TUE CHESTNUT-SIDED WABBLEB. 135 



2000 feet above the sea. Everywhere it is a common summer 

 resident, arriving from the south early in May. 



A bird of the underbrush ratlier than of the tree-tops, its breed- 

 ing places are the thickets of briars bordering swampy lands, or 

 skirting the edges of the woods, — in fact just such localities as the 

 yellow warblers {D. cestiva) resort to. I have found several of 

 their nests on the western Reserve, Ohio. All were placed in an 

 upright crotch, generally of several small stems, and were all more 

 or less lengthened perpendicularly to fit such situations, with a 

 rather narrow but deep cavity. The distance from the ground was 

 three to six feet. In the Maine forests, however, their nests are 

 scarcely ever found, since they are placed in the tops of those 

 very lofty pines and firs which make Maine's lumber region famous. 



In composition the nest is a rather loosely woven mass of 

 weedy and fibrous substances varying according to location, — cedar 

 bark, for instance, being a prominent constituent of the exterior of 

 those built in New England ; the interior is more closely woven of 

 fine grasses, with hairs and some bits of down from plants. There 

 is an absence of woolly materials anywhere about the nest, but Mr. 

 Welch mentions that the nests found by him near Boston were 

 finnly bound to the supporting twigs by silky fibres from the 

 cocoons of various insects. I have seen examples in Ohio which 

 were indistinguishable from hemp-built homes of the yellow-warbler ; 

 but in Massachusetts the two nests are said always to be entirely 

 different. In the middle and eastern states eggs are to be looked 

 for about the first of June. 



Dr. Coues's admirable description of the eggs, agreeing with 

 my own experience, is not to be improved : " The shell is white ; 

 the markings are chiefly confined to the larger end, only rarely a 

 few dots being sprinkled over the whole surface, and they form, or 

 tend to form, in many cases, a wreath about the large end. The 

 wreath is sometimes close and heavy, consisting of confluent 

 blotches ; in other instances it is a circle of separate fine dots. The 

 markings are of all shades, from light reddish to various darker 

 browns, mixed with neutral tints." The size of the egg is .6S by .50 

 of an inch, and rarely more than four are to be found in one suite. 



