172 



OEKITHOLOGIST 



[Yol. 12-:N'o. 10 



The birds lingered so long that it was evident 

 they were preparing to breed and I was becom- 

 ing more interested, and though seemingly use- 

 less, could not resist a desire to search for their 

 nests. I visited the colony with that intention, 

 about the last of April, and finding the warblers 

 in the highest pines onlj^, naturally concluded 

 their nests could not be elsewhere. It was 

 most impossible that so small a nest could be 

 seen from below, and in case it (iould, there 

 was a trunk between it and the ground that I 

 did not care to scale; indeed my enthusiasm 

 was so diminished that I was not sure I wanted 

 to see a nest, so I left without any intention of 

 returning, though I knew little or nothing was 

 known of the nesting habits of the bird. 



About the middle of May, while passing a 

 body of pines of the lesser variety, I heard the 

 peculiar song of D. dominica and thinking a 

 pair had wandered from the others, I hastened 

 to the spot whence it came, but when there 

 heard the voice near a creek a short distance 

 away ; so supposing the bird was straying 

 about feeding, I passed on. I heard the song 

 on several occasions afterward, however, and 

 was convinced that the pair was breeding, but 

 did not have time to investigate. 



On June 4th I decided to follow the birds un- 

 til one should go to its nest, though I expected 

 to find them feeding young. On nearing the 

 pines I heard the song of the male exactly 

 where I heard it fii'St, some weeks before. 

 Guided by this, I found him high in a pine, his 

 mouth then well filled, though this seemed no 

 obstacle to his song which was uttered at regu- 

 lar intervals. I was expecting every moment 

 to see him leave for the nest, but he continued 

 to fly from tree to tree gathering more food, 

 scanning the limbs to the end, climbing out on 

 the tips of the needle-shaped leaves and look- 

 ing over, head downward. When the game 

 flew, he took it in very quickly, after the fash- 

 ion of the Fly-catchers. Even in the smaller 

 pines he evinced his disposition to feed near 

 the top. I was astonished to see this bird de- 

 scend from a height of sixty feet and alight by 

 his nest in a small pine near me. After the 

 height at which I had always seen him, there 

 was his nest only nineteen feet from the 

 ground ! Not a note passed and my hopes ran 

 high, thinking I had caught him feeding his 

 mate on her nest. It is useless to say I clam- 

 bered up ; I could not stay away. The nest 

 contained three birds, quite young and one egg 

 containing no embryo, which made a very nice 

 specimen. 



The nest was not pensile, as claimed by Nutt- 



all, but built closely to the main body of the 

 tree, the bottom part resting on a short dead 

 stick. It does not contain a sprig of moss nor 

 a lichen as described by Audubon, but resem- 

 bles closely that of the Pine Warbler, which I 

 hope will be described later, being about half 

 as large and is composed outwardly of about 

 the same materials, yet somewhat finer in qual- 

 ity, and is lined with a quantity of horse-hair 

 instead of feathers. It has one prominent fea- 

 ture, however, and there is some attempt at 

 weaving. I was surprised to see a nest so 

 warm and compact at that time, so far south. 

 I did not see the mother bird but shot her mate 

 which went with the nest and egg to the U. S. 

 National Museum. The egg is white rather 

 heavily spotted with brown. 



Notes on Some Birds of Grand 

 Manan. 



EDITED BY F. H. CARPENTER. 



Leach's Petrel, (Oceanodroma leucorhoa). 

 This species we found breeding by thousands 

 on Wood's and the White Horse Islands. A 

 few pairs remain on Low Duck. The island of 

 the White Horse is completely honey-combed, 

 as are tracts on Wood's by their burrows which 

 extend from seven or eight inches to two feet in 

 length, taking all sorts of courses and often 

 crossing and bisecting the passage of other 

 pairs. The consistencj^ of the loam is a damp 

 fertile mold which enables the bird not only to 

 excavate without difficulty but renders the bur- 

 rows proof against cave-ins from a natural 

 cause. At the end of the burrow is a thin lin- 

 ing of dry reeds, straw or twigs on which the 

 single egg is placed. We usually made an en- 

 trance by running in the arm to the elbow and 

 then raising up and the nest was usually reach- 

 ed by the second time if not the first, though in 

 a few cases we were obliged to work some time, 

 often running ofl" the scent into deserted cav- 

 ities ere we struck the right one. The birds 

 when set free by a starting toss into the air 

 took a direct course out o\'er the water and 

 were soon out of sight, but if not thus aided 

 they waddled about in the grass trying to hide 

 their heads in a very stupid manner. 



The eggs are exceedingly brittle and require 

 a month's sitting to hatch. The young are fed 

 during the night, and though the parents swarm 

 forth by thousands at this time in search of 

 food for their progeny, they never seemed to 

 mistake their home for that of another on 



