NESTS AND EGGS OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



.60 by .50. A nest described by Dr. Brewer was built in a low clump of 

 bushes, just above the ground, composed of vegetable fibres, grasses and 

 mosses, lined with hair. Breeds in the northern tier of States, thence to 



high latitudes in British America. Hab. chiefly Eastern North America. 



88. Blue Yellow-backed Warbler — parula Americana. Finely 

 sprinkled on a white ground with reddish-brown dots, chiefly at the larger 

 end, in some forming a ring; they measure from .62 to .65 in length by 

 .49 to .52 in breadth; they are from four to eight in number. Mr.W.W. 

 Worthington, of Shelter Island, N. Y., in the "Ornithologist and Oolo- 

 gist," for October, 1881, says that the nest is usually placed in a bush or 

 small tree in swamps or swampy places and about ten or twelve feet from 

 the ground. Nests in my collection, which Mr. Worthington has sent 

 me, are beautiful structures. These are pensile, with an entrance on one 

 side. They are composed of long greenish or gray Spanish moss. As a 

 whole the nest is one of the most curious specimens of bird architecture; 

 the long pieces of moss are woven and twined together in a large purse- 

 shaped mass. Found during breeding season in Eastern United States, 

 from Virginia north to Canada. 



Hab. Eastern North America, West to Nebraska and Colorado, North to British America, Greenland 

 casually, South to West Indies, Mexico. 



90. Cape May Warbler — perissoglossa tigrina. Dull or creamy 

 white with a slightly ashen hue, same as that of the Black-and-yellow 

 Warbler's. Mr. Montague Chamberlain, in the Auk for January, 1885, 

 describes four eggs of the Cape May's, collected near St. John, N.B. "The 

 markings are of light and dark lilac and yellowish and reddish tints of 

 brown ; the brown being on the surface and the lilac underneath, the coat- 

 ings of shell producing various shades." The spots are described as round 

 and very minute and irregularly distributed, with a tendency to concentra- 

 tion in a ring near the greater end ; others have spots over the larger part 

 of the egg. The measurements given by Mr. Chamberlain of his four 

 eggs are as follows: .69 by .49, .65 by .49, .66 by .49, .66 by .48. The 

 nest of this bird is placed in small cedar or hemlock trees a few feet from 

 the ground. It is composed of small twigs, grasses, with spider's silk in- 

 terwoven coarser materials and knotted into numerous little balls fas- 

 tened to the surface, as if for ornament. It is lined with horse hairs and 

 mosses. 



Hab. Eastern Providence of U. S., North to Lake Winnipeg and Moose Factory; all the West Indies to 

 St. Croi.x. 



93. Summer Yellow Bird ; Yellow Warbler — dendrceca ^estiva. Light 

 green, with dots and blotches of light purple, brown and lilac; the eggs 

 are usually four or five in number and measure from .61 to .70 in length 



