NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 447 



672a. YELLOW PALM WARBLER. Dcndroica palmarum hypochrysea Ridgw. 

 Geog. Dist. Atlantic coast of North America. Breeds from New Brunswick and 

 Nova Scotia to Hudson Bay. Winters in the South Atlantic and Gulf States. 



There are two forms of the Palm Warbler, D. palmarum (Gmel.) being the form 

 of the interior region north in summer to Great Slave Lake, migrating south through 

 the Mississippi Valley to the Gulf States, Florida, Bahamas, etc., and casually during 

 migrations east of the Alleghanies. The present form, hypochrysea, breeds from Nova 

 Scotia and New Brunswick northward. Its nest is placed on the ground in open 

 situations, usually on the edge of a swampy thicket and it is composed of weed-stalks, 

 grasses, rootlets and pine leaves, lined with fine grasses and hair. The eggs, usually 

 four in number, are yellowish or buffy-white, with a roseate tinge, speckled with 

 brown and lilac. Average size .65x.51 inches. 



673. PRAIRIE WARBLER. Dendroica discolor (Vieill.) Geog. Dist. Eastern 

 United States, north to Michigan and Southern New England; south in winter to 

 Florida, Bahamas and West Indies. 



The Prairie Warbler is a rather common breeding bird in many localities east 

 of the Alleghanies from the latitude of Massachusetts southward ; west of this region 

 it appears to be rare during the summer months. It is known, however, to breed in 

 Michigan and regularly (?) in Northern Ohio, but I have no late authentic records to 

 that effect from the latter region. Mr. H. K. Jamison 

 found the Prairie Warbler breeding abundantly on the 

 13th of May, in a scrubby oak thicket in Fairfax county, 

 Virginia. The nests were placed from two to seven feet 

 above the ground. Dr. Coues found it nesting in aston- 

 ishing numbers within a small area, near Washington, 

 D. C., in the latter part of May. The nests were only a 

 few feet from the ground, and were placed preferably in 673. PRAIRIE WARBLER. 

 hickory and dogwood bushes. Mr. Worthington found it 



nesting in low bushes and also in small birch and oak saplings on Shelter Island. 

 New York, in the latter part of May and first half of June. The nest is a very pretty, 

 deeply cup-shaped fabric, composed of vegetable fibres and fine grasses, closely 

 felted and lined with hair. Four, rarely five, eggs are laid. Twelve sets of these 

 pggs are in Mr. Norris' cabinet, many of which were taken by C. L. Rawson, in New 

 London county, Connecticut. Their ground-color apears white until they are com^ 

 pared with pure white eggs, when a very faint tinge of greenish is perceptible. The 

 markings are specks of chestnut and burnt-umber, and usually in the form of 

 wreaths about the large end. Two sets taken, respectively, May 31, 1880, and June 

 14, 1888, near Norwich, Connecticut, exhibit the following sizes: .59x.47, .64x.48, 

 .60x.45, .63x.47; .68x.50, ,66x.50, .67x.47, .67x.47 inches. 



674. OVEN-BIRD. Seiurus aurocapillus (Linn.) Geog. Dist. Eastern North 

 America, breeding from about 38 northward, west to eastern base of Rocky Moun- 

 tains. In winter, south to Southern Florida, West Indies and Central America. 



Called Oven-bird on account of the remarkable nest which it usually builds. 

 This, in its typical form, is roofed over, arched or domed, with an entrance more or 

 less to one side like the mouth of an oven. It is placed on the ground, or rather 

 embedded in a depression in the earth amongst leaves, at the foot of a tree or bush 

 near a fallen log, or under the shelter of tall grass in woods. On the whole, it is 

 loosely constructed of skeleton leaves, grasses, strips of wild grape vine bark, slender 

 weed stalks, with a lining of finer grasses and often horse hair. The bird is known 



