98 



THE OOLOGIST 



time, for the Cowbird kept away; so 

 the Warbler deposited six white eggs 

 which were well sprinkled with dots 

 of reddish-brown. 



Quite a number of nests are de- 

 serted each year on account of the 

 Cowbirds which lay their eggs in 

 them. And it is not uncommon for 

 the female Warbler to suppress tlie 

 laying of a full set after the Cowbird 

 has visited her home. 



After examining some thirty nests 

 of this Warbler I find five eggs to be 

 the usual number to a clutch, although 

 three and four are common sets when 

 the Cowbird has deposited one or 

 more of her eggs. 



Most of the nests examined by my- 

 self were composed of dry Oak and 

 Maple leaves, and. were lined with 

 flower stalks of the hair moss, (poly- 

 tryichium commune). A few nests 

 lacked this lining of the flower stalks 

 and were warmly lined with black 

 horse hairs. Once the birds are lo- 

 cated, it is no great task to discover 

 the location of the nest. Thorough 

 searching over the banks of the small 

 wooded ravines is sure to bring good 

 results. 

 Waynesburg, Pa. S. S. Dickey. 



Nesting of the Worm-eating Warbler 

 in Hundington County, Pa. 



During the spring of 1913, my friend, 

 Mr. S. S. Dickey, and myself did a 

 great deal of fleld work in a moun- 

 tainous section of Hundington Coun- 

 ty, lying about foutreen miles south- 

 west of State College. It is a beauti- 

 ful stretch of country, full of unspect- 

 ed realities and unrealized expectan- 

 cies and affording a striking example 

 of how the Carolinian life zone is 

 pushing up on a region once Alle- 

 ghanian and even Canadian in char- 

 acter. Many birds that are absent at 

 State College breed here, among the 

 rarer species being the Woodcock, 



Wild Turkey, Northern Pileated Wood- 

 pecker, Raven, Broad Winged Hawk, 

 Canadian, Hooded, Golden-winged and 

 Blackburnian Warblers, while some 

 low boggy fields furnish probably the 

 only colony of Henslow's Sparrow 

 nesting in the state. 



I had previously noted the occur- 

 rance of the Worm-eating Warbler 

 here in the summer, but had never 

 for a moment expected to find them, 

 regularly in the northern ravines 

 which sheltered such species as the 

 Black-throated Green, Blackburnian 

 and Canadian Warblers and Solitary 

 Vireos. On May 8, while Mr. Dickey 

 and I were working up through an al- 

 most inpenetrable Rhoddodendroii: 

 swamp in search of a Pileated Wood- 

 pecker's nest, I saw a Worm-eating 

 Warbler with a muddy leaf in it's bill 

 fly past me. I was unable to make 

 much progress thru the thick growth,, 

 but took the same general direction 

 that the bird had taken toward the- 

 high bank that bordered the swamp. 

 Here I soon saw both birds again and 

 found the female busily engaged in 

 making her nest part way up the- 

 steep bank at the foot of a sprout. 



On May 23, we were again in the 

 vicinity and thru the driving rain we 

 started out to work another bank 

 where I had previously located an- 

 other pair of birds. Beating up and 

 down the hillside, a small bird sud- 

 denly darted out from under Sam's 

 foot and stooping over he saw the- 

 beautiful nest and the unusually large 

 set of six eggs which it held. The 

 nest was placed at the foot of a smalF 

 clump of Laurel, half way up the slope 

 and composed of leaves and weed 

 stalks, being lined Avith tendrils and' 

 the red hair moss. 



We then went up the bank where 

 I had seen the pair building earlier 

 in May. Due to the change in growth 

 I had some little trouble in locating: 



