126 SYLVICOLID^E : AMERICAN WARBLERS. 



the little creatures being soon descried flitting about 

 in the upper foliage of these shady resorts, very indus- 

 triously foraging for their insect prey. 



A nest in the Amherst College cabinet, supposed to 

 have been taken in New Hampshire, is composed out- 

 wardly of thin strips of soft inner bark, with a few 

 pine-needles, and some slender pine-twigs ; with an 

 inner layer of grasses, and a final lining of horse-hair, 

 some bits of paper and cloth being also used, between 

 the grasses and the pine-needles. This corresponds 

 in the main with the description given by Mr. Minot 

 (B. N. E., 1877, p. 117), who has offered us a fresh 

 and feeling description of a bird which is evidently a 

 great favorite of his. " The nest," he says, " is usually 

 placed in a pine, in a horizontal fork near the end of a 

 bough, from twenty to fifty feet above the ground (but 

 sometimes lower). It is finished in June, sometimes in 

 the first week, sometimes not until the last. It is com- 

 posed outwardly of narrow strips of thin bark, bits of 

 twigs from vines, dried grasses, and such odds and 

 ends as the birds have found convenient to employ ; 

 and inwardly of bits of wool, feathers, and plant- 

 down, but it is generally lined with hairs and fine 

 shreds of vegetable substances. It is usually small, 

 neat, and very pretty. The eggs of each set are three 

 or four, and average . 67x^4 of an inch. They are 

 commonly (creamy) white, with reddish or amber- 

 brown and purplish markings, grouped principally 

 about the crown. These markings are, for the most 

 part, either clear and delicate or a little coarse and 

 rather obscure ; but the eggs are better characterized 

 by their shape, being rather broad in proportion to their 

 length." 



