ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 105 



violently under his weight. When she did finally leave it she sailed 

 down into a smaller tree a few rods oflf, where she remained a silent 

 and seemingly unconcerned spectator of what followed. The nest 

 and its contents being safely lowered to the ground, I shot both the 

 female and her mate. The latter was singing, as usual, a short 

 distance off, and apparently took no more interest than the female 

 in the destruction of their mutual hopes. Embryos of small size 

 had already formed in the eggs, so that incubation must have 

 begun three or four days previously. This nest was placed at the 

 height of about thirty-five feet from the ground, on the stout hori- 

 zontal branch of a Southern pine, one of a thinly scattered grove 

 or belt that stretched along the edge of a densely wooded hummock. 

 It was set flatly on the limb, — not saddled to it, — nearly midway 

 between the juncture with the main trunk and the extremity of the 

 twigs, and was attached to the rough bark by silky fibres. It is 

 composed externally of a few short twigs and strips of bark bound 

 together by Spanish moss {Tillandsia usneoides) and a silky down 

 from plants. The lining consists of a few hair-like filaments of 

 moss and soft cottony vegetable down. The whole structure is 

 neatly and firmly compacted, though essentially simple in appear- 

 ance, and, from the nature of the component materials, of a grayish 

 inconspicuous color. In size, shape, and general formation it very 

 nearly resembles nests of the Black-throated Green Warbler (Den- 

 drceca virens) in my collection. It measures externally 2.80 inches 

 in diameter by 1.70 in depth; internally, 1.77 inches in diameter by 

 1.30 in depth. The eggs, four in number, measure .69 by .53 of an 

 inch. They are quite regularly ovate, wnth fine dottings of pale 

 lilac scattered thinly and evenly over a grayish-white ground-color. 

 A few spots or blotches of burnt sienna occur about the large ends, 

 while occasional irregular penlike lines of dark brown diversify the 

 remaining surface. 



Upon referring to published accounts of the nesting of this 

 Warbler, I find the statements by the different authors most con- 

 flicting, and the authenticity of many of the specimens open to 

 gravest doubt. Both Mr. Maynard (in " Birds of Florida," Part II, 

 page 61) and Dr. Coues ("Birds of the Northwest," page 67) base 

 their descriptions upon alleged specimens sent to the Smithsonian 

 Institution by Mr. Norwood C. Giles, of Wilmington, N. C. Dr. 

 Brewer refers to these specimens as " eggs supposed to be of this 

 species," and Dr. Coues describes the nest as " built in a large mass 



