RARER BIRDS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 575 



TENNESSEE WARBLER. Helminthophaya peregrina Cab. 

 This species, generally rare here, appears to have been 

 much less so this year than usually. Mr. Maynard took five 

 at Newtonville during May 18th to the 23d, the first, he 

 says, he had seen. He informs me that his friend Mr. 

 William Brewster procured at about the same time two near 

 Mount Auburn. I have taken it repeatedly at Springfield, 

 where I have always esteemed it rare ; but Mr. Board man 

 says he finds it quite common near Calais, Maine.* 



GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER. Helminthophaga chrysoptera 

 Baird. This beautiful warbler has been taken, so far as I 

 can learn, but a few times in the western part of the state ; 

 it seems to be more common in the eastern, where it breeds. 

 I saw it once in July at Springfield, and Mr. S. Jillson in- 

 formed me some years since that it was quite frequent at 

 Bolton, where it spends the summer and undoubtedly breeds. 

 1 am not aware that its nest has been found in the state 

 prior to the present year, when it was discovered by Mr. C. 

 J. Maynard, June 12th, near Newtonville. This gentleman 

 says that for the last three years he has seen this Warbler 

 in swampy thickets near Newton in June, and felt confident 

 that it bred there. This year he observed a female so anx- 

 iously chirping from a small elm that he felt sure she had a 

 nest in the vicinity, and quietly watching her he soon saw 

 her fly down into the weeds. Approaching the spot carefully 

 he discovered her sitting on her nest. This he describes as 

 situated on the ground, in a tract of coarse weeds and 

 ferns near a swampy thicket, and but a few rods from a 

 public highway. It was placed entirely above the surface of 

 the ground, and the birds seemed to have made no special 

 effort to conceal it. It was composed externally of dried 

 oak leaves and the bark of the grape-vine, and rather 

 roughly lined with fine grass and a few horse hairs. He says 

 it is large for the size of the bird, and somewhat reminds one 



* See American Naturalist, Vol. iii, June, 1869, p. 122. 



