376 NOTES ON THE 



representative sections of the province of my survey. I have 

 personally met the bird but once during the summer months, 

 but that they breed within our borders extensively there can 

 be no doubt. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Top and sides of head and neck ash gray; rest of upper parts 

 olive green, brightest on the rump ; beneath dull white, faintly 

 tinged in places, especially on the sides with yellowish olive; 

 eyelids and a stripe over the eye, whitish; a dusky line from 

 the eye to the bill; outer tail feathers with a white spot along 

 the inner edge near the tip. 



Length, 4.50; wing, 2.75; tail, 1.85. 



Habitat, eastern North America. 



COMPSOTHLYPIS AMERICANA (L.). (648.) 



PARULA WARBLER. 

 This is a somewhat common summer resident, but so small 

 and unobtrusive that it eluded my notice for many years after 

 I became a resident of the state except in the season of migra- 

 tion, when a victim found its way into my collecting basket 

 very frequently. It arrives about the 10th of May in this lati- 

 tude, and builds its nest in the last days of that month. This 

 consists of a common form of lichen ingeniously woven into a 

 sort of ball, with the entrance generally on one side, but some- 

 times in the top. It is usually on the limbs of maples or iron- 

 woods about twenty to thirty feet from the ground, and contains 

 four white eggs, speckled with reddish-brown, especially around 

 the larger end. Notably this bird mostly avoids damp, dark, 

 swampy localities, and is found on high, dry, and even hilly 

 places in the forest. The song is humble, but finds a most 

 welcome place in the choristry of the woodlands. In the heat 

 of the day, at a time when a majority of the songsters have 

 ceased to sing, this humblest and smallest of all, begins with 

 its low, feeble note, which resembles, cheweech, cheioeech, cheweech, 

 eheweech, repeating it several times with increasing force and 

 volume till it suddenly ceases, to be repeated presently again 

 in the same manner. As above suggested, the breeding habits 

 of this bird are easily overlooked, and, as a consequence, few 

 of those who have been collecting observations which are of 

 value to the survey, have been able to give any valuable addi- 

 tions to my knowledge of the local habits of this warbler. By 

 the 10th, and often the 5th, of September they have turned 

 their beautiful little blue and yellow backs upon oar latitudes 

 for the sunnier South. 



