OF THE UNITED STATES 323 



the latter flushed a female Black-poll warbler from her nest. 

 At this the over-sanguine rather than always truthful, father 

 boiled over, and in his record he wrote the following words: 

 " Eeader, just fancy how this raised my spirits. I felt as if the 

 enormous expense of our voyage had been refunded. There, said 

 I, we are the first white men who have seen such a nest/ 7 Com- 

 menting upon this absurd statement, Dr. Brewer further re- 

 marks, " But when we know that Mr. Audubon's whole party 

 started in the expedition from Eastport, in Maine, where they 

 also spent several days before they commenced their voyage to 

 Labrador, and that one of his party was a near resident to East- 

 port; and when we further know that all around Eastport, and 

 especially on the islands, the Black-poll Warbler is one of the 

 most common birds, we must see at once how far a vivid imagina- 

 tion has supplied the material for his conclusions, and that they 

 had but little foundation in reality." When a vivid imagination 

 supplies the material for conclusions, and that the latter have 

 no foundation in reality, it is very bad, and usually has to be 

 paid for in the long run. W T e all admit that Audubon was a great 

 painter, but in not a few of his ornithological descriptions he 

 too frequently drew his inferences from insufficient data. 



As a matter of fact this species builds rather a bulky nest, usu- 

 ally on the lower limbs of pine-trees, and lines it well with soft 

 feathers. Further to the northward they may even build upon 

 the ground, as has been stated by competent authority. Ridgway 

 has described the young at various stages. Here is where the 

 bulk of the work remains to be done in this splendid group of 

 birds by ornithologists. We need to know a great deal more 

 about the autumnal plumages of all these species and subspecies 

 of the Mniotiltidce. But this applies even more directly to the 

 young, that is from the time they assume the first nestling plum- 

 age, through the various stages until it becomes completely adult. 

 This can only be done by collecting long series of birds of the 

 same species or subspecies for all the variations. My son has 

 been engaged upon this lately, and this spring succeeded in tak- 

 ing several birds of this group in plumages not possessed in the 

 immense collections of the United States National Museum. 

 Even one or two of these the ornithologists in that institution 

 have failed to identify, while in some cases the young or sub- 

 adults have been taken in plumages heretofore undescribed, or 

 even unknown. There is a superb field still open here for work 



