574 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



varying from six to eighteen feet in second growth maple, 

 birch and beech thickets, or in willow, poplar and elm saplings 

 along the bank of a river or stream in a thicket. 



A nest found in the fork of a maple sapling eight feet from 

 the ground near the shore of the Stillwater River on a small 

 wooded island contained five eggs on June 2nd, 1896. Three 

 other nests containing four and five eggs were found in similar 

 situations on the same island which was not over two acres in 

 extent. These nests were all at heights of six to eight feet, in 

 forks around which small bushy shoots had sprung up, and near 

 the shores of the island. The one first mentioned is composed 

 of fine silken vegetable fibres, willow cotton, and fine thread- 

 like bark, mixed with numerous spiders' cocoons, held together 

 with spiders' web and lined with fine grass and a few feathers. 

 This nest is three inches in depth outside by one and a half 

 inside, the outside diameter is three and the inside diameter 

 one and a half inches. The eggs measure 0.69 x 0.51, 0.66 

 0.49, 0.66 X 0.50, 0.67 x 0.50, 0.66 x 0.50. 



In general the nests are always well cupped and firmly and 

 compactly built, having a very distinctive appearance as a rule. 

 Four or five eggs seems to be the usual number laid. The 

 ground color varies from white to greenish or grayish white, 

 speckled and spotted with cinnamon and olive brown and lilac 

 gray. Some eggs are spotted quite evenly all over, but all 

 have a tendency to be most heavily marked toward the larger 

 ends, the marks being arranged in a circle about the crowns 

 of the eggs. Usually the spots are fine so that the eggs are 

 not wreathed by a confluence of the spots, but rarely I have 

 seen eggs as heavily wreathed as those of the Yellow Warbler. 



In general it takes a week to ten days to build the nest and 

 the female attends to this as well as the task of incubation. I 

 am not aware that the male feeds her while on the nest, though 

 he is generally singing not far distant. It seems often the 

 case that where the male bird is brighter colored and more apt 

 to attract attention he does not venture near the nest as a rule, 



