376 NOTES ON THE 
representative sections of the province of my survey. - I have 
personally met the bird but once during the summer months, 
but that they breed within our borders extensively there can 
be no doubt. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Top and sides of head and neck ash gray; rest of upper parts 
olive green, brightest on the rump; beneath dull white, faintly 
tinged in places, especially on the sides with yellowish olive; 
eyelids and a stripe over the eye, whitish; a dusky line from 
the eye to the bill; outer tail feathers with a white spot along 
the inner edge near the tip. 
Length, 4.50; wing, 2.75; tail, 1.85. 
Habitat, eastern North America. 
COMPSOTHLYPIS AMERICANA (L.). (648.) 
PARULA WARBLER. 
This is a Somewhat common summer resident, but so small 
and unobtrusive that it eluded my notice for many years after 
I became a resident of the state except in the season of migra- 
tion, when a victim found its way into my collecting basket 
very frequently. It arrives about the 10th of May in this lati- 
tude, and builds its nest in the last days of that month. This 
consists of acommon form of lichen ingeniously woven into a 
sort of ball, with the entrance generally on one side, but some- 
times in the top. It is usually on the limbs of maples or iron- 
woods about twenty to thirty feet from the ground, and contains 
four white eggs, speckled with reddish-brown, especially around 
the larger end. Notably this bird mostly avoids damp, dark, 
swampy localities, and is found on high, dry, and even hilly 
places in the forest. The song is humble, but finds a most 
welcome place in the choristry of the woodlands. In the heat 
of the day, at a time when a majority of the songsters have 
ceased to sing, this humblest and smallest of all, begins with 
its low, feeble note, which resembles, cheweech, cheweech, cheweech, 
cheweech, repeating it several times with increasing force and 
volume till it suddenly ceases, to be repeated presently again 
in the same manner. As above suggested, the breeding habits 
of this bird are easily overlooked, and, as a consequence, few 
of those who have been collecting observations which are of 
value to the survey, have been able to give any valuable addi- 
tions to my knowledge of the local habits of this warbler. By 
the 10th, and often the 5th, of September they have turned 
their beautiful little blue and yellow backs upon our latitudes 
for the sunnier South. 
