172 SYLVICOLID^E : AMERICAN WARBLERS. 



River, to the number of four to a set, are white, finely 

 dotted with reddish-brown, chiefly at the greater end. 

 The nest is said to be built in bushes, near the 

 ground. Wilson's Black-cap is a migrant in southern 

 New England, where it arrives 

 early in May, and departs prob- 

 ably in September ; it is found 

 in mixed woods and shrubbery, 

 quite numerously in some local- 

 ities, more rarely in others. It 

 FIG. 41.- GREEN BLACK- j s O ne of the few birds commonly 



CAPPED WARBLER. (Nat. size.) . i TVT T^ i i 



observed in New England re- 

 specting whose nesting we have still much to learn. [*] 



[* Just in the nick of time, as this page is going into the metal, 

 I receive the greatly desired information respecting the nest and 

 eggs of Wilson's Black-cap, from Mr. H. D. Minot, who writes me 

 respecting the breeding of the species in Colorado. His interesting 

 and timely observations were made at Seven Lakes, on Pike's Peak, 

 a dozen miles from Manitou, about 11,000 feet in altitude, and near 

 timber-line. 



". . . . I devoted the morning of June 22d to finding the nest 

 and eggs of Wilson's Black-cap, which I confidently expected would 

 be in a bush. Being attracted by the songs of the birds to a bushy 

 swamp, where they were numerous, I ransacked it thoroughly, and 

 finally started a female from a bush. I dropped upon my knees 

 without much faith, not to pray, but to watch, and was soon 

 rewarded for my humility. The nest was found at the edge of the 

 swamp, on the ground, under a low, spreading branch of dwarf wil- 

 low, and beneath an almost natural archway of dry grasses, opening 

 toward the south. It was composed outwardly of shreds loosely set 

 in a hollow, and inwardly of fine grass-stalks, with a few hairs. It 

 measured 2^ inches across inside, by half as much in depth. The 

 eggs were five in number, about 0.60X0.50 in size, and dull whitish 

 in color, thickly freckled with dark rusty brown and some slight 

 lilac markings, and with some blotches at the larger end, in three 

 cases on the crown, and in two about it. The swamp was too ex- 

 tensive to beat over thoroughly, and 1 did not succeed in finding 

 another nest, nor in putting up another female. The males which 



