148 SYLVICOLID^E : AMERICAN WARBLERS. 



pastures grown up to shrubbery, or patches of cedar 

 and thickets of young pines. It is one of the most shy 

 and retiring of the Warblers one which would usu- 

 ally be passed unnoticed, were it not for its habit of 

 incessantly darting into the air to capture passing in- 

 sects, and for the very quaint and characteristic sounds 

 it utters while snugly concealed in the shrubbery. 

 The note is a monotonous and prolonged reiteration of 

 single notes, rising in the scale from beginning to end, 

 and growing louder and faster as it proceeds. The 

 nest is placed in some bush or sapling growing in such 

 resorts as I have indicated, usually a man's height 

 or less from the ground. Several specimens obtained 

 in Massachusetts are described by Dr. Brewer as 

 being neat, compact, and elaborately woven struc- 

 tures, about 2j inches across outside, with a cavity of 

 2 by i J inches ; composed of soft inner bark, and 

 other woody fibres, small leaves and plant-stems, plant- 

 down, cocoons, and cobwebs, bound with cottony 

 fibres and lined with horse-hairs, very fine plant-stems, 

 and sometimes feathers. The eggs are said to be 

 usually 3 or 4 in number, sometimes as many as 6 ; 

 measuring about 0.65 by 0.50 ; they are white, marked 

 with lilac, purplish and different shades of brown spots, 

 mostly wreathing about the larger end. In New 

 England the eggs are usually laid the first week in 

 June, and not improbably a second set may be depos- 

 ited in July. In the Southern States, where the Prai- 

 rie Warbler is abundant in some places during the 

 summer, eggs have been found from the first of May 

 until the second week in June. In the southward ex- 

 tent of its breeding range, the species differs from most 

 of its congeners. 



