Io8 PARULA WARBLER 



and of the Blackburnian's songs very nearly meet and overlap : but the 

 tell-tale tones remains unchanged, — wheezy and beady in the one, 

 smooth as glass in the other. Commonest of the Northern Parula's 

 three main songs is probably the short, unbroken buzz, uttered on 

 an evenly-ascending scale, and ending abruptly, with a slight accentua- 

 tion of the final note. Next is that which begins with several notes of 

 the same beady character, but clearly separated, and finishes, likewise 

 on an ascending scale, with a brief congested buzz. The third main 

 song is based on an inversion of the second — a buzz followed by a few 

 separate drawled notes, high-pitched like the buzz-ending of the two 

 other songs. All three vary and intervary perplexingly." {Thayer, 

 MS.) Miss Paddock describes the Parula's song as "a rapid trill end- 

 ing explosively" and writes it as follows : 



Svn/ o 



Nesting Site. — In a hanging bunch of usnea moss from three 

 to thirty or more feet above the ground; more rarely "at the end 

 of a drooping spruce branch" (Jacobs^.) 



A^est. — As a rule, the bird selects a favorable bunch of moss, 

 gathers or weaves the bottom together, lines it scantily, or not at all, 

 with fine grasses and forms an entrance at one side. Brewster*', how- 

 ever, describes a nest taken at Stoneham, Mass., which in shape and 

 manner of attachment resembled a Baltimore Oriole's nest. No bunches 

 of Usnea- large enough for use in the usual manner, being available. 

 the builder had apparently gathered bits of the moss here and there 

 with which to construct a home. 



A nest found by Jacobs^, at Blacksville, West Virginia, appears 

 to differ from the usual type. It was ''well concealed among twigs 

 at the end of a drooping spruce branch, nine feet up. * * * The 

 composition was chiefly of fine grasses, with a slight mixture of Usnea 

 moss, vegetable fiber, and small bits of wool." A second nest, simi- 

 larly placed, resembled the first but "contained a goodly supply of 

 hickory catkins and hair, as well as some fine rootlets in the lining." 



Eggs. — The eggs resemble those of the Southern Parula. 



Nesting Dates. — New Haven, Conn., May i8-June 14 (Bishop) ; 

 Lancaster, N. H., May 31-June 12 (Spaulding) ; Bangor, Me., May 31- 



