WARBLERS. 5 1 



87. HELMINTHOPHAGA PEREGRINA. 



TENNESSEE WARBLER. *- 



This species occurs in the Eastern Province of North America. 



"A nest of this Warbler (Smith. Coll., 3476), obtained on the 

 northern shore of Lake Superior by Mr. George Barnston, is but 

 little more than a nearly flat bed of dry, matted stems of grass, 

 and is less than an inch in thickness, with a diameter of about three 

 inches. It is not circular in shape, and its width is not uniform. 



Its position must have been on some flat surface, probably the 

 ground. 



The eggs resemble those of all the family in having a white 

 ground, over which are profusely distributed numerous small dots 

 and points of a reddish-brown, and a few of a purplish-slate. 

 They are of an oblong-oval shape, and measure .68 by .50 of an 

 inch. — Baird, Brewer and Ridgway's N. A. Birds, vol. i, pp. 

 206, 207. 



88. PARULA AMERICANA. 



BLUE YELLOW-BACKED WARBLER. 



Mr. W. W. Worthington, in writing of the Blue Yellow-backed 

 Warbler, nesting on Shelter Island, N. Y.,t states that these birds 

 usually arrive there about the first of May. He observes that they 

 "breed commonly on Gardiner's Island," having found "two nests 

 there nearly ready for the eggs, on May 17th, 1879, which is about 

 two weeks earlier than they lay on Shelter Island." 



The nest, he says, is "invariably built in a bunch of long green 

 moss, and lined more or less with the same dun-colored plant- 

 down that the Yellow Warblers use for the same purpose, but the 

 Yellow-backs use it more sparingly. They sometimes weave one 

 or two horse hairs, and rarely a piece of fine grass into the nest; 

 and these are the only materials used on this Island." "The first 

 nest that came under my notice, was neither globular nor pensile, 

 as they usually are, but completely open at the top like a Yellow 

 Warbler's, and placed in a small cedar bush, not three feet from 

 the ground, on high land, being a very unusual position. The 

 nest is usually placed in a bush or small tree in swamps or swampy 



tin' Ornithologist and Oologist" a Monthly Magazine devoted to the study of birds, their nests 

 *nd eggs. Norwich, Connecticut, Oct. 1881, (p, 62 ) 



