SYLVICOLID.E — THE WARBLERS. 225 



Dr. Cooper found this Warl)ler very abundant in Washington Territory, 

 and noticed their arri\al in large numbers at the Straits of" Fuca as early 

 as April 8. 



The Summer Yellow- lUrd arrives in New England with great uniformity 

 i'rom the first to the middle of May. Its coming is usually the harbinger of 

 the oi)ening summer and expanding leaves. Unlike most of its family, it is 

 coufidiug and familiar, easily encouraged, liy attention to its wants, to cultivate 

 the society of man. It confidingly builds its nest in gardens, often in close 

 \icinity to dwellings, and in the midst of large villages and cities, among the 

 shrubbery of frecjuented parks. This Warbler, soon after its arrival, begins 

 the construction of its nest. It is usually placed in low bushes, three or four 

 feet from the ground. Occasionally very different positions are chosen. 

 Hedges of Imckthorn and liawthorn, barberry-bushes, and other low shrubs, 

 are their favorite places of resort. On one occasion the nest was placed 

 some forty feet from the ground, in the top of a horse-chestnut tree over- 

 hanging the main street of a village. Such high positions are, however, 

 not very common. 



The nest is invariably fastened to several twigs with great firmness, and 

 with a remarkable neatness and skill. A great variety of materials is em- 

 ]il<»yed in the construction of their nests, though not often in the same nest, 

 which is usually quite homogeneous. The more common materials are the 

 hempen fibres of })lants, fibrous strips of bark, slender stems of plants and 

 leaves, and down of asclepias. Interwoven with these, forming the inner 

 materials, are the down from willow catkins, the woolly furze from fern-stalks 

 and the Eriophormn virginicum, and similar substances. These are lined with 

 soft, fine grasses, hair, feathers, and other warm materials. Cotton, where 

 procurable, is a favorite material ; as also is wool, where abundant. I have 

 known instances where nests were built almost exclusively of one or the 

 other material. A pair of tliese birds, in 1836, built their nest under a par- 

 lor window in li0xl)ury, wliere all their operations could be closely watched. 

 When discovered, only the framework, the fastening to the supporting twigs, 

 had l)een erected. The work of completion was simple and rai)id. The 

 female was the chief builder, taking her position in the centre of the nest 

 and arranging the materials in their places as her mate brought them to her. 

 Occasionally, with outstretched wings and expanded tail, she would whirl 

 herself round, giving to the soft and yielding materials their hemispherical 

 form. At intervals she arrested her revolutions to stop and regulate with 

 her bill some unyielding portion. When her mate was dilatory, she made 

 l)rief excursions and collected material for herself, and when the materials 

 brought her were deemed unsuitaltle, they were rejected in a most sunnnary 

 and amusing manner. The important i)art of the tail-feathers in shaping the 

 nest and placing the materials in position was a striking feature in this in- 

 teresting performance. The greater portion of the nest was thus constructed 

 in a single day. 



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