590 HISTORY OF THE 



tamarack swamps in the valleys, and the moist, springy lands 

 upon the hills and mountain sides. In other respects they do 

 not seem to differ in habits or actions from their flycatching 

 cousin, S.pusilla. 



In the early breeding season the males pour forth their short, 

 peculiar, pleasing song, as they flit from bush to bush; and in 

 their hurried northward flights we catch snatches of their sim- 

 ple chant; but they are silent on their return, save an occasional 

 "Tsip." Mr. Brewster, in "Notes from Observation on the 

 Birds of Winchendon, Massachusetts," gives the following mi- 

 nute description of their nest and its location: 



"Throughout the spruce swamps, the Canadian Warbler was 

 everywhere abundant. A brood of young, barely able to fly, 

 were met with June 25th, 1887, and the next day Mr. Purdie 

 took a set of eggs rather far advanced in incubation. The nest 

 was in the face of a low, sphagnum-covered mound, about eigh- 

 teen inches above its base. In the soft mould behind the outer 

 covering of sphagnum, the birds had excavated a cavity about 

 the size of one's fist. In the bottom of this cavity was the 

 nest, a loosely formed, but nevertheless neat structure, com- 

 posed outwardly of dry leaves, and lined with pine needles, 

 black rootlets, and a little horse hair. The bird entered by a 

 small round hole, the bottom of which was about on a level 

 with the top of the nest. All the nests (a dozen or more) of 

 this species which I have examined were built like the one just 

 described, although the height above the ground has varied, one 

 which I took at Lake Umbagog, in 1879, being higher than my 

 head, in a patch of moss that covered the face of a perpendicu- 

 lar cliff. I have yet to see a nest placed on the ground and 

 open at the top, as most of the book descriptions indicate. ' ' 



Eggs three to five, .68x.51; white, or buffy white, speckled 

 or spotted, chiefly about the larger end, with reddish brown and 

 lilac gray; in form, oval. 



GENUS SETOPHAGA SWAINSON. 



"Bill much depressed, the lateral outlines straight towards tip. Bristles 

 reach half way from nostril to tip. Culmen almost straight to near the tip; 

 commissure very slightly curved, Nostrils oval, with membrane above them. 



