294 XORin AMKHICAN BIRDS. 



]Mr. Audubon states that this War])ler is the most common and abundant 

 species that visits tlie State of Louisiana and the whole rej^ion about the 

 Mississippi lliver, but is not so common in Kentucky or Ohio, lie de- 

 scribes it as an extremely lively and active l)ird, found in all the low jjrounds 

 and damp places near watercourses, and generally among the tall rank weeds 

 and low bushes growing in rich alluvial soil. It is continually in motion, 

 hop2)ing from stalk to stalk, and from twig to twig, preying upon insects, 

 larva% or small l)erries, rarely pursuing an iiisect on the wing. He describes 

 its song as agreeable and emphatic. He has never known this sjjccies fly 

 farther than a few yards at a time. Its flight is low, and is performed in a 

 gliding manner. It makes its first ap}K3arance about the middle of March, 

 and remains until the middle or last of Septeml>er. He states that it rears 

 two broods in a season. His description of its nest, as " small, beautifully 

 constructed, and attached to several stems of rank weeds," etc., does not agree 

 in position, size, or apj^earance with any that I liave ever seen. 



According to ^Ir. Audubon, it feeds largely u})on sjaders, which it obtains 

 by turning over the withered leaves on the gnuuid, Tlie young birds resem- 

 ble their mother until the following s<'ason, when the males attain the full 

 beauty of tlieir i)lumage. They remaii a ith their parents until they migrate. 



The late Dr. Alexander Gerhardt, an accurate and observing naturalist of 

 Northern Georgia, informed me, by letter, that the nest of the Kentucky 

 "Warbler is usually built on the ground, under a tuft of grass, often on a hill- 

 side and always in dry places. The eggs are deposited from the 4th to the 

 loth of May. Nearly all the nests he met witli were made externally of a 

 loose agure^ation of drv oak and chestnut leaves, so rudely thrown together 

 as hardly to possess any coherence, and requiring to be sewed to be kept in 

 place. The interior or inner nests were more com})actly interwoven, usually 

 composed of fine dark-brown roots. Instead of being small, tliey are large 

 for the bird, and are inelegantly and clumsily made. They measure four 

 inches in their diameter, three in Iieight, and two in the depth of their cavity. 

 One nest, the last received from Dr. Gerhardt, obtained by him at Var- 

 nell's Station, in Northern (Georgia, June o, 1860, is large and peculiar in its 

 construction. It is nearly splierical in shape, with an entrance partially on 

 one side and nearly arched over. The periphery of this nest is comi)osed 

 exclusively of ])artially decayed deciduous leaves, impacted together, yet 

 somewliat looselv. Within this outer covering is a fine framework of stems, 

 twigs, and rootlets, and witliin tliis a snug, compact lining of hair and finer 

 rootlets and fibres. This nest is six inches in diameter and five in height. 

 It contained four eggs. 



These eggs have an aveniire length of .GO of an inch and a breadth of .56 

 of an inch. Tliev have an oblong-oval shape, a crjstalline-white ground, and 

 the entire surface is s}>rinkled over witli fine dots of red and reddish-brown. 

 These, thougli most abundant about the larger end, are nowhere confluent, 

 and do not form a crown. 



