AVERY BIRD COLLECTION 115 



usnecides ('gray moss'), suspended from a bough of the 

 water oak {Quercus aquatica). This nest is about fifteen 

 feet from the ground. The male was heard singing 

 about a hundred yards from the tree in which his mate 

 had begun nidification. After some search for his quiet 

 partner, she was found on a sweet gum (Liquidambar 

 styraciflua) . She flew from this into a water oak. 

 There also was another bird. I turned my field glass up- 

 on both ; the identity of the yellow-throated warbler was 

 positive. Asbury was enjoined to watch her, while the 

 other bird was examined and found to be V. flavifrons. 

 While this bird was examined by me, Asbury whispered 

 to me, as he sank on his knees to the ground, 'Sit down, 

 Doctor.' I did so, and at the same time the yellow- 

 throated warbler was seen flitting about a streamer of 

 gray moss. She lingered a few seconds around it, entered 

 it, emerged suddenly, and flew away. She soon returned, 

 however, with a straw in her mouth. Again she entered 

 the moss, again quickly came forth, but this time she was 

 gone ten minutes, or more perhaps. While we were 

 thinking of approaching the moss to examine closely the 

 site of her secret, she returned and disappeared, with the 

 material gathered, by the opening which she had before 

 entered. There could be no doubt as to what she was 

 doing. Another and another time she came and went, 

 and the field glass revealed the outline of the nest and 

 the movements of the busy builder could be seen within, 

 as she moulded the material and wove it into her swinging 

 domicile. 



"The male was nowhere to be seen or heard though not 

 long before he was making the woods ring with his cheer- 

 ful notes. This song is louder and far more musical than 

 that of the pine warbler, in fact the efforts of the latter 

 cannot be called music. 



"The yellow-throated warbler is a summer resident of 

 Hale County. He arrives from his winter home from 

 the first to the twelfth of March. The latter date was 

 that of the first song of this bird heard by me this season. 

 It seems now — the 4th of April — to be building, as the 

 observations made by me this spring lead me to believe. 



