2 BowDiSH AND Philipp, Tennessee Warbler. [j"n 



average height of ten feet. These are interspersed with areas of 

 more or less open, large timber, and others where the second growth 

 has reached little more than the proportions of somewhat scattered 

 shrubbery. The essentially level surface is frequently scored by 

 slight depressions which form the beds of tiny streams, bordered 

 on either side by boggy ground, dotted with grass tussocks, bushes 

 and small trees, and overspread with a luxuriant growth of moss. 

 Such areas are most numerous in cleared tracts, but not infrequent 

 in the edges and the more open portions of the woods. These are 

 the summer home-sites of the Tennessee Warbler. 



While it was natural to expect to find this bird breeding under 

 similar conditions as its near congener, the Nashville Warbler, 

 and while some of the scanty data suggested that it did so, certain 

 statements were extant to the effect that the nests were to be 

 found "in low bushes near the ground," doubtless the basis for 

 such an assertion being one or two nests alleged to have been taken 

 from small bushes at a height of three or four feet. The very few 

 reliable records we have been able to find, coinciding largely with 

 our own experience, suggest a doubt as to the correctness of identi- 

 fication of nests taken from such situations, and purporting to be 

 those of the Tennessee Warbler. 



This Warbler, because of its inconspicuous gray and olive green 

 coloring, might easily escape observation, save for the singing of 

 the males which perch high up in the large trees where they sing 

 almost constantly. At the time of our visit to the breeding country, 

 in the middle of June, nest building was completed and full sets of 

 eggs had been laid. Altogether, ten nests w^ere located, all built 

 on the ground in substantially the same general sort of situation, 

 and all but two were found by flushing the bird. The nest is built 

 in the moss, usually in a wet place at the foot of a small bush, and 

 in most cases in woods, somewhat back from the more open part 

 of the clearings. A hollow is dug in the moss, usually beneath an 

 overhanging bunch of grass. The nest is in nearly every case 

 entirely concealed and it is impossible to see it from any view-point 

 without displacing the overhanging grass. Consequently unless 

 the bird is flushed it would be all but impossible to find it. The 

 outer foundation of the nest is of dry grass, forming quite a sub- 

 stantial structure. Several nests had whisps of grass stems extend- 



