THE CIIESTXUT-SIDED WARBLER. 307 



and commences to buHd about the lust week in tliis montli or tlie first in 

 June. The nest is usually built in ;i small fork of a low tree, often in 

 bushes, but a few feet from the ground. It is constructed of thin strips 

 of pliable bark and fine grasses. These materials, are bent and intwined 

 together, and over the outside arc })ieces of caterpillar silk and cobwebs, 

 •which are plastered on, seemingly to give the fabric compactness and con- 

 sistency. The nest is deeply hollowed, and lined with horse-hairs and 

 slender strips of the bark of the grape-vine. Xuttall describes a nest fouud 

 in Acton, ]Mass., as follows : — 



"It is fixed in the forked twigs of a hazel, aI)out breast high. The fabric 

 is rather light and airy, being made externally of a few coarse blades and 

 stalks of dead grass, then filled in with fine blades of the same ; the whole 

 matted and tied with caterpillars' silk, and lined with very slender stri[)s of 

 brown bark and similar white-pine leaves." 



The nests which we have collected are of a different character from iiis 

 description, being compactly and neatly made of bark from the cedar, and 

 grasses, and lined with horse-hair ; but we have no doubt that this species, 

 like many others, varies in breeding habits in different localities. The eggs 

 are three or four in number, and are laid about the first week in June. 

 They are of a delicate creamy-white color, and marked at the great end with 

 spots of brown, which are often confluent. The spots are of two colors, a 

 reddish-brown and purplish-brown. The dimensions vary from .70 by .51 

 inch, to .Go by .50. But one brood is raised in the season. 



This is another of those birds which seem to have become quite al)undant 

 within a few years. A\'ilson, Nuttall, and others, speak of it as being a very 

 rare species ; and it is now one of the most conunon of birds, in localities 

 where it was, a few years since, quite rare. It prefers a growth of low 

 shrubs, and scrub-oaks, and birches, to a forest of tall trees, and is seldom 

 seen in the latter. 



Its note consists of the syllables \-he 'die \h 'chcea, repeated at short 

 intervals. It has also, at times, a rattling cry, something like the alarm- 

 note of the ^Maryland Yellow-throat. 



The female has nothing but a sharp chirp, which she often emits in answer 

 to the song of the male. AMicn ajiproached while on the nest, she sits 

 quietly until the intruder is quite near. 



The Tanagers proper, included in several genera, occur in most portions 

 of North and South America. They arc among the most gaudily attired 

 of all the birds, and some species are possessed of considerable powers of 

 song. They frequent forests, swamps, and on-hards, and feed on insects 

 and their \a\-\-x, and the buds of trees and berries. Those s[)ecies which 

 do not spend the year iu tropical regions, migrate to more temperate 



