392 Brewster on Birds of Winchcndon, Massachusetts. [October 



interwoven. The lining is of horse hair, fine, dry grasses, and a few of 

 the black rootlets used by D. maculosa. The whole structure is light and 

 airy in appearance, and resembles rather closely the nest of the Chipping 

 Sparrow. The eggs measure respectively : .68 X .49 ; .66 X . 50 ; .69 X .49 ; 

 .68 X .51 inch. They are marked with pale lavender, vandyke brown, 

 mars brown, and black. Over most of the shell the markings are fine and 

 sparsely distributed, but about the larger end they become broad and 

 more or less confluent, tending to form a wreath pattern. Some of the 

 black markings are linear, resembling pen scratches. The ground color 

 of these eggs before blowing would have passed for dull white, but with 

 the removal of their contents a delicate, yet faint, greenish tinge appeared 

 and has since persisted. This greenish tinge was also a characteristic 

 feature of eight eggs (representing two sets) taken by Mr. Bailey at Win- 

 chendon before my arrival in 18S7. Lest the identification of the above- 

 described set be questioned, I will add that the female was seen to enter 

 the nest, and that both she and her mate were shot and preserved. 



Icteria virens. — Mr. Bailey shot a male of this species May 30, 18SS. 



Sylvania canadensis. — Throughout the spruce swamps the Canadian 

 Warbler was everywhere abundant. A brood of young barely able to fly 

 were met with June 35, 1887, and the next day Mr. Purdie took a set of 

 eggs rather far advanced in incubation. The nest was in the face of a low, 

 sphagnum-covered mound about eighteen inches above its base. In the 

 soft mould behind the outer covering of sphagnum the birds had excavated 

 a cavity about the size of one's fist. In the bottom of this cavity was 

 the nest, a loosely formed, but nevertheless neat structure, composed out- 

 wardly of dry leaves, and lined with pine needles, black rootlets, and a 

 little horse hair. The bird entered by a small round hole, the bottom of 

 which was about on a level with the top of the nest. All the nests (a 

 dozen or more) of this species which I have examined were built like the 

 one just described, although the height above the ground has varied, one 

 which I took at Lake Umbagog in 1S79, being higher than my head in a 

 patch of moss that covei-ed the face of a perpendicular cliff". I have yet to 

 see a nest placed on the ground and open at the top as most of the book 

 descriptions indicate. 



Troglodytes hiemalis. — In the swamp where the Olive-sided Flycatchers 

 breed, we heard two Winter Wrens singing June 26, 18S7. While trying 

 to get a sight at one of them I flushed and shot a young bird which could 

 not have been more than a day or two from the nest, as it was unable to 

 fly more than a few yards at a time. There were many fallen trees in the 

 vicinity, and their upturned roots, laden with earth and overgrown with 

 moss, aftbrded numberless nesting sites. As already stated, I did not 

 revisit this swamp in 1888, but Mr. Bailey tells me that he heard the 

 Wrens singing there a few days before our arrival. 



Sitta canadensis. — Besides the Winter Wren and Olive-sided Flycatcher 

 the spruce swamp just mentioned furnished another species not found 

 elsewhere, viz., the Red-bellied Nuthatch. We saw only a single pair 

 which, attracted by the outcry made by the Canadian Warblers as we were 



