SYLVICOLID^E — THE WARBLERS. 185 



of resort. They also preferred the borders of sheets of water to the interior 

 of the forest. They return in spring to the Southern States early in March, 

 but to Kentucky not before the last of April. Tliey leave in October, and 

 raise but a single brood in a season. Audubon describes their nest, but it 

 it differs so essentially from their known mode of breeding, that he was 

 evidently in error in regard to his supposed identification of the nest of 

 this species. 



Dr. Bachman, who often met them on the borders of small streams near 

 Charleston, was confident that they breed in that State, and noticed a pair 

 with four young birds as early as June 1, in 1836. 



Recently more light has been thrown upon their habits by Mr. B. F. 

 Goss, who, in May, 1863, found them breeding near Neosho Falls, in Kansas. 

 The nest was built within a Woodpecker's hole in the stump of a tree, 

 not more than three feet high. The nest was not rounded in shape, but 

 made to conform to the irregular cavity in which it was built. It was 

 of oblong shape, and its cavity was deepest, not in the centre, but at one 

 end, upon a closely impacted base made up of fragments of dried leaves, 

 broken bits of grasses, stems, mosses, and lichens, decayed wood, and other 

 material, the upper portion consisting of an interweaving of fine roots of 

 wooded plants, varying in size, but all strong, wiry, and slender. It was 

 lined with hair. 



Other nests since discovered are of more uniform forms, circular in shape, 

 and of coarser materials, and all are built with unusual strength and care for 

 a nest occupying a sheltered cavity. 



In one instance their nest was built in a brace-hole within a mill, where 

 the birds could be closely watched as they carried in the materials, and the 

 parent was afterward taken by hand by Mr. Goss from its nest. It was 

 (|uite tame, and approached within two yards of him. 



Since then Mr. Ridgway has obtained a nest at IVlt. Carmel, 111. It was 

 built in a hollow snag, about five feet from the ground, in the river bot- 

 tom. So far from being noisy and vociferous, as its name would seem to 

 imply, Mr. Ridgway describes it as one of the shyest and most silent of all 

 the Warblers. 



The eggs of this Warbler have an average breadth of .55 of an inch and a 

 length varying from .65 to .70 of an inch. They are of a rounded-oval form, 

 one end being but slightly less rounded than the other. Their ground-color 

 is a yellowish or creamy white, more or less profusely marked over their 

 entire surface with lilac, purple, and a dark purplish-brown. 



Mr. Ridgway states that it is always an abundant summer bird in the 

 Wabash bottoms, where it inhabits principally bushy swamps and the wil- 

 lows around the borders of stagnant lagoons or " ponds " near the river, and 

 in such localities, in company with the White-bellied Swallow {Hirundo 

 hicolor), takes possession of tlie lioles of the Downy Woodpecker {Picus 

 puhcscens) and Chickadee {Farus carolincnsk), in which to build its nest. 

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