198 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



In Massachusetts it has so far been found in only a few restricted locali- 

 ties, Andover, Lynn, and Hudson, though it undoubtedly occurs elsewhere. 

 About the time Wilson obtained his first specimen, a living bird of this 

 species flew into the parlor of the late Colonel Thomas H. Perkins of Brook- 

 line, and is now in the collection of his grandson, Dr. Cabot. The latter 

 gentleman states that when he first began making collections tliis War- 

 bler was a A'Cry rare visitant to his neighborhood, but has of late become 

 much more common, though varying greatly in this respect in different 

 seasons. Specimens have been obtained in AVestern Iowa by Mr. H. W. 

 Parker, of Grinnell. 



A few instances of its occurrence west of the Mississippi Valley are known. 

 One of these was by Xantus near Port Tejon ; another near Lake Tahoe, in the 

 Sierra Nevada, by Mr. Gruber ; and in the East Humboldt Mountains, Nevada, 

 by Mr. Eidgway. Specimens of this Warbler were obtained in the winter by 

 M. Boucard at Oaxaca, Mexico. 



In the summer of 1854, Mr. Cliarles S. Paine found it breeding in Ptan- 

 dolph, Vt., but was unable to discover the nest. " They spend the sum- 

 mer," he wrote, " among low bushes, and probably build their nests among 

 the thickets. I have watched their movements on several occasions. Once 

 I detected an old bird with food in her bill about to feed her young. I could 

 hear the young birds, yet was unable to find the nest." Two years later, 

 Mr. George 0. Welch, of Lynn, found the nest of this Warbler on the 

 ground in a small thicket. It contained young partially fledged, and one 

 egg uidiatched. The nest was built in a slight depression, in a dry place, 

 among fallen leaves and in the shelter of a thicket of young oak-trees. 

 This egg in shape was of a rounded oval, and measured .59 by .50 of an inch ; 

 one end was slightly more pointed than the other. The ground-color was 

 white, slightly tinged with pink, and marked over the entire surface with 

 purplish-brown dots. Around the larger end these spots form a beautiful 

 wreath of confluent markings. Since then other nests have been found in 

 the same locality, all on the ground and built in like situations. They have 

 a diameter of four and a height of two inches. Tlie cavity has a diameter 

 of two and a depth of one and a quarter inches. The outer portions are 

 built of dry mosses, intermingled with strips of the bark of the wild grape 

 and the red cedar and a few herbaceous twigs, and lined with a thick layer 

 of dried carices, small leaves of the white pine, and fine grasses. The whole 

 structure is loosely put together. The nests are generally concealed by over- 

 arching leaves, which, however, form no part of the nest itself. 



The late Elijah P. Barrow, of Andover, Mass., a young naturalist of much 

 promise, found several nests of this rare Warljler, all of which were con- 

 cealed by grass. The eggs he found varied in length from .59 to .61 of an 

 inch, and in breadth from .50 to .51 of an inch. Both parents, as observed 

 by him, were entirely silent. 



The Nashville Warbler has been said to be a comparatively silent and 



