THE 



WILSON BULLETIN 



NO. 46 



A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ORNITHLOGY 



-Cf 



VOL. XVI. MARCH, J904. NO. I 



THE CERULEAN WARBLJiR rDendroica rara). 



LYNDS JONES. 



It is only recently that this warbler's nests have been found 

 anything like commonly. Indeed, until recently its eggs have 

 been sold at a high price and its nests much prized. The ac- 

 companying illustration of a nest found the past season near 

 Oberlin gives nearly the typical nest and its position on the 

 branch. 



About Oberlin this warbler is found in the deeper woods, 

 preferably where there is considerable moisture, at least dur- 

 ing the spring months. Swampy woods are not much in favor. 

 The trees must be small and slender, with few or no branches 

 within twenty feet of ihe ground. Among these high branches 

 the male feeds and sings, during the brooding days making 

 regular rounds to and from the nest. One may locate the tree 

 in which the nest is h'dden by patiently watching the male on 

 his rounds, for the nest tree marks a halt in his otherwise 

 somewhat regular progress of search for food. It is also the 

 focus for all of the different excursions in different directions. 



The nests which I have actually found have been in trees 

 which grow near, but not in, a shallow, sluggish woods spring 

 stream. Spring freshets have removed enough earth to make 

 a depression, but not enough to make a ditch. The tree has 

 not been one of several forming a thicket of branches, but 

 rather one which stands somewhat by itself. The nests have 

 invariably been placed upon branches at some distance from 

 the bole of the tree, on the top of a more or less horizontal 

 fork of the branch. I have never seen a nest built into a per- 



