298 BIRDS OF NORTH CAROLINA 



In such places its buzzing song, which somehow to us always seems to suggest hot 

 weather, is almost constantly heard. The nest is a very neat, compact structure 

 of fine grass, plentifully mingled with the gray leaves of wild life-everlasting 

 (rabbit tobacco), which gives it a characteristic gray appearance. The inside is 

 lined with fine grass or horsehair. It is never placed at any great height from 

 the ground, being usually only three or four feet up in a bush or small tree. The 

 species seems to prefer sweet-gum saplings as nesting trees near Raleigh, nine out 

 of seventeen nests examined by C. S. Brimley having been thus situated. Two 

 were in elms, two in huckleberries, and one each was found in pine, sumac, black 

 haw, and Ilex decidua. Pearson examined a nest at Cape Hatteras on May 9, 1898, 

 which contained five slightly incubated eggs. It was situated in a holly tree about 

 ten feet from the ground and was composed largely of wool. The eggs have a 

 nearly pure white ground-color, and are speckled and spotted with brown, the mark- 

 ings usually forming wreaths about the larger end. Size .64 x .47. Eggs have been 

 taken at Raleigh from May 12 to June 11, the later dates, however, representing 

 second sets laid by birds whose first nests had been disturbed. 



FIG. 241. PEAIEIE WAEBL.ER. 



This is one of the smallest of the warblers, and like the two preceding forms, is 

 addicted to the habit of tail-wagging. 



With this species we close the list of our North Carolina Wood Warblers; one other species, 

 however, Kirtland's Warbler (kirtlandi), will probably be found sooner or later as a migrant. 

 This bird is ashy blue above and yellow below. The back and sides are streaked with black; 

 the chin and crissum are white, the lores black; wing-bars absent. Female duller. Length 

 about 5}^ inches. It has been recorded from St. Helena Island, S. C., in the spring and Fort 

 Myer, Va., and Chester, S. C., in the fall (see Cooke Migration and Distribution of North American- 

 Warblers, pp. 91-92). 



