THE BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER. 227 



This nest was built in a low barberry-bush in Waltham : it 

 was constructed of fine grasses and the dowii from ferns. 

 These materials were carefully woven together into a neat 

 fabric, which was lined with cottony substances and a few 

 horsehairs. The eggs were three in number: these were 

 of a creamy-white color, covered sparsely with spots and 

 blotches of different shades of reddish-brown, thickest at 

 the large end of the egg. Dimensions of the eggs : .68 by 

 .50 inch, .67 by .50 inch, .66 by .49 inch. Audubon 

 describes a nest and eggs sent him from Nova Scotia as 

 follows : — 



" It resembles that of the Sylvia cestiva of Latham, being firm, 

 compact, the outer parts formed of silky fibres from diff'erent plants,_ 

 attached to the twigs near it by means of glutinous matter, mixed 

 with the inner bark of some tree unknown to me. Within this is 

 a deep and warm bed of thistle-down, and the inner layer consists 

 of feathers and the fine hair of small quadrupeds. 



" The eggs are rather large, of a light rosy tint, the shell thin 

 and transparent : they are sparingly dotted with reddish-brown near 

 the larger end, but in a circular manner, so that the extremity is 

 unspotted." 



From the last of September until the middle of October, 

 they become very plentiful again, and may be seen in large 

 detached flocks in all the fields, orchards, and woods of the 

 country : they are very abundant in stubble-fields ; and 1 

 have seen as many as fifty in a flock start at the report of 

 my gun, when I have been quail-shooting. 



DENDEOICA BLACKBUENI^l — Baird. 



The Blackburnian Warbler. 



Motacilla BlacTcburnice, Gmelin. Syst. Nat., I. (1788) 977. 



Sylvia BlacUurnice, Wilson. Am. Orn., III. (1811) 67. Nutt. Man., I. (1832) 379. 

 And. Orn. Biog., 11. (1834) 208; V. 73. 



Sylviaparus, Wilson. Am. Om., V. (1812) 114. 

 Hemlock Warhhr, Authors. 



