016 II 18 TORT OF THE 



his finger in and felt the pecking of the bird's bill and heard its 

 querulous cry. He was obliged to remove the parent bird in 

 order to see the eggs, which were six in number. The parent 

 birds made a great clamor as he was examining them. The 

 nest was seven inches in length and four and a half in breadth. 

 Its walls were composed of mosses and lichens, and were nearly 

 two inches in thickness. The cavity was very warmly lined 

 with the fur of the American hare and a few soft feathers. 

 Another nest, found on the Mohawk, in New York, was similar, 

 but smaller, and built against the side of a rock near its bottom. 



"Mr. William F. Hall met with the nest and eggs of this bird 

 at Camp Sebois, in the central eastern portion of Maine. It was 

 built in an unoccupied log hut, among the fir leaves and mosses 

 in a crevice between the logs. It was large and bulky, com- 

 posed externally of mosses, and lined with the fur of the hedge 

 hogs and the feathers of the Spruce Partridge and other birds. 

 It was in the shape of a pouch, and the entrance was neatly 

 framed with fine pine sticks. The eggs were six in number, 

 and somewhat resembled those of the Parus atricapillus. The 

 female was seen and fully identified. 



"In this nest, which measured five and three-quarters inches 

 by five in breadth, the size, solidity and strength, in view of the 

 diminutive proportions of its tiny architect, are quite remarkable. 

 The walls are two inches in thickness and very strongly im- 

 pacted and woven. The cavity was an inch and a quarter wide 

 and four inches deep. Its hemlock framework had been made 

 of green materials, and their strong and agreeable odor per- 

 vaded the structure. The eggs measured .65x.48 of an inch, 

 and were spotted with a bright reddish brown and a few pale 

 markings of purplish slate, on a pure white ground. Compared 

 with the eggs of the European Wren, their eggs are larger, less 

 oval in shape, and the spots much more marked in their charac- 

 ter and distinctness." 



GENUS CISTOTHORUS CABANIS. 



"Bill about as long as the head, or much shorter, much compressed, not 

 notched, gently decurved from the middle; the gouys slightly concave or straight. 

 Toes reaching to the end of the tail; tarsus longer than middle toe; hind toe 



