Vol. XXXVI I 

 1919 J 



Mousley, The Singing Tree. 



341 



time and also in this same wood, for his persistent singing from the 

 top of a particular birch tree eventually enabled me to locate the 

 nest and eggs, as I shall relate hereafter. Neither of these Warblers 

 had been observed here during the breeding season, but I was 

 familiar with them at migration times, when the former has always 

 struck me as being somewhat of a mute species. 



However, to return to the Myrtle Warbler (Dendroica coronata), 

 after finding its nest I measured the distance of the latter from the 

 ash or 'singing tree,' and found it to be twenty-one yards. I did 

 this at the time (and have continued it ever since) more from habit, 

 than with any preconceived idea in my mind that it was going 

 to be of material benefit to me hereafter, or that it would eventually 

 enable me to answer with some degree of confidence, the question 

 (which I have adopted as the title of this paper) recently sprung 

 upon me in a letter from one of my most valued friends, viz: 

 How near to the nests do the male birds generally sing? 



To this question I replied that in my experience if a male bird 

 could be found singing constantly in the same tree or trees, the nest 

 would generally be found within twenty yards of the spot, in 

 support of which I have prepared the following table, from which 

 the average distance of the nest from the ' singing tree ' or observa- 

 tion post of the male, for a number of birds works out at rather less 

 than twenty yards, or to be precise seventeen yards. 



