CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS, 681 
and spotted with brown, lilac and purplish. (G. R. White.) They 
nest in June, building in upright crotches in bushes 10-20 feet up; 
white birches seem to be the favorite tree for their nests, probably 
on account of the position of the limbs; the nest is firmly constructed 
of strips of bark, grasses and plant down, lined with hair; eggs 3 or 4. 
(W. H. Moore.) This is one of the commonest warblers in Leeds 
county, Ont.; I have frequently seen the nest placed in some crotch 
of a small tree from five to twenty feet from the ground; the eggs 
are laid the first week in June. (Rev. C. J. Young.) 
Many nests of this species in past years have come under my 
observation; but it is only of those noted the present season that 
I purpose here to speak; on May 22nd I noticed a female redstart 
flying from a partly composed nest, the site of which was in the 
fork of a small maple sapling, and at an elevation of about eight 
feet from the ground; the nest could be easily seen, when the sear- 
cher’s gaze was directed to it, at a distance of four rods; the woods 
around it were rather open, and the leaves of the sapling were a 
yard or more above it; eight days after I found that this nest con- 
tained four of the warbler’s own eggs and one of a cowbird, all of 
which were fresh; of all the warblers, the nest of this species is 
about the neatest and most firmly put together, the bird evidently 
emitting a good deal of saliva upon the material of which the nest is 
composed when she is placing the fragments in position; all this 
work, as well as that of incubation, appears to be done by the female, 
though it is probable that her more beautifully plumaged consort 
occasionally supplies her with food as she incubates her eggs; and 
he certainly largely assists in feeding the young and in trying to 
defend them if exposed to danger; if the first efforts of this bird to 
propagate its species are successful, it does not nest more than once 
in the season, otherwise it will nest a second time; the materials of 
which the greater part of the nest of the redstart is composed is a 
kind of fibre gathered from decaying timber and the seed pods of 
various kinds of vines, and it is usually lined with animal hair; I 
have never known the set of eggs to exceed four in number, and 
generally the second set contains only three, with the addition 
mostly of a cowbird’s; the eggs are of a whitish ground hue, marked 
towards the larger end with a wealth of spotting of a flesh-coloured 
hue, and smaller dots of the same hue scattered over the surface; 
another bird of this species was noticed building her nest at a much 
