THE NASHVILLE WAJiBLER. 113 



careful and persistent search. About the first of June, five white 

 eggs, dehcately specked with reddish brown, are laid." 



A careful description of the eggs is "rosy white, profusely spotted 

 with numerous small blotches and dots of purplish brown and lilac, 

 forming a crown around the large end." They measure .64 by .47. 



67. THE NASHVILLE WARBLER. 



HELMINTHOPHAGA RUFICAPILLA (Wilson) Baird. 

 Nashville Vermivora ; Paro Colorado (Mexico). 



Scattered over nearly all temperate North America, this warbler 

 • breeds only from middle New England northward and in the 

 mountain districts of the Pacific coast. Its nesting habits are 

 fairly well known. The majority of Nashville warblers pass to 

 Canada for their summer, but many remain and rear their young 

 in the northern tier of states, especially in New England. 



Their favorite home-site is a sunny side- hill near the woods, 

 where the nest is placed on the ground sunken among the fallen 

 leaves, so that the top is level with the surface and protected and 

 completely concealed above by tall dead grass and weeds. The 

 nest is composed of rootlets, mosses and dried grasses, mingled 

 with strips of grape-vine and other bark, weeds, etc., lined with 

 fine dried grasses, fine needles and horse-hairs. The whole is 

 loosely framed, and assimilated to its surroundings by much green 

 moss exteriorly, as well as by an artful canopy of leaves overhead. 

 Mr. Allen found two nests, in successive seasons, in precisely the 

 same spot, near Springfield, Mass., and Mr. Goodhue reports it 

 common in southern New Hampshire. " A nest found at Big 

 Trees [California] in May was built on the ground in a thick 

 growth of an evergreen shrub. It was formed of pine-root fibres, 

 and contained five eggs." 



In middle New England the eggs are laid about June i. They 



are four to six in number, pointed, average .60 by .50 of an inch 



in size. The ground color is pinkish or creamy white, over the 



whole surface of which, but most thickly at the great end, is 



8 



