132 NESTS AND EGGS OF BIRDS. 



bagog lakes, and Calais, Maine ( Verrill and Boardmati) . It is 

 very abundant throughout the eastern United States during the 

 migrations, but appears to leave the country altogether in the fall, 

 wintering farther south. Audul^on's quotation, 'Columbia rivjr,' 

 requires confirmation, but will most probably be proved correct ; 

 in that event the case will apparently correspond to that of D. 

 coronafa.'" 



The date of its nest-building in Maine appears to be about the 

 second week of June, this warbler being one of the latest of those 

 migrating northward in the spring. It has never been my good 

 fortune to discover the nest of the black-poll. I am therefore 

 constrained to quote the whole of Dr. T. M. Brewer's comprehen- 

 sive account, he having had much experience with these warblers 

 around Eastport and at Grand Menan Island, Me., where they 

 breed on the edges of swampy evergreen woods. He says : 



All of the several nests I met v^■ith in these localities were built in thick 

 spruce trees, about 8 feet from the ground, and in the midst of foliage so 

 dense as hardly to be noticeable. Yet the nests were large and bulky for so 

 small a bird, being nearly 5 inches in diameter and 3 inches in height. The 

 cavity is, however, small, being only 2 inches in diameter, and i:i to i^ inches 

 in depth. They were constructed chiefly of a collection of slender young 

 ends of branches of pines, firs and spruce, interwoven with and tied together 

 by long branches of the Cladnnia lichens, slender herbaceous roots, and finer 

 sedges. The nests were strongly built, compact and homogeneous, and were 

 elaborately lined with fine panicles of grasses and fine straw. In all the nests 

 found, the number of eggs was five. 



It is a somewhat noticeable fact that though this species is seen in New 

 England only by the middle of May, others of its kind have long before 

 reached high Arctic localities. Richardson records its presence at the Cum- 

 berland House in May, and Engineer Cantonment by the 26th of April. Mr. 

 Lockhart procured a nest and five eggs at Fort Yukon, June 9. All the nests 

 taken in these localities were of smaller size, were built within two feet of the 

 ground, and all were much more warmly lined than were those from Grand 

 Menan. In a few instances Mr. McFarlane found the nests of this species 

 actually built upon the ground. This, however, is an abnormal position, and 

 only occasioned by the want of suitable situations in protected localities. In 

 one instance a nest was taken on the first of June containing well developed 

 embryos. Yet this same species has frequently been observed lingering in 

 Massachusetts a week or more after others of its species have already built 

 their nests and begun hatching. 



