THE OOLOOIST 



117 



few Ikhens. One week later, a Cow- 

 bird, (Peace be to her ashes) ruined a 

 beautiful set of four. 



On the same day I came across a 

 nest of the Blue-winged warbler, Hel- 

 minthophila pinus, just ready for Ihe 

 eggs. It was placed on the ground be- 

 tween four dead weed stalks in a 

 thicket near a small swamp. A won- 

 derfully woven creation of grasses 

 and a few leaves, slightly arched over 

 with the entrance facing west. The 

 birds were both in evidence, but not 

 nearly as active as when being rob- 

 bed of their eggs. 



In another thicket, close to a road- 

 way, two nests of the Yellow warbler, 

 Dendroica aestiva, were found, both 

 ready for the materials, but one of 

 them was perhaps somewhat shallow- 

 er than the average, and was placed 

 in a quince tree, three feet from the 

 ground. The other nest was situated 

 four feet from the ground in a dead 

 spice bush which had been overgrown 

 by honey-suckle vines. 



May 23d. Visited the Blue-winged 

 Warbler's nest, but it contained 

 broken eggs of the owner and two of 

 the Infernal Cowbird. 



Found a nest of the Ruby-throated 

 humming bird, Trochilus colubris, sad- 

 dled on a hemlock branch, six feet 

 above the Mianus river, four miles 

 north of Stamford. The nest was com- 

 posed of soft yellow down, resembling 

 fern down, and the exterior complete- 

 ly covered with small scraps of lichen. 

 Two enlongated, fresh eggs were the 

 contents. 



May 2r)th. Found a beautiful nest 

 of the Orchard Oriole, Icterus spur- 

 ius, containing four fresh eggs, green- 

 ish white, exquisitely marked with 

 chocolate, umber and lavender, the 

 spots being chiefly around the largest 

 end. They measure well under the 

 average, being only .65 x .43. The 

 nest was, as usual, of fine green 



grasses, lined with a small amount of 

 fern down and placed 20 feet from the 

 ground in a maple tree. 



May 29th. Took another set of four 

 fresh eggs of the Orchard Oriole from 

 a nest 20 feet up in the fork of an 

 apple branch. This nest was exact- 

 ly like the one found on the 25th, but 

 the eggs are quite different, being 

 very lightly spotted and blotched with 

 grey, lavender, brown and light yel- 

 lowish brown. One of the eggs bears 

 a cross at the largest end. This set 

 also measures .65 x .43 inches. The 

 birds were very brave while I was 

 robbing the nest, coming so close to 

 my face that I could feel the wind 

 from their wings. 



The tree from which this set was 

 taken, was in an orchard containing 

 IJerhaps 25 others, and like all of the 

 apple trees in this section of Connecti- 

 cut which are not well cared for, they 

 had been nourishing countless num- 

 bers of Cancer worms. These hords 

 of caterpillars must have all dropped 

 from the trees to the ground to make 

 their cocoons during the night of May 

 28th, for when I entered that orchard 

 at sunrise on the 29th, the sight which 

 met my eyes was one never to be for- 

 gotten. 



Prom every conceivable spot on 

 every tree in sight there were actually 

 millions of silken threads drooping to 

 the ground, the threads by which the 

 insects had let themselves down to 

 earth during the night. Each of these 

 tiny lines of silk had become spangled 

 with dew and as the sun shown 

 through, the whole orchard resembled 

 a gigantic dis|)lay of pyrotechnics, 

 such as one sees at the resorts in 

 summer. 



Two sets of the Yellow-throated 

 vireo, Lanivireo flavifrons, were the 

 next finds of the day. The first nest 

 was ])laced in a fork of a small 

 branch, close to the trunk of a maple 



