254 NOTES ON THE 
eggs as early as the fifth of that month on one occasion. As 
to the location of the nest, 1 have found it somewhat varied, as 
I have also the materials out of which it was constructed. The 
first I ever obtained was near a creek in a thicket just in the 
woods adjoining a plowed field, and but a short distance from 
a dwelling. It was on ground elevated at least 20 feet above 
the creek, and not more than 20 yards from a frequented high- 
way. Another was obtained in a very open place in the deep, 
dark woods, two miles distant from the first. The first named 
nest met the description of what one writer describes as ‘‘loose 
and rustic, even raggedly woven, etc.,” while the second 
was more compact and more firmly secured to the forked 
limb on which it was built. The materials have all been 
essentially the same, namely: Fine strips of bark, with grasses 
woven together, without much display of ambition in bird 
architecture. Careful measurements made the elevation of it 
average seven feet. The eggs have invariably been three, 
with a deep cream color, and mostly, but not always, spotted 
near the greater end with brown. I find no proclivity to any one 
kind of tree or bush, but they indiscriminately choose a sumach 
an oak or a basswood. It has a very humble combination of 
notes, hardly worthy to be called a song. 
Dr. Hvoslef found it in the valley of the Root river on the 
28th of May, and Mr. Washburn reports it common in the Red 
river valley at nearly all points he visited late in August. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Second and third quills longest, and about equal; the fourth 
a little shorter; the first about equal to the fifth, and about 
0.35 of an inch less than the longest. Tail even. The upper 
parts with the sides of the head and neck, olive-green, the 
crown, very little if any darker. A yellowish- white ring around 
the eye. The sides of the body under the wings like the back, 
but fainter olive; a tinge of the same across the breast; the 
chin, throat and middle of the belly, white; the abdomen, lower 
tail and wing coverts, and sides of body not covered by the 
wings, pale greenish-yellow. Edges of the first primary, sec- 
ondaries, and tertials, margined with dull yellowish-white, 
most broadly on the latter. Two transverse bands of pale yel- 
lowish across the wings formed by the tips of the secondary 
and primary coverts, succeeded by a brown one. Tail light 
brown, margined externally like the back. Upper mandible 
light brown above; pale yellow beneath. In autumn the lower 
parts are more yellow. 
Length, 5.65 to 6; wing, 3.00; tail, 2.75; (tarsus, %; bill, 3). 
Habitat, Eastern United States, chiefly southward, west to 
the plains, south to Cuba and Costa Rica. 
