Vol. ata | 
1917 
Puintipe AND Bownitsu, Birds of New Brunswick. 269 
built with thick outer walls of strips of birch bark, bits of rotten wood and 
the outer coverings of coarse weeds, well interlined with strands of a wiry 
moss (some species of usnea), this outer material giving the nests a tawny 
appearance, and even though, on June 6, 7 and 8, when the nests were first 
discovered, the alders were far from being in full foliage, they were very 
difficult to discern. Fine strands of some tree moss were used to bind the 
exterior material in position, the abundance of this material varying. Fine 
whitish shreds of grass and a little black hair formed the lining. One nest 
measured 22 X 13 inches in depth, and 27 x 13 inches in diameter. 
The eggs from this nest measured .76 X .53, .73 X .55, .74 X .55, and 
.75 X .55, m., and were white with dark brown spots and specks, the 
larger spots tending to have a rusty border, and resemble eggs of the 
Red-eyed Vireo, though smaller. The markings were rather sparse, fairly 
well distributed over the whole surface, though tending to greatest abun- 
dance about the larger ends. The eggs of the other set of four measured 
2 Oa Geta 00e 10 >@ 005) ..72 < 4 Iniand: they nest 23 <2 
inches outside diameter; 2} 1} inside diameter; 23 outside depth; 
1 inside depth, in inches. The birds sit close, and when disturbed from the 
nest come close about the intruder, with none of the shyness that marked 
the behavior of Solitary Vireos whose nests we found. Mr. William Brew- 
ster described the song, in the Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, 
Vol. V, 1881, p. 5, as being in general scarcely distinguishable from that of 
the Red-eyed Vireo, but mentioned that the present species ‘‘ has, however, 
one note which seems to be peculiarly its own, a very abrupt, double-syl- 
labled utterance with a rising inflection which comes in with the regular 
song at irregular but not infrequent intervals.” In our experience with 
the birds, this distinctive song absolutely predominated with the general 
impression of a song quite distinctive from that of the Red-eye, or, in fact, 
of any other Vireo we had heard. These birds have the common scolding 
note characteristic of Vireos, but, in addition, they gave voice to several 
rather musical, but apparently protesting notes. In one instance, the 
female sung a subdued but musical reply to the song of her mate who was 
at a little distance from the nest on which she sat. Writers refer to color 
differences as furnishing the key to the identity of this species, but we 
found, in addition to this, that the difference in size is so apparent as to be 
very readily noticeable. 
Lanivireo solitarius solitarius. BLur-HEADBD VirEo.— Common. 
Breeds. Two nests, each with four fresh eggs, were found on June 7 and 
17, respectively. The former was about ten feet from the ground in a 
slender fork of a cedar tree, the exterior material being bound on with a 
considerable profusion of tree moss strands. The other was about six feet 
above the ground, in a spruce fork. 
Mniotilta varia. Buack AND Wuitrr Warsier.— Not common. 
Several seen on both visits. 
Vermivora rubricapilla rubricapilla. Nasavintte Warsier.— In 
1916 we found this species far more abundant than we did in the previous 
