460 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



tance of 30 or 40 rods, and the description which is given by Langille 

 seems to fit very well the birds of western New York as it did when he 

 described it years ago in his " Birds in Their Haunts ": " che-reek, che- 

 reek, che-reek, chi-di-ee," the first three with a loud, bell-like ring, the rest 

 much accelerated with a falling inflection. 



The nest of the Hooded warbler is usually placed in a low sapling 

 or bush from i to 3 feet from the ground. In my experience it is the 

 easiest of all the warbler nests to find. Wherever I have noticed a Hooded 

 warbler singing in a patch of woodland, I have been very successful in 

 locating the nest by placing my eye close to the ground and looking through 

 the shrubbery from below the cover of the undergrowth. Then the nest 

 will almost surely be seen if one is within a few rods, appearing like a bunch 

 of leaves a short distance above the ground. As soon as the female is 

 frightened from the nest she flits about from bush to bush, flashing her 

 tail and uttering a mild chip or cheep. The nest bears some resemblance 

 to that of the Indigo bird, but is more neatly constructed of dry leaves, 

 strips of bark, grasses and rootlets lined with fine grasses and sometimes 

 a few dark rootlets. The eggs are 3 to 5 in number, almost always 4, 

 creamy white in ground color, rather sparingly spotted, especially in wreaths 

 about the larger ends, with reddish chestnut, purplish, and obscure shell 

 markings of pale lavender. The average size is .74 by .54 inches. Nesting 

 dates from southeastern New York range from May 26 to June 15; from 

 western New York May 18 to June 12. 



Wilsonia pusilla pusilla (Wilson) 

 Wilson Warbler 



Plate 98 



Muscicapa pusilla Wilson. Amer. Orn. 1811. 3:103. pi. 26, fig. 4 

 Wilsonia pusilla DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt. 2, p. 108, %. 117 

 Wilsonia pusilla pusilla A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p. 325. 

 No. 685 



pusilla, Lat., small 



Description. Upper parts olive green; crown shining jet black bordered 

 on the frontlet and sides of the head with bright yellow ; under parts bright 



