SVLVK'OUD.E — THK WAKlM.KIfS. 257 



iiophew, Mr. ('. \\. I)evn('. Mr. r»iin«nitj:]i>< visited liic siiiiio woods, in l{n.\l>iivv, 

 ndaware County, X. \., in wliidi hu had in a piwious year found tlie nest 

 of the Mouinin<,^ (iround Warltler. Thi' trues were mostly hendoek, witli an 

 undorj^rowth »»1" l»irch and heech. Tliey tiiNt noticed the ]»an*nt hirds with 

 food in tlieir l»ills, and then set ahout deliherately to tind their nest hy 

 watchini,^ tlieir niovenionts. liut tlie hiids were e<[ually vigilant, and watciied 

 them ([uite as determinedly. " It was diamond eut diamond." They were so 

 suspicious, that, after loadiuL!; their lual^s with food, they would swallow it 

 themselves, ratlier than run the risk of hetraying their .secret by ai»j>ro:uhing 

 the nest. They even n[»parently attemjtted to nuslead tliem l)y heing very ]>ri- 

 vate an«l confidential at a })oint some distance from the nest. Tlie two watched 

 the l»ir<ls for over an hour, wlien tlie mos(|uitoes made it too hot ior them to 

 liold out any longer, and they made a rush upon the ground, determined to 

 hunt it over inch l>v incli. The hirds tlien manifested tlie ureatest conster- 

 nation, and when, on leaping over an ohl log, the young sprang (ait with a 

 scream, hut a few feet from them, the distracted pair fairly threw themselves 

 under their very feet. The male hird trailed his bright new jilumage in 

 the dust; and his much more humhly clad mate wa.s, if anything, more .so- 

 licitiuis and venturesome, coming within easy reach. The nest was phiced 

 in the fork of a small hemlock, ahout fifteen inches from the ground. There 

 were lour, and }>erhaps five, young in the nest, and one egg unhatched, which, 

 on blowing, }>roved to have been fresh. 



The nest measures three and a half inches in diameter, and a trifle more 

 than two in height. The eavitv is broad and deei), two and a third inches in 

 diameter at the rim, and one and a half deep. Its liase and periphery are 

 loose aggregations of strips of decayed inner bark from dead deciduous trees, 

 chieHv basswood, stremj^theiied l»v tine twiiis, rootlets, and bits of wood and 

 bark. AVithin this is a firm, compact, well-woven nest, made by an elabo- 

 rate inti*rweaving of slender roots and twigs, hair, fine pine-needles, and simi- 

 lar mateiials. 



The e^iii is oval in shajte, less ol)tuse, but not pointed, at one end, with a 

 grayish-white ground, ]>inkisli when unUown, and marked arfuind the larger 

 end with a wreath, chieflv of a bri<»ht umber-brown with liditer markings of 

 reddish-brown and obscure purple. A few smaller dottings of the same are 

 sparingly distributed over the rest of the egg. Its measurements are .70 by 

 .50 of an inch. It more nearly resembles the eggs of the I), nuindosa than 

 any other, is about five per cent larger, a little more oblong, and the spots 

 differ in their reddish and purplish tinge, so far as one specimen may l)e 

 taken as a criterion. 



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