JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL S0CIF;TY. 29 



July 7. Four eggs, the fourth laid to-day. 



July r6. Found nest with four eggs, bird incubating. Hatched 

 July 24th; left nest Aug. 4th before 8.30 A.M. 



The region where the Nashville dwells is high and rocky. 

 Between these low hills is a chain of boiling springs that feed a 

 series of swamps extending from one end of this area to the other. 

 The land is used for field, and pasture, and woodland respectivel}^ 

 The bird life varies accordingly. When a growth of evergreens — 

 pine, fir, spruce and hemlock — is cut, it is succeeded by a growth of 

 hard wood — gray, white and yellow birches, maple, poplar, beech, 

 cherry and larch — and vice versa. As the woodland is cut in strips, 

 there are always these growths in juxtaposition. Though the nest 

 of the Nashville is always placed among the gray birches, the inev- 

 itable strip of evergeen woodland is near at hatid, and a swale not 

 far away. 



The nest of the Nashville is sometimes placed in comparatively 

 low ground (that is, compared with its immediate surroundings), in 

 soft green moss under an apology for a shrub, again in the side of 

 a knoll covered with bird wheat (hair-cap) moss, or at other times 

 in an open space in the woodlands under a stump, or tent-like mass 

 of grass, or a clump of gray-birch saplings. Around the top is 

 usually woven a rim of coarse, soft, green moss; sometimes dried 

 boulder fern or bracken is added. The side coming against the 

 stump or overhanging moss lacks this foundation. The nest is 

 lined with fine hay, if it abounds in the neighborhood, or pine 

 needles if they are nearer at hand. Sometimes both are used. The 

 red fruit stems of bird wheat moss and rabbit's hair are often em- 

 ployed. One or two birds have preferred some black, hair-like 

 vegetable fibre for lining matter, one bird, horse hair. 



When placed under a stump, or in the side of a knoll, the nest 

 is very fragile, but the overhanging moss, or stump, 3'ields tlie shel- 

 ter of a roof; when set down into the ground, it is welliiigh as sub- 

 stantially built and lined as most ground nests, but it is roodes-s. 



The following nest studies embody my observations of the 

 domestic life of the Nashville Warbler. 



