^ Ol i909^^ 1 ] Wright, Nesting of the Blue-Winged Warbler. 341 



I proceeded to the stump, when she took wing. Carefully parting 

 the ferns, I saw a nest containing four eggs of the warbler and 

 an egg of a Cowbird. The latter I removed, and on breaking it 

 I could discover no sign of incubation. The four eggs were all of 

 about the same shape, but very much smaller at one end. Three 

 were well mottled with brown spots, and the fourth appeared to 

 be pure white. The nest was of coarse material lined with fine 

 strips of bark or something of that kind. It was a cup-shaped 

 structure, built on a lump of earth held securely in position by two 

 exposed roots of the stump, and raised two or three inches from 

 the ground. It was further protected by the ferns. From the 

 place by the roadside, from which the pair started and where the 

 male bird was found each time singing and the female had bathed, 

 to the nest-location was about twelve hundred feet. In the im- 

 mediate vicinity of the nest were also the nests of Wood Thrush, 

 Oven-bird, Towhee, Yellow Warbler, and Flicker." 



Mr. Caduc thus accomplished his purpose, which was "to camp 

 with the birds" until he found their nest, and he brought back to 

 me in most satisfying fulness the details as given above. But al- 

 though he had furnished me a careful description of the location of 

 the nest, when I went again on May 31,1 came away without seeing 

 it, not finding it readily and fearing to trample about the haunt lest 

 I disturb the mother-bird and be the means of failure to the nesting. 

 And the one important thing, as we regarded it, was that the nesting 

 should go successfully through and the young be reared. Thereby 

 the planting of the species in this locality or in the State might 

 be secured. *We, therefore, imparted our knowledge of the nesting 

 site to no one; for had we done so, the nest was no longer in our 

 keeping, and we could not foresee what might happen to prevent 

 the rearing of this family. So I made no further visits to the place 

 and left it with Mr. Caduc to make such periodical visits as 

 would ensure a knowledge, if possible, of how the nesting prog- 

 ressed and what its issue would be. How well he timed his visits 

 for gaining all the essential facts, extracts from his letters to me after 

 I had left the city will show. 



On this last visit which I made I heard the male Bluewing sing as 

 usual by the roadside, a spot so far away from the nest, nearly a 

 quarter of a mile, indeed, that his mate could never have heard his 

 voice, as day after day he sang there. 



