olive warbler [ DendrrHca nlivacea) 



Plate II. Eggs of the Olive Warbler 



{Dendroica olivacea) 



THE set of Olive Warbler here figured is the one in my private collection, 

 and one of the two or three sets of this species that have thus far been 

 taken. It was collected by O. W. Howard June 7, 1897, in the Huachuca 

 Mountains of Arizona, at an altitude of 9,200 feet The set originally con- 

 tained four eggs, but one was broken in blowing, as they were heavily incu- 

 bated. The plate shows the exact size and color, but the color may be de- 

 scribed as a grayish white with bluish tinge, thickly covered with blackish 

 spots and mottlings. (Size 18 to 19 x 14 to 16 mm.) The female bird was 

 taken together with the nest and both are shown in the accompanying illus- 

 tration, to which a male bird in perfect plumage has been added to complete 

 the group. The nest was found in a dense thicket of red spruce 25 feet from 

 the ground in a forked limb. It is a very beautiful structure composed of 

 fine rootlets and bark fibre, lined with plant down and covered with lichens, 

 after the manner of the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and as a specimen of bird- 

 nest architecture it is as complete, as perfect and as skillfully made as a nest 

 of the Ruby-throated Hummingbird. 



H. S. Swarth gives a good account of the Olive Warbler in his recent 

 and valuable work entitled " Birds of the Huachuca Mountains." Probably 

 the best description of the Olive Warbler is found in Coue's Key to North 

 American Birds, volume I, page 318. 



