62 NESTS AND EGGS OF N. A. BIRDS. 



Their eggs measure about .70 of an inch in length by .55 in 

 breadth. Their ground-color is a yellowish or creamy-white, and 

 the blotches, chiefly about the larger end, are a blending of purple, 

 lilac, and reddish-brown. 



114. DENDRCECA DISCOLOR. 



PRAimE WARBLER. 



In Massachusetts the Prairie Warbler invariably frequents wild 

 pasture-land, often not far from villages, and always open or very 

 thinly wooded. 



In Georgia their nests are built in almost every kind of bush or 

 low tree, or on the lower limbs of post-oaks, at the height of from 

 four to seven feet. 



They arrive there about the loth of April. The nest of this war- 

 bler is a snug, compact, and elaborately woven structure, having a 

 height and diameter of about two and one-half inches. The cavity is 

 two inches wide and one and one-half deep. The materials are chiefly 

 soft inner bark of small shrubs, mingled with dry rose-leaves, bits of 

 vegetable wood, woody fibres, decayed stems of plants, spiders' 

 webs, etc. It is lined with a few vegetable fibres and a few horse- 

 hairs. The nest is usually built on a low bush. 



The eggs are of an oval shape, pointed at one end, and measure 

 .68 by .48 of an inch. They have a white ground, marked with 

 spots of lilac and purple, and two shades of umber-brown. 



115. SIURUS AURICAPILLUS. 



GOLDEN-CROWNED THRUSH. 



The Golden-Crowned Thrush, or Oven-Bird, arrives in Massa- 

 chusetts as early as the- 1st of May; it is recorded as reaching West- 

 ern Maine at the same time. 



The nests of this bird are always constructed on the ground, 

 placed under the shelter of a projecting root, or a thick clump of 

 bushes. It is generally made with arched or domefl roofs, with an 

 entrance on one side, like the mouth of an oven — hence its com- 



