610 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



season may be of some value to the working ornithologists. 

 During a twelve years residence at Dover, Piscataquis County, 

 I have occasionally during my rambles met this species, but 

 the meetings have usually occurred during the late fall or 

 winter seasons, and have been so infrequent as to merit a 

 special record in my notes. Accordingly it was indeed a sur- 

 prise to discover a pair engaged in the act of rearing a brood 

 of young this season. The date was June twenty-first. I had 

 spent the morning botanizing in a place locally known as 

 Sangerville Bog, located due west from Dover Village, the 

 nearest portion of the bog being about a mile distant. The 

 boundary line between the towns of Dover and Sangerville 

 passes directly through the morass, a portion lying in either 

 town, but the "find" was located on the Dover side. 



This bog is of the character of many others scattered 

 through northern and central Maine, lying in a valley sur- 

 rounded by hills of moderate height, the slopes of which are well 

 wooded, principally with birch, beech and poplar. The swampy 

 margin of the bog produced a belt of fir and cedar with a fair 

 percentage of yellow birch and swamp maple, while the center 

 of the bog consists of open areas, interspersed with clumps of 

 hackmatack, locally known as juniper. The nest was located 

 in the coniferous belt at the extreme edge of the swamp, about 

 six rods from an opening where the growth had been cut away 

 and is now occupied as a pasture. A portion of a dead cedar, 

 nine inches in diameter and about ten feet in length, had 

 fallen and stood leaning with a gentle incline against a birch, 

 and in this stub about four feet from the ground the nest was 

 located. The birds had apparently done but little excavating 

 in solid wood; taking advantage of a decayed place in the 

 side of the stub, had there begun their building operations. 

 The opening at the entrance was irregular in shape, measuring 

 about two by three inches, the cavity expanding with the 

 descent until a depth of six inches was reached where the inside 

 diameter was about four inches, and there the nest was placed. 



