128 N'ESTS AND EGGS OF BIBD8. 



at Upton between the 8th and 15th. About the same date is given 

 for Alaska, but in central Michigan the season is a few days earlier. 



Mr. MacFarlane sent some nests from the Anderson river all of 

 which were found very low down, or resting upon the ground, 

 sometimes, he averred, in the very midst of a \illage. Such was the 

 substance of our knowledge before Messrs. Bailey and INIaynard went 

 to Maine on ornithological expeditions. There the bird was traced 

 to its home in old clearings in the forest where the "second growth" 

 had begun to obliterate the work of axe and plough. Among such 

 thickets of young spruces nests of this warbler could generally be dis- 

 covered within easy access, the loftiest one found being only twenty 

 feet from the ground. All the nests taken were coarse but com- 

 pact structures, composed outwardly of twigs and roots, very deep 

 for their width, and invariably lined with feathers, which served to 

 distinguish them from others of this same group in the Umbagog 

 region. Some yellow-rumps, however, still resort to the deep forest, 

 and, following the law of living in the tops of the trees, defy all 

 efforts to obtain their eggs. The parents were always shy. 



The usual time for laying in northern New England is early June : 

 and Maynard is confident that two broods are often reared, which 

 is quite likely. The eggs of the yellow-rumps are of rather large 

 size and are white, spotted chiefly in a wreath about the large end, 

 but also sparingly over the entire surface, with various shades of 

 brown ; none, however, quite reddish, but some nearly blackish, and 

 with numerous other shell-markings of neutral tint. The eggs of 

 the blackpoU warblers come nearest to them in ornamentation. 

 An average of many recorded measurements gives .71 by .52 of an 

 inch as the medium dimensions. Five or six eggs make a clutch. 



79. AUDUBOWS WARBLER. 



DENDRCECA AUDUBONII {Toims) Baird. 

 "Western Yellow-rump; Fout-sah (Chinook Indians). 



This warbler is found from the Pacific coast eastward to the 

 Laramie plains ; in most localities throughout this extent it is as 

 common as its eastern representative, the yellow-rump. 



