560 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



favorite song to me always sounding like " peachity, peachity, 

 peachity." Other observers render it however as "wichity, 

 wichity, witchity" or "wee-che-te, wee-chee-te, wee-che-te." 

 Minot gives the song as "wee-chee-chee," repeated several times 

 with a marked emphasis on the "wee." Davie renders it as 

 "tackle me! tackle me! tackle me!" 



The nest is always situated low down, often on the ground 

 on a mossy hummock or imbedded in the moss, but in many 

 localities they nest fully as frequently a few inches from the 

 ground (four to ten) placing the nests in tussocks of sedges, 

 cattails or rushes, or even in low bushes, always in the swampy 

 localities frequented by them. The nests are rather neat 

 baskets of sedges and grasses, sometimes roofed, more often 

 not, sometimes lined with hair, again with fine grasses and 

 sedges, and they are always well concealed, generally found 

 only by flushing the female. 



A nest found, June 5, 1898, was in a little tussock of Led^im 

 grcenlandicum (Labrador Tea), supported on the lower branches 

 and imbedded in the sphagnum moss which reached nearly to 

 the top of the nest. This nest was composed of dry ferns and 

 sedges, lined with fine sedges. It is two and a quarter inches 

 in depth outside by one inside, while the diameter outside is 

 two and a half and inside one and three-quarters inches. The 

 eggs measure 0.78 x 0.55, 0.75 x 0.55, 0.72 x 0.54, 0.63 x 0.47. 

 The smallest egg is abnormal, being a decided runt, but it 

 nevertheless seemed fertile. The ground color of the eggs is 

 clear white, more seldom creamy white, and they are speckled 

 about the larger end with reddish brown, umber and black. 

 Some eggs are lined or scrawled with black, others occasionally 

 have suffused markings of lilac gray. In general the spots are 

 very few, small and scattered save for those gathered in a 

 rather close ring about the larger ends. The first two weeks 

 in June seem the more general time for eggs to be laid, dates 

 varying from May twenty-eighth to June twelfth. 



The male takes an interest in family affairs to the extent of 



