426 NESTS AND EGGS OF 



nine eggs each. They were found June 13, 16, and 17, (1888), respect- 

 ively, and were all taken on the 29th. The first was placed in a tall, 

 slender spruce, within about two feet of the top of the tree, and at 

 least sixty feet above the ground ; suspended among the fine pendant 

 twigs, about two inches below a short horizontal branch, some twelve 

 inches out from the main stem ; the second was in a heavily-limbed 

 spruce, about fifty feet above the ground, twenty feet below the top of the 

 tree, six feet out from the branch, in a dense cluster of stiff radiating 

 twigs ; the third was also in a spruce, thirty feet from the ground, 

 twelve feet out from the main stem and five feet from the end of the 

 branch. This nest on the 29th contained no eggs, and was evidently de- 

 serted ; it was found in a dilapidated condition. In position the first 

 nest resembles that of the Baltimore Oriole, being near the ends of 

 long, drooping twigs. The second is built more like a Vireo's, but 

 with this difference, that instead of being suspended by its upper edges 

 only, and between the forks of a single stem, it is supported on every 

 side, and from the top nearly to the bottom, by numerous stiff, radiat- 

 ing twigs. It is nevertheless a distinctly pensile nest. , The third is 

 different from either of the others in position. Placed nearly midway 

 between two stout branches, which in reality are forks of the same 

 branch, one above the other, and attached by the sides and upper 

 edges to the twigs which depend from the branch above, while its bot- 

 tom rests firmly on a bristling platform of stems which rise from 

 the branch below. Thus it is at once pensile and non-pensile. 



The material used in the construction of these nests on the exte- 

 rior is chiefly green mosses, diversified with grayish lichens and usnea^ 

 the whole resembling the general color of the surrounding foliage. 

 The interior at the bottom is lined with delicate strips of soft inner 

 bark and fine black rootlets. Near the top are rather numerous feath- 

 ers of the Ruffed Grouse, Red Crossbill, Hermit Thrush, and Oven- 

 bird, arranged with the points of the quills down, the tips rising to or 

 slightly above the rim, and arching inward over the cavity, forming a 

 screen that partially concealed the eggs. In both nests, the space be- 

 ing too small for the accommodation of the numerous eggs, they were 

 piled in two layers, one above the other. In the first nest the num- 

 ber in each layer was not noted, but in the second five eggs were in 

 the lower layer and four in the upper. All of these nests were found 

 by watching the birds building; and, taking into consideration the 

 dim light of dense spruce woods, the torture one must endure from 

 mosquitoes while watching the erratic and puzzling movements of the 

 birds flying from branch to branch with their bills filled with material, 



