228 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Spanishtown, this species lias been known to breed. In view of the fact that 

 this bird is regarded, witli g(jod reason, as one of our most northern species, 

 breeding to the very shores of the frozen seas, the occurrence seems erratic 

 and remarkable. Yet it is not without corresponding vagaries in other spe- 

 cies, the ccKrulesccns breeding in Cuba and the tigrina in St. Domingo and 

 Jamaica. 



Mr. Paine, of East Randolph, Vt., states that these Warlilers arrive in his 

 vicinity about the first of May, and remain there nearly two weeks, and then 

 all pass north. They do not return on their southern tlight until the last 

 of September, when they remain about three weeks. It is a very active, rest- 

 less bird, chirping continually and very sharply as it flies around in search 

 of insects, but has not, so far as he knows, any song. 



In Southern Illinois, as Mr. Eidgway informs me, this bird is a common 

 winter sojourner, remaining late in spring with the migratory species. It is 

 very abundant throughout the winter in woods, orchards, and door-yards. 



Mr. Salvin found this species frequenting the more open districts about 

 Duenas, Guatemala, apparently preferring scattered bushes to the denser un- 

 derwood, and was an abundant species there throughout the winter season. 



It is but quite recently that we have known with certainty its place and 

 manner of breeding. jSTeither Wilson, Nuttall, nor Audubon appear to have 

 met with its nest, though the latter received one from Professor McCullocli 

 of Halifax. 



In the summer of 1855, early in July, I ol)tained a nest of this species 

 in Parsboro', Nova Scotia. It was l)uilt in a low l)ush, in the midst of a 

 small village, and contained six eggs. The, parents were very shy, and it 

 was with great difficulty that one of them was secured for identification. 

 Though late in the season, incubation had but just commenced. 



The nest was built on a horizontal branch, the smaller twigs of which were 

 so interlaced as to admit of its being built upon them, though their extremi- 

 ties were interwoven into its rim. The nest was small for the bird, being 

 only two inches in depth and four and a half in diameter. The cavity 

 is one and a half inches deep and two and a half wide. Its base and exter- 

 nal portions consist of fine, light, dry stalks of wild grasses, and slender 

 twigs and roots. Of the last the firm, strong rim of the nest is exclu- 

 sively woven. Within, the nest is composed of soft, fine grasses, downy 

 feathers, and the fine hair of the smaller mammals. 



Mr. Audubon, who observed very closely the habits of these birds during a 

 winter in Florida, describes them as very social among themselves, skipping 

 along the piazza, balancing themselves in the air opposite the sides of the 

 house in search of spiders and insects, diving through the low bushes of the 

 garden after larva? and worms, and at night roosting among the orange- 

 trees. In his visit to Maine he found them very abundant in early May. 

 The woods seemed alive with them, and wherever he landed, on his way to 

 Labrador, he found them in great numbers. 



