118 YELLOW WARBLER 



the following, with a descending intonation: T sweet, tsweet, tsweet- 

 tsee-tsee-tsee-tsee-tsee-tsee. The only note I have heard uttered in 

 flight is the sibilant chirp mentioned above, one of the characteristic 

 sounds of late summer." (Allison, MS.) 



Nesting Site. Usually in bushes, saplings, or briers three to 

 eight feet up, but not infrequently in trees as high as forty feet up. 



Nest. Compact, symmetrical, and well-woven, of silver-gray 

 hempen fibers and fine grasses with a conspicuous amount of plant- 

 down ; lined with cottony plant-down, fine grasses, sometimes hair or 

 a few feathers. Bowles states that nests of this species found at 

 Tacoma, Washington, often have a heavy lining of feathers. This 

 is the only bird that has the habit of building a second and, when the 

 necessity arises, a third story to its nest to cover the unwelcome egg of 

 the Cowbird. 



Eggs. 4 or 5, usually 4, in a large series of sets, one contain- 

 ing 6 eggs occurs, but two-thirds have four eggs each. Ground color 

 ranges from grayish and greenish white to a rich green shade, over 

 this are markings of umber brown, blackish, lilac-gray, and purplish- 

 brown in all varieties of spots, splashes, and blotches, always tending 

 to wreathe around the large end, but many are heavily marked all 

 over. Size; average, ,68x.5o; extremes, .75x.52, .60x48, -73X-53, 

 .62x47. (Figs. 39-41.) 



Nesting Dates. Burning Springs, W. Va., May 14 (C. W. C.) ; 

 Waynesburg, Pa., May 14- June 10 (Jacobs) ; New York City, May 

 20- July 4 (building) (F. M. C.) ; New Haven, Conn., May 20- June 

 30 (Bishop) ', Cambridge,Mass., full sets, first laying, May 23-30 

 (Brewster) ; Lancaster, N. H., June 7 (Spaulding) ; Bangor, Me., 

 May 29- June 30 (Knight) ; Listowel, Ont, June i-June 22 (Kelts) ; 

 Oberlin, O., May i-June i (Jones) ; Jasper Co., la., May 16 

 (C. W. C.)', Boulder, Colo., June 5 (C. W. C.) ; Denver, Colo., June 

 6 (Dille) ; San Jose, Calif., April $(C.W.C.)', Tacoma, Wash., May 

 24- June 17 (Bowles} ; Ann Arbor, Mich., May 5, Ypsilanti, Mich., 

 June 23 (Wood). 



BIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES 



(i) C. J. MORRISON, Yellow Warbler vs. Cowbird. Orn. and O61., IX, 

 1884. 124. (2) J. P. N. [ORRIS], Eggs of the Western Yellow (Yellow) 

 Warbler. Orn. and O61., XII, 1887, 185. (3) A. B. DUNNING, Yellow Warbler 

 (in E. Mass.), Oologist, IX, 1892, 35- (4) N. F. POSSON, Incessancy of the 

 Yellow Warbler's Song, Ibid., IX, 1892, 65. (5) MORRIS GIBBS, The Blossom- 

 Eater, Nidologist, II, 1894, 48. 



