278 NOUTIl AilEKlCAN JJlIiDS. 



plaiifagineitm. He describes the eggs as having a white ground, sharj) at one 

 end, and marked with s})ots of lihic-imrple and ol' two shades of brown, 

 more numerous at the larger end, where they Ibrnied a ring. He s]ieaks of 

 their note as slender, and noticed their arrival about the second week of 

 May, leaving the middle of Sejjtendier. 



At another time ^Ir. Nuttall was attracted l>y tiie slender, filing notes of 

 this bird, reseud)liiig the sui)i)ressed syllables 'tsh-'tsh-tuh-tshca, beginning 

 low and gradually growing louder. Witli its mate it was laisily engaged 

 collecting Jiies and larva; about a clump of locust-trees in Mount Auburn. 

 Their nest was near, and the female, Mithout any precautions, Ment directly 

 to it. Mr. Nuttall removed two eg'js, which he afterwards replaced. Each 

 time, on his withdrawal, she returned to the nest, and resorted to no exjjcdi- 

 ents to entice him away. 



Several nests of this Warbler have been obtained by Mr. Welch in Lynn. 

 One was built on a wild rose, oidy a few feet from the ground. It is a snug, 

 compact, and elaborately woven structure, having a height and a diameter of 

 about two and a half inches. The cavity is two inclies wide and one and a 

 half deep. The nuiterials of which the outer parts are woven are chiefly the 

 soft inner bark of small shrubs, mingled with dry rose-leaves, bits of \ege- 

 tables, wood, wooily fibres, decayed stems of jdants, spiders' webs, etc. The 

 whole is bound together like a web by cotton-like fibres of a vegetable ori- 

 gin. The upper rim of this nest is a marked feature, being a strongly inter- 

 laced weaving of vegetable roots and strips of bark. The lining of the nest 

 is com]i()sed of fine vegetable fibres and a few horse-hairs. This nest, in its 

 general mode of construction, resembles all that 1 have seen ; only in others 

 the materials vary, — in some dead and decayed leaves, in others renuuns 

 of old cocoons, and in others the pajtpus of com])osite plants, being more 

 prominent than the fine strips of bark. The nests are usually witiiin four 

 feet of the ground. The eggs vary from three to five, and even six. 



The late Dr. tierhardt found this bird the most common Warbler in Nor- 

 thern Georgia. There its nests were siiuilar in size, structure, and jiosition, 

 but diH'ered more or less in the mateiials of whicli they were made. The 

 nests were a, trifle larger and the walls thinner, the cavities being corresi)ond- 

 ingly larger. The materials were more invariably fine strips of inner bark 

 and Hax-like vegetable fibres, and were lined with the finest stems of ))lants, 

 in one case witii the feathers of the (Ircsat Horned Owl. In that neighbor- 

 hood the eggs were deposited by the loth of jNlay. 



lu Massachusetts tlie Prairie Warbler invariably selects wild pasture-land, 

 often not far from villages, and always open or very thinly wooded. In 

 Georgia their nests were built in almost every kind of liush or low ti'ce, or 

 on the lower limljs of post-oaks, at f lie height of from four to seven feet. 

 Eggs were found once as early as the 2d of May, and once as late as the 10th 

 of June. The birds arrived there by the lUtli of A])ril, and seemed to 

 prefer hillsides, but were found in almost any open locality. 



