESTING DATES. 



May 25 — June 5. 



The Oven-bird used to nest sparingly in the region immediately to the west- 

 ward of Mount Auburn and on the wooded islands in the Fresh Pond Swamps. 

 According to Dr. Walter Woodman it occasionally passed the summer in Nor- 

 ton's Woods, prior to 1874. It still breeds very commonly throughout the 

 more thinly settled parts of Arlington, Belmont, Waverley, Waltham and Lex- 

 ington. Here it may be found rather frequently in groves of pines and by no 

 means rarely about the edges of swamps and springy ' runs,' but its favorite 

 haunts are dry, upland woods, composed chiefly of deciduous trees, such as 

 oaks, chestnuts, maples or birches, and thickly carpeted with dead leaves, of 

 and among which it constructs its interesting, domed nest. 



The mixed flocks of small, insectivorous birds which roam our upland woods 

 during the month of August seldom fail to include Oven-birds. Usually there 

 will be at least three or four, and occasionally as many as ten or a dozen, of these 

 aberrant, thrush-like Warblers in each large flock. They are among its least 

 conspicuous members, for they spend most of their time on or very near the 

 ground, rambling about among the herbaceous woodland plants, often beneath 

 the shelter of dense undergrowth. Apparently they pay no heed to the move- 

 ments of the throng of Warblers, Vireos and Titmice which are actively foraging, 

 after their various fashions, in the tops and among the upper branches of the 

 trees, but whenever the flock moves on, the Oven-birds are sure to follow in its 

 wake. Thus although they do not often actually mingle with the other birds — 

 at least with the more arboreal ones — they nevertheless keep them close com- 

 pany and share with them, no doubt, that sense of security and of companionship 

 from which so many feeble and defenceless creatures evidently derive comfort 

 and satisfaction when banded together in numbers. 



