254 NOTES ON THE 



eggs as early as the fifth of that month on one occasion. As 

 to the location of the nest, I have found it somewhat varied, as 

 I have also the materials out of which it was constructed. The 

 first I ever obtained was near a creek in a thicket just in the 

 woods adjoining a plowed field, and but a short distance from 

 a dwelling. It was on ground elevated at least 20 feet above 

 the creek, and not more than 20 yards from a frequented high- 

 way. Another was obtained in a very open place in the deep, 

 dark woods, two miles distant from the first. The first named 

 nest met the description of what one writer describes as ' 'loose 

 and rustic, even raggedly woven, etc.," while the second 

 was more compact and more firmly secured to the forked 

 limb on which it was built. The materials have all been 

 essentially the same, namely: Fine strips of bark, with grasses 

 woven together, without much display of ambition in bird 

 architecture. Careful measurements made the elevation of it 

 average seven feet. The eggs have invariably been three, 

 with a deep cream color, and mostly, but not always, spotted 

 near the greater end with brown. I find no proclivity to any one 

 kind of tree or bush, but they indiscriminately choose a sumach 

 an oak or a basswood. It has a very humble combination of 

 notes, hardly worthy to be called a song. 



Dr. Hvoslef found it in the valley of the Root river on the 

 28th of May, and Mr. Washburn reports it common in the Red 

 river valley at nearly all points he visited late in August. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Second and third quills longest, and about equal; the fourth 

 a little shorter; the first about equal to the fifth, and about 

 0.35 of an inch less than the longest. Tail even. The upper 

 parts with the sides of the head and neck, olive-green, the 

 crown, very little if any darker. A yellowish white ring around 

 the eye. The sides of the body under the wings like the back, 

 but fainter olive; a tinge of the same across the breast; the 

 chin, throat and middle of the belly, white; the abdomen, lower 

 tail and wing coverts, and sides of body not covered by the 

 wings, pale greenish-yellow. Edges of the first primary, sec- 

 ondaries, and tertials, margined with dull yellowish-white, 

 most broadly on the latter. Two transverse bands of pale yel- 

 lowish across the wings formed by the tips of the secondary 

 and primary coverts, succeeded by a brown one. Tail light 

 brown, margined externally like the back. Upper mandible 

 light brown above; pale yellow beneath. In autumn the lower 

 parts are more yellow. 



Length, 5.65 to 6; wing, 3.00; tail, 2.75; (tarsus, f; bill, |). 



Habitat, Eastern United States, chiefly southward, west to 

 the plains, south to Cuba and Costa Rica. 



