THE OOLOOIST 



•15 



female was sitting when I found her 

 home, and upon leaving the nest she 

 kept near utering quiet chirps; once 

 the male joined her, but neither mani- 

 fested over-anxiety at the intrusion of 

 their privacy. There were three eggs 

 in the nest. Wlien I withdrew and 

 watched from a respectful distance, 

 the female was in no hurry to resume 

 her place, but when a female Redsart 

 chanced to flit into the nearby bushes, 

 the female Hooded Warbler snapped 

 upon the Redstart and chased it away 

 in a jiffy. 



On June 31 1 visited the nest again, 

 and it contained four eggs. The fe- 

 male remained with the eggs, four in 

 number, until I moved a branch of the 

 bush, my hand only a foot from her; 

 then she darted off, and chirped quiet- 

 ly in nearby shrubbery. 1 moved away 

 to about twenty feet, and presently she 

 slipped back into the nest. While sit- 

 ting there the male visited her, stand- 

 ing so near his bill touched hers, and 

 they thus exchanged caresses before 

 he darted away. In each visit to this 

 nest I noticed a pair of Catbirds work- 

 ing across the ravine in the shrubbery 

 adjacent to this nest, but the War- 

 blers seemed to pay no attention to 

 their presence. This pair of Catbirds 

 had a nest in a nearby shrubby tangle, 

 and it is only fair to their reputation 

 to state that during the season in 

 in which both nests progressed to ma- 

 turity and successful issue, the Cat- 

 birds did not appear to notice the 

 warbler household. 



. Brown Thrasher. The Brown 

 Thrasher is common in the ravine 

 angles in the borders of domestic as- 

 sociations. Several pairs were nest- 

 ing in the surrounding shrubbery of 

 Rear Mountain Inn. On June 2 1 

 found a nest in the edge of a sapling 

 cluster bordering the Inn grounds. A 

 birch sapling had been lopped off and 

 left lying on the undergrowth, and un- 



der the horizontal sapling stem, on a 

 mass of crushed twigs, the bulky nest 

 of the Brown Thrasher was made, 

 about three feet from the ground. 

 There were young about a week old in 

 the nest, and the parent birds both re- 

 sented my presence by saying "pure- 

 err" and uttering their characteristic 

 smacking note. 



5. Robin. The Robin nested every- 

 where throughout the region in all the 

 centers of human associations. On June 

 2 I found a Robin's nest near the nest 

 of Brown Thrasher just described. It 

 was in a sapling cluster, close to a 

 narrow path through a fringe of shrub- 

 bery. The site was an upright fork 

 of alder, about seven feet up, made 

 against the fork and adjajcent stems 

 so carelessly that later the nest was 

 tilted out of its place by wind sway- 

 ing the stems. 



6. Red-eyed Vireo. The Red-eyed 

 Vireo was common throughout the 

 park in all margins and broken wood- 

 lands. On June 3 I found a nest of 

 this Vireo in a small oak, at the outer 

 part of a low branch, the site being 

 about two feet from a corner of a 

 small building used for storing oil. The 

 nest was made as usual in a small 

 fork of twigs, suspended by the brim, 

 about five feet from the ground. The 

 female was sitting on three eggs, 

 which proved to be the full com- 

 plement. I visited this nest frequent- 

 ly, and generally the sitting bird would 

 remain in it until I touched the leaves 

 near the nest and pulled it slightly 

 toward me. 



7. Long-billed Marsh Wren. This 

 species was very common in the 

 marsh between lona Island station and 

 the Bear Mountain Inn premises. The 

 chittering songs of these wrens arose 

 from all parts of the marsh in late 

 May and early June. Late in May I 

 located a nest in the edge of the marsn 

 along the road, and then examined it, 



