230 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



This species arrives from the South very early, often 

 before the last snow-storm of the season, and remains in 

 the deep swamps of hemlocks or pines until the weather 

 opens. About the first week in May, the birds become 

 scarce, and soon but very few can be found. A nest with 

 two eggs, found in Woburn, Mass. ; and another nest with 

 three eggs, from West Roxbury, in the same State, are all 

 the specimens accessible to me at the present time. These 

 nests were built in forks of pine-trees, about twenty feet 

 from the ground. They are constructed of the bark of the 

 cedar and leaves of the pine: these materials are intwined 

 into a neat structure, which is warmly lined with mosses, 

 and hairs of different animals. The eggs are of a bluish- 

 white, with a slight roseate tint: this primary color is dotted 

 with spots of two shades of brown and reddish, and some 

 spots of purple. Dimensions vary from .69 by .50 inch to 

 .67 by .51 inch. 



In the migrations, these birds associate in detached flocks : 

 in the spring they are in company with the Red-poll 

 Warblers ; and, in the fall, with the Yellow-rumps. 



They are, in the summer, almost always observed in the 

 pine-groves, actively traversing the limbs and branches, 

 sometimes with the movements of the Creepers and Titmice, 

 sometimes with those of the Warblers, and , often flying 

 from the foliage and seizing an insect, on the wing, like the 

 Flycatchers. 



Their song is now somewhat similar to that of the Field 

 Sparrow, or perhaps more like a mixture of that and the 

 song of the Indigo-bird, if such can be imagined. It con- 

 sists of the syllables tweet 'weet 'weet 'weet 'weet 'iveet, uttered 

 at first slow and faint, but rapidly increasing in utterance 

 and volume. Besides this, it has a sort of trilling note, 

 like fre 're 're 're 're 're, uttered softly and listlessly. 



In the autumn, they add to their usual insect-food small 

 berries and seeds : they are now nearly silent, having only 

 a quick, sharp chirp. They are scattered through the fields 



