THE PRAIRIE WARBLER. 943 
others, considerable differences in the description of the 
nest, &c. Wilson’s description is as follows : — 
“ The nest of this species is of very neat and delicate workman- 
ship, being pensile, and generally hung on the fork of a low bush 
or thicket. It is formed outwardly of green moss, intermixed with 
rotten bits of wood and caterpillars’ silk: the inside is lined with 
extremely fine fibres of grape-vine bark ; and the whole would 
scarcely weigh a quarter of an ounce.” 
Audubon says, — 
“Its nest, which forms by far the most interesting part of its his- 
tory, is uncommonly small and delicate. Its eggs I have uniformly 
found to be four in number, and of a white color, with a few brown- 
ish spots near the larger end. The nest is sometimes attached to 
three or four blades of tall grass, or hangs between two small sprigs 
of a slender twig. At first sight, it seems to be formed like that of 
the Humming-bird; the external parts being composed of deli- 
cate gray lichens and other substances, and skins of black cater- 
pillars, and the interior finished with the finest fibres of dried 
vines.” 
Nuttall says, in contradiction to these descriptions, — 
“The nest was hardly distinguishable from that of the Summer 
Yellow-bird (Yellow Warbler), being fixed in a trifid branch (not 
pensile), and formed of strips of inner red-cedar bark and asclepias 
fibres, also with some caterpillar silk, and thickly lined with cud- 
weed down (Gnaphalium plantagineum), and slender tops of bent 
grass (Agrostis). The eggs, four or five, were white, rather sharp 
at the lesser end, marked with spots of lilac-purple, and others of 
two different shades of brown, rather numerous at the great end, 
where they appear most collated together in a circle.” 
Nuttall’s description of the nest is certainly the most 
correct, so far as shown in all the specimens that I have: 
probably, in different sections, the breeding habits of this 
bird are, like those of some others, subject to great varia- 
tions. 
