_ 
232 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
the grape-vine. Nuttall describes a nest found in Acton, 
Mass., as follows : — 
“Tt is fixed in the forked twigs of a hazel, about breast-high. 
The fabric is rather light and airy, being made externally of a few 
coarse blades and stalks of dead grass, then filled in with fine 
blades of the same; the whole matted and tied with caterpillars’ 
silk, and lined with very slender strips of brown bark and similar 
white-pine leaves.” 
The nests which I have collected, and some I have before 
me, are of a different character from his description, being 
compactly and neatly made of bark from the cedar, and 
grasses, and lined with horsehair; but I have no doubt that 
this species, like many others, varies in breeding habits in 
different localities. The eggs are three or four in number, 
and are laid about the first week in June. They are of a 
delicate creamy-white color, and marked at the great end 
with spots of brown, which are often confluent: the spots 
are of two colors, a reddish-brown and _ purplish-brown. 
The dimensions vary from .70 by .51 inch to .63 by .50 inch. 
But one brood is raised in the season in this latitude. 
This is another of those birds which seem to have become 
quite abundant within a few years. Wilson, Nuttall, and 
others speak of it as being a very rare species ; and it is now 
one of the most common of birds in localities where it was, 
a few years since, quite rare. It prefers a growth of low 
shrubs and serub-oaks and birches to a forest of tall trees, 
and is seldom seen in the latter. . 
Its note consists of the syllables ’che ’che ’ch ’chéea, 
repeated at short intervals: it has also, at times, a rattling 
cry something like the alarm-note of the Maryland Yellow- 
throat. 
The female has nothing but a sharp chirp, which she 
often emits in answer to the song of the male. When 
approached while on the nest, she sits quietly until the 
intruder is quite near. I once had a dog make a point 
