56^ THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



observers state that it is a bird of bushy thickets and clearings. 

 During the mating season they are said to perform various 

 antics in the air, especially at night, and, while thus engaged 

 as well as at other times they utter a variety of sounds such as 

 musical whistles, noises like the barking of young puppies, 

 mewing of cats, etc. In Warbler Songs, page 41, the song is 

 described as ventriloquial to a marked degree. Part of the 

 song is worded as follows ; — "cop! chick! cock! chack! co-co- 

 CO-CO-CO-." The range of imitation is said to embrace snatches 

 from nearly every voice of the woodland. The so-called flight 

 song, is compared to the broken wing tactics of other birds, a 

 medley of every sort of bird voice uttered from the air. Gen- 

 erally when singing the ordinary song the bird is said to be 

 concealed in some small tree or thicket. It is said to sing at 

 all hours of the night. 



The nest is said to be usually placed in bushes and brambles 

 from near the ground to not over five feet up as a rule, but 

 one nest recorded in Davie, Ed. 5, p. 453, was said to have 

 been in a " Wren box " attached to one of the pillars of a 

 piazza, which is of course unusual for the species. A nest in 

 my collection was taken for me in Greene County, Pennsyl- 

 vania, May 21, 1895. This nest was composed of leaves, bark 

 strips, and vine-like plant stems, lined with fine tendrils and 

 rootlets. It was placed between briers in a brier clump, about 

 one foot from the ground in a neglected field on a hillside. 

 The nest is three and eight-tenths inches deep outside by two 

 and one-tenth inside, while the outside diameter is five and 

 the inside three inches. The eggs measure 0.85 x 0.66, 0.86 x 

 0.66, 0.91 x 0.66, 0.88 x 0.65. 



In general eggs are usually white and glossy, sometimes 

 pinkish or greenish tinged, sometimes finely and evenly marked 

 over the entire surface, generally with heavier markings about 

 the larger end also, and sometimes with the marks wreathed 

 or confined to the larger end. The color of the markings is 

 reddish brown, chestnut or slightly grayish. Three to five 

 eggs are laid. 



