140 SYLVICOLID^E : AMERICAN WARBLERS. 



hemlock, fifteen or twenty feet from the ground; one 

 tree being on the side of a thickly-wooded hill, the 

 other along a cart-path in the woods. The nests were 

 large in comparison with size of the bird, being 5^ 

 to 6 inches across outside, by 2% to 3 deep ; with a 

 cavity 2^ to 3 in diameter, and about i|- in depth. One 

 of these nests was composed of small larch-twigs mixed 

 with a little tree-moss, very neatly and smoothly lined 

 with black fibrous rootlets, seed-stalks of ground- 

 moss, a little rabbit fur, and a bit of green sphagnous 

 moss. The other was quite similar, but the materials 

 included a few grass-stalks. One of these nests con- 

 tained three eggs and the other two ; in the latter 

 case, dissection of the female showed that two more 

 would have been added. These eggs measured from 

 0.65 to 0.71 in length, by 0.50 to 0-53 in breadth, 

 averaging near the larger dimensions expressed by 

 these figures. The ground-color was bluish-green, in 

 one case "thickly spotted with brown over the entire 

 surface, with a ring of nearly confluent blotches of 

 brown and lilac at the larger end." The others were 

 similar, but some of them were less profusely spotted, 

 leaving the point immaculate in some cases ; and in 

 others there were a few umber spots or brown lines at 

 the larger end. An unidentified nest, obtained by Mr. 

 R. Deane at Umbagog in June, 1870, was found on 

 comparison to be undoubtedly of this species, being 

 constructed in the same manner, though placed rather 

 higher in a hemlock. This contained six eggs, the 

 largest of which measured 0.75 by 0.55. It was a neat, 

 compact structure, of larch-twigs, tree-moss, and spi- 

 ders' silk, closely interwoven, and lined smoothly with 

 black and brown fibrous roots. 



