Mar. 1889.] 



A^D OOLOGIST. 



35 



tall, old hemlock, one of these dauntless fel- 

 lows will sit for hours in the warm sunshine, 

 pouring forth his matchless melody. But let 

 another male intrude upon his domain, and in 

 a twinkling the song ceases and the songster is 

 transformed into as much fight as his little 

 feathers will contain. As soon as his jaunty 

 foe is driven away, the perch is resumed, and 

 his victory is heralded forth in ecstatic strains. 



These thrilling notes of love-making are diffi- 

 cult to represent, somewhat resembling the 

 song of the Black-throated Green Warbler, but 

 to my notion, richer and moi-e lively, and he is 

 not at all afraid to come out and show himself. 

 In fact he is a little vain of his flaming throat, 

 and evident prowess in song. While thus a 

 conspicuous object in these secluded wilds, his 

 modest mate is gliding in and out among the 

 thick foliage of the black spruce. One will 

 start near the ground, and by hopping from 

 branch to branch, soon gain the close, cone- 

 clad top, from which it lightly falls to another 

 tree, and so continues its search. In the lo- 

 cality where I observed them, the black spruce 

 (Abies niger) seemed to be their favorite; and a 

 right good protection it is for the home- 

 making, for when tliickly draped witli the long 

 wands of pendant Usnea — "Old Man's Beard," 

 — it is well nigh impossible to detect either the 

 bird or nest. And it is only by watching the 

 female, while carrying material, that one is 

 likely to find the nest, and even then it is not 

 an easy task. I spent many days before finding 

 the first nest, and, at tlie time, tliere were two 

 pairs building within a small radius, in a close 

 set marsh. 



On the morning of May 20th, while waiting- 

 near the corduroy road, which crosses this 

 marsh at a certain point, a female Blackbur- 

 nian Warbler flew to the middle of the road 

 and began tugging away at some hairs, which 

 were secured, and carried into tbe thick, young 

 hemlocks. This it repeated often, and my most 

 earnest eft'orts failed to detect where she went. 

 Three consecutive days she continued at her 

 task, leaving me as much in mystery as at 

 first. 



Several days later, by chance, I esiiied the 

 bird contentedly sitting upon her eggs, up in a 

 hemlock tree. Shortly after I detected another 

 pair building, and was more fortunate, for 

 while standing silent at tlie edge of a small 

 opening during a shower, a male Blackburnian 

 came out on top of a black spruce, and after 

 pluming himself, flew away, to return in the 

 course of half an hour, when they both made 

 their appearance. Soon both left sliortly to 



return again, the female carx-ying a long grass 

 blade. The male stayed close by her. They 

 went direct to the nest, thirty feet up in the 

 far out tip of a branch of black spruce. I saw 

 them go back and forth many times, the male 

 simply keeping liis mate company. 



Tlie first nest was placed against the trunk, 

 and upon a small branch which sprang from 

 the tree at a height of twenty feet. 



The nest before me has a light platform of 

 fine, dead twigs of the spruce. Into this is 

 neatly woven a considerable quantity of Usnea, 

 then a sufficient lining of finely shredded, inner 

 bark of the bass wood, with a few long horse 

 liairs, and a number of deer's hairs. The rim 

 of the structure is Usnea, neatly matted and 

 twined, holding all together. Then the exterior 

 is flecked all over with fluft's of cottony 

 spiders webbing. Altogether it is an elegant 

 work of art. It measures three inches across 

 by one and a half inches in depth, thus being 

 quite shallow. The depression in this is very 

 shallow and small. It contained two fresli eggs 

 of the owner and one of the Cow Bird, and at 

 the foot of the tree were fragments of two 

 more eggs which had been crowded from the 

 nest by this parasite. 



In the second nest the materials were simi- 

 lar to those in the first with the addition of 

 some soft grasses. It had been placed in the 

 fork of a horizontal branch near the tip and 

 five feet from the trunk, tliirty feet from the 

 ground. Over tliis branch grew another, which 

 lay close upon it, concealing the nest from 

 every way. This set consisted of three eggs, 

 with one of the inevitable Cow Bird. The 

 fourth egg lay broken on the ground. The 

 eggs when fresh are rich, much resembling 

 those of the Chestnut-sided Warbler. 



Witli all the tugging and slipping I did in 



drawing myself up by means of those droojiing, 



rope-like branches, and witli all the jolting the 



tree had in consequence, the bird remained 



close, never uttering a protest. So gentle and 



l^atient was she, I came well-nigh leaving her 



in possession of her treasures. 



J. W. Preston. 

 Baxter, Iowa. 



The Effect of a Storm on Birds. 



An incident that occurred in my experience 

 during last season's collecting (1888) impressed 

 upon my notice facts in connection with 

 violent and extreme changes of weather, to 

 which my attention had never before been so 

 forcibly directed. During the middle of May 



