118 # LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
wool, feathers, and plant-down, but it is generally lined with 
hairs and fine shreds of vegetable substance. It is usually 
sinall} neat, and very pretty. The eggs of each set are three 
or four, and average °67 X ‘55 of an inch. They are commonly 
(creamy) white, with reddish or umber-brown, and purplish 
markings, grouped principally about the crown. ‘These mark- 
ings are for the most part either clear and delicate, or a little 
coarse and rather obscure; but the eggs are better. character- 
ized by their shape, being rather broad in proportion to their 
length. 
(c). I owe much to the charming little ‘“* Black-throated . 
Greens” for the pleasure which they have many times afforded 
me, but I know no means of requiting them, unless by writing 
their biography with peculiar care. 
They are summer-reswlents throughout New England, but 
are particularly common in certain parts of Eastern Massachu- 
setts. They prefer pines to all other trees, but in the regions 
of the Nashua and Connecticut Valleys, in the North, and 
whilst migrating, they are to be found in ‘‘ mixed” woods, in 
the former cases especially those which contain other ever- 
greens. They reach Boston (which now comprises tracts of 
genuine country) about the fifth of May, sometimes earlier, 
but rarely much later, and generally, for a day or two before 
the middle of that month, are very abundant, owing to the 
migrants bound for homes in a colder climate. After these 
passengers have disappeared, the ‘‘ Black-throated Greens” 
here confine themselves almost exclusively to groves of pine 
or cedar, chiefly those in high land, and only occasionally stray 
to orchards or other places, though so tame as sometimes to 
visit vines growing on the piazza, where I have known them to 
build their nests. They remain here throughout the summer, 
and do not altogether disappear until the first week of October. 
They do not often catch insects in the air, except in spring, 
and rarely descend to the ground, except for the sake of taking 
a bath, which they do so prettily that an appreciative spectator 
cannot fail to enjoy it as much as the birds themselves. They 
find their food principally among the branches of the ever- 
