294 NORTH AMKHICAN BIRI)8. 



Mr. Audubon states that this Warl)ler is the most common ami abundant 

 species that visits tlie State of Louisiana and the whole it\u;ion about the 

 Mississippi IJiver, but is not so common in Kentucky or Oliio. He de- 

 scribes it as an extremely lively and active l)ird, found in all the low grounds 

 and damp places near watercourses, and generally among the tall rank weeds 

 and low bushes growing in rich alluvial soil. It is continually in motion, 

 hopping from stalk to stalk, and from twig to twig, preying upon insects, 

 larvae, or small berries, rarely ]iursuing an insect on the wing. He describes 

 its song as agreeable and emphatic. He has never known this sjiecies fly 

 fartlier than a few yards at a time. Its lliglit is low, and is performed in a 

 gliding manner. It makes its first appearance about the middle of March, 

 and remains until the middle or last of September. He states that it rears 

 two broods in a season. His description of its nest, as " small, beautifully 

 constructed, and attached to sevend stems of nink weetls," etc., does not agree 

 in position, size, or ajipearance with any that I have ever seen. 



According lo Tdr. Audubon, it feeds largely u])on spiders, which it obtains 

 by turning over the witiiered leaves on the ground. Tiie young birds resem- 

 ble their mother until the following season, when the males attain the full 

 beauty of their iduinage. They remain with their parents until they migrate. 



The late Dr. Alexander Gerhardt, an accurate and observing n.itnralist of 

 Northern Georgia, informed me, by letter, that the nest of the Kentucky 

 Warbler is usually built on the ground, under a tuft of grass, often on a hill- 

 side and always in dry places. The eggs are deposited from the 4th to the 

 lull I of May. Nearly all the nests he met with were made externally of a 

 loose aggregation of dry oak and chestnut leaves, so rudely thrown together 

 as hardly to possess any coherence, and requiring to be sewed to be kept in 

 place. The interior or inner nests were more corajjactly interwoven, usually 

 com]io,sed of fine dark-brown routs. Instead of being small, they are large 

 for the bird, and are inelegantly and cltnnsily made. They measure four 

 inches in their diameter, three in height, and two in the dejjth of their cavity. 

 One nest, the last received from Dr. (Jerhardt, obtained by him at Var- 

 nell's Station, in Northern (Jeorgia, June a, 1800, is large and i)eculiar in its 

 construction. It is nearly spherical in shape, with an entrance i)artially on 

 one side and nearly archetl over. The peri,.!iery of this nest is comjHJsed 

 exclusively of ])artially decayed deciduous leaves, imi)acted together, ^d 

 somewhat loosely. Within tiiis outer coveving is a fine framework of sten)S, 

 twigs, and rootlets, and within this a snug, compact lining of hair and finer 

 rootlets and fibres. This nest is six inches in diameter and five in height. 

 It contained four egg.s. 



These eggs havt! an avenig*' length of .(i!) of an inch and a breadth of .50 

 of an inch. They hiive an oltlong-oval slia])e, a crystalline-white ground, and 

 the entire surl'ace is s]>rinkled over with fine dots of red and reddish-brown. 

 The.se, though most abundant about the larger end, are nowhere confluent, 

 autl do not form a crown. 



