144 NESTS AND EGGS OF BIRDS. 



the United States during the migrations, it never remains to breed 

 there, at least south of the Maine forests ; consequently, little is 

 known of its breeding life. 



The red-poll selects for its home the edge of a swampy thicket, 

 or an old brushy pasture, and places its sparrow-like nest on the 

 ground, beside a little knoll, or at the roots of a spruce-sapling or 

 small bush. In this habit it stands alone among the Dendroecae. 

 The structure is not large, measuring, ordinarily, about 3 J- inches 

 in diameter and 2^ in depth, with walls half an inch thick. " The 

 walls are compactly and elaborately constructed of an interweav- 

 ing of various fine materials, chiefly fine dry grasses, slender strips 

 of bark, stems of the smaller plants, hj^num and other mosses. 

 Within, the nest is warmly and softly lined with down and feathers." 



The eggs are of a rounded, oval shape, and measure .70 of an 

 inch in length, by .55 in breadth. Their ground-color is a yel- 

 lowish or creamy-while, and their blotches, chiefly about the larger 

 end, are of a blending of purple, lilac and reddish brown. 



91. THE PINE WARBLER. 



DENDRCECA PINUS {Wilsoii) Baird. 

 Pine Creeper ; Pine-Creeping Warbler ; Fauvette des Fins (Canada). 



Ranging in summer from the lower Missouri easfward to the 

 coast, and northward as far as the Maritime Provinces, this bird is 

 one of the few warblers whose nests are to be obtained in every 

 Atlantic state. 



Living chiefly among the pine woods, and associating with such 

 birds as the titmice, bluebirds and kinglets, which are all early 

 comers, the pine warbler's nest is among the first to be taken in 

 spring. Mr. Maynard records it as laying in Alabama and South 

 Carolina, the last of March ; and even in Massachusetts by the 

 middle of May. 



Though the nests vary greatly in manner of construction, they 

 all agree in position, being lodged in safe forks at the tc^s of trees 



