OF NEW ENGLAND. 105 



tainly greatly benefit him by their constant industry in de- 

 stroying insects, particularly small caterpillars and canker- 

 worms, of which they are very fond. 



(B) DISCOLOR. Prairie Warbler. 



(In Eastern Massachusetts, a summer-resident of no great 

 rarity.) 



(a). About 4 1 inches long. Olive above, with brick-red 

 spots on the back. Under parts, bright yellow. A peculiar 

 mark on the side of the head, and side-streaks on the throat 

 and breast, black. (Details omitted.) 



(b). The nest of the Prairie Warbler differs from that of the 

 Yellow Bird (A) in being usually lined thickly with horse- 

 hairs (whereas the other is often lined with a dun-colored 

 plant-down), and in being almost invariably semi-pensile. It 

 is usually placed within a few feet of the ground, in a bush or 

 low tree, in a rocky pasture or the " scrub." The eggs average 

 65X'52 of an inch, and are pure white, generally either with 

 delicate lilac (and a few inconspicuous light brown) markings, 

 which form a ring about the crown (such being those which I 

 have found near Boston), or with lilac, purplish, and umber- 

 brown markings. Near Boston one set of three or four eggs 

 is laid in the first week of June. 



(c). The Prairie Warblers are among the smallest and most 

 retired of their family. They are summer-residents in the 

 eastern United States so far to the northward as Massachu- 

 setts, in which State they are rather rare in the western part, 

 but quite common in some other portions. In certain localities 

 near Boston they are quite abundant from the second or third 

 week of May until the latter part of August. They frequent 

 almost exclusively rocky pasture-lands and the " scrub," and I 

 have but once seen or heard them elsewhere, in that case hav- 

 ing heard their song in some shrubbery on a cultivated estate, ^-f- 

 far from their usual haunts. Though perhaps, as Wilson re- 

 marks, easily approached and not shy, yet they almost invaria- 

 bly shun the neighborhood of man, and live quite solitarily in 

 pairs among the pastures where they build their nests. There, 



