302 Mousley, Birds of Hatley, Quebec. [jjj y 



sient. Mr. Greer tells me that some twelve or fifteen years ago, he had a 

 small martin house erected on his farm at Hatley Centre one summer, in 

 order to try and induce a few martins he had noticed the year before to 

 remain and breed. This house, however, became tenanted by Tree Swal- 

 lows before the arrival of a pair of martins, which after investigating and 

 hanging round for a few days, during which time sundry fights for the pos- 

 session of the house took place, eventually left, as the Tree Swallows could 

 not be ejected. At intervals since then Mr. Greer has seen odd pairs now 

 and again, and as late as 1917 a pair were seen for one day only. It is 

 evident from the above that a few stray birds pass through this district 

 now and again, but neither Mr. Greer or myself know of any breeding 

 records, nor do we think it at all likely that any exist in the immedi- 

 ate neighborhood. 



155. Vermivora rubricapilla rubricapilla (Wilson). Nashville 

 Warbler. — Rare summer visitant; May 23 to September 22. Eggs, 

 June 15. My first acquaintance with this interesting species was on 

 August 16, 1916, when an example was obtained and sent to the Victoria 

 Memorial Museum at Ottawa see ' The Auk,' Vol. 34, 1917, p. 214. I next 

 saw the species on May 23 of the following year and from then to June 2 

 nineteen examples were noted, see ' The Auk,' Vol. 34, 1917, p. 484. Out of 

 this number apparently only one pair remained behind to breed (as no 

 others were seen during the summer) the female being seen with building 

 material in her beak on June 5. It was not however, until June 15 that 

 their nest was located at the foot of a spirea bush on a little mound, well 

 sunk into the surrounding hair cap moss (Polytrichum commune) and dwarf 

 cornel or bunchberry (Cornus canadensis) of which the mound was car- 

 peted. It was entirely hidden from sight and would never have been found 

 had I not flushed the female from her set of five eggs. The nest was com- 

 posed outwardly of some moss and fine dried grasses, the lining consisting 

 of very fine grasses, hair like rootlets and some pine needles, the dimensions 

 being as follows, viz.; outside diameter 3, inside If inches; outside depth 

 If, inside 1| inches. The eggs were nicely and evenly marked and zoned 

 at their larger ends, the average dimensions of the five being .56 X .46. 

 On several occasions when I observed the female with building material in 

 her beak, she was accompanied by the male who always flew into a tam- 

 arack tree and commenced to sing (and I often saw him in it afterwards) 

 and it was not far from this tree that the nest was eventually found. I am 

 of the opinion that the male does very little if any nest building, contenting 

 himself with following his partner about on foraging expeditions and singing 

 the while no doubt to encourage her. 



In the fall I only saw two examples, one on September 1, and the other 

 on the 22d, but this may be partly accounted for no doubt from the fact 

 that I was absent from Hatley between the thirteenth and twenty-fifth 

 of August, although I am inclined to think (judging from past experience) 

 that the number seen in the spring was abnormal and was due to an 

 unusual wave of the species. 



