514 



THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



The eggs measure 0.64 x 0.48, 0.64 x 0.48, 0.64 x 0.48, 0.65 x 

 0.50. Another set of eggs was found June 6, in a nest eight 

 feet from the ground in a thick fir tree. This nest was very 

 similar in construction, and invariably the nests seem to be 

 lined with the very peculiar black rootlets and occasionally 

 horsehair if it be available. The eggs in this nest measure 

 0.67 X 0.48, 0.64 x 0.49, 0.66 x 0.50. The eggs of the first set 

 mentioned are pure white, wreathed about the larger end with 

 spots of reddish brown, chestnut and lilac and otherwise 

 unspotted. The second set has eggs of a buffy white color, 

 spotted slightly throughout and very heavily wreathed about 

 the larger end with confluent blotches of reddish brown and 

 olive brown and a few suffused blotches of lilac. Three to five 

 eggs may be laid. 



The alarm notes are a " chip " a " tsip " and a " cheek." 

 The song most often heard sounds like a warbled " hecho, 

 hecho, he-che-te-e." There are other songs which various 

 observers have put into words far better than I could. Mr. 

 Langille records the song uttered in the south as a soft 

 " whee-cho, whee-cho, whee-cho, whee-cho " and in the north 

 as " chee-to, chee-to, chee-te-ee," while he interprets the breed- 

 ing song as " cree-e-e-e-e-e." Mr. White has recorded seven 

 distinct variations of song which are as follows: " che-weech 

 che weech che-o; " " pra pra pra r-e-oo; " "prut prut purreao; " 

 " purra-e-whu-a; " " prut-ut-ut-ut-ut ; " "d kay kay kay;" 

 " k-e-e-e-dl." The first of Mr. White's songs is very similar 

 to that of the Yellow Warbler. 



The food consists largely of beetles, grubs, flies, worms and 

 similar insects. I have seen the birds prying frequently into 

 the deformities on spruce and fir produced by a species of lice- 

 like insects (Adelg-es), and feel very sure that they do good 

 work in destroying these pests, which are becoming very 

 numerous in some sections of the State and injuring the spruce 

 and fir trees. 



