90 



OEKITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 12-Ko. 6 



bred, and it is interesting to note that the wood- 

 cock now reguhirly breeds in North Lancashire, 

 as it indeed does in most English counties from 

 the Tweed to the Lizard. On the east coast of 

 Scotland — of ten extending, as ascertained by 

 systematic observations, along the entire coast 

 line of Britain — the first flight of woodcocks 

 generally occurs during the first ten days of 

 November. These birds soon pass on, unless 

 "' north winds keep them to cover." The sec- 

 ond and greatest flight occurs about the middle 

 of December. Since the 1 Itli of October streams 

 of immigiants have been constantly flowing on 

 to our coasts, from hooded crows, woodcocks, 

 green and golden plovers, to tiny gold-crested 

 wrens, our smallest British birds, which cross 

 the North Sea in great numbers in autumn, and 

 recross again in spring to the breeding haunts 

 in Northern Europe. 



Sky larks, as usual, have arrived already 

 fi-om oversea in enormous numbers, and the 

 arrival of blackbirds, song thrushes, chaf- 

 finches, and other small birds has at the same 

 time been large. Lunn buntings, young birds, 

 have also put in an appearance. 



Nesting of the Black-throated Blue 

 ^Varble^. 



BY EGBERT BAGG, UTICA, N. Y, 



Mr. John Burroughs, the Bev. C. M. Jones, 

 of Eastford, Connecticut, and the writer, if not 

 the only persons who have found the nests of 

 the Black-throated Blue Warbler (Dendrceca 

 ccerulescens)^ are. as far as my reading goes, 

 the only ones who have thought it worth while 

 to put their discoveries in print. I do not count 

 Audubon's Nova Scotia nest, quoted also by 

 Baird, Brewer, and Kidgway, as it was evident- 

 ly not correctly identified. The description 

 agrees exactly with the nests of the Black- 

 throated Green Warbler {Dendrceca virens) tak- 

 en by me. 



In the year 1884, my friend Dr. William M. 

 Kalph found a large piece of woods near Hol- 

 land Patent, N. Y., in which these warblers 

 remained during the breeding season. In 1885 

 a fairly careful search failed to find their nests, 

 but the birds were still there in considerable 

 munbers. though a thorough exploration of all 

 the neighboring pieces of woods failed to find 

 them anywhere else. In 1886 we were more 

 successful, and 1 think that an account of our 

 experience will be interesting. 



To begin with, the piece of woods deserves 

 description. It is one of the largest in the 



neighborhood, being at least a mile in length, 

 and from a quarter to a half in width. A large 

 part of it is swampy and heavil}' timbered — the 

 home of the Winter Wren (Anorthura troglody- 

 tes hiicmalis) and the Black-throated Green War- 

 bler {Dendrceca virens) botli of which we have 

 found nesting there. There is, however, a 

 small tract in it of high and dry ground, near- 

 1}', if not quite, surrounded by a swamp. On 

 this knoll, which is covered with large timber 

 standing rather openly, but grown up thickly 

 with brush from three to ten feet high, on the 

 drj'Bst part, where the brush was lowest, and 

 composed almost entirely of sugar maple, we 

 found three of tlie four nests which rewarded 

 our efforts. 



On May 29th, 1886, Dr. Ealph found the first 

 nest. It was placed two feet from the ground 

 in the upright fork of a little maple bush. It 

 was a loose structure, measuring, outside di- 

 ameter, three inches ; inside, one and three- 

 quarter inches ; outside depth, three and three- 

 quarter inches ; inside one and one-half inches. 

 It was composed of strips of rotten wood, 

 held together and lined with fine black roots, 

 and further secured with a few strips of the 

 bark of deciduous trees. It contained four 

 eggs, which were somewhat incubated, and 

 measured .66x.50; .66x.51; .64x.51, and .64 

 X .51 inches. They are white, rather sparsely 

 marked with lilac and bi-own spots and dots, 

 heaviest at the large end. In shape and gen- 

 eral appearance they resemble some sjiecimens 

 of eggs of the Amei'ican Redstart {Setophaga 

 ruticilla) . 



On the same day Dr. Ralph found another 

 nest, just completed, about which he saw the 

 birds, but it was empty. On June 11th we 

 went together to collect this nest, when we 

 found to our disappointment and surprise that 

 it was gone, literally every bit, except one lit- 

 tle sti'and of bark wrapped about a twig. As 

 there were no tracks of any kind, and as not a 

 twig or leaf of the little bush was disturbed, it 

 was evident that it had been taken avvaj^ either 

 by the owners, or bj^ some other birds for the 

 purpose of nest building elsewhere. Our own 

 opinion being that the owners had determined 

 to " move house," we carefully searched the 

 knoll again, and were rewarded by finding a 

 nest on which the bird was sitting on a single 

 egg. This we left until the 14th, when, on 

 visiting the nest again, it still contained only 

 one egg. The nest was placed in the upright 

 fork of a little maple, nine inches from the 

 ground, and was composed of the same mate- 

 rial as the former one, and measured, outside 



