382 ; NOTES ON THE 
was watching the movements of the ducks, thus affording me 
the amplest opportunities for seeing them,some of them coming 
within a yard of me at such times. Some of these flocks would 
amount to more than two hundred, and the least one I ever un- 
dertook to estimate, was somewhat more than twenty. The 
quantities of minute insects and larvee destroyed by this 
species alone, must be something simply marvelous. Any 
winged forms at this early season could scarcely escape them, 
for while not so nervously active as some of the later warblers, 
they were unerring in their fly-catcher-like seizure of them in 
the air. Their movements whether climbing about for larvee 
and insects, or flitting out after a winged form, are easy, grace- 
ful, and always restful to witness, which is more than can be 
said of most other warblers and fly-catchers. 
Notr. Since the most of the foregoing was written I have 
found some nests of the Myrtle Warblers in the northern and 
northwestern sections of the State, and more of the young, in 
early August, leaving the question of their breeding within the 
limits of the area of my inquiries at rest in my own mind. The 
nest is in a small tree or large bush, about six or seven feet 
from the ground, and the structure consists of fine roots, 
grasses, stalks of weeds, and the fibrous bark of different kinds 
of woods and coarse weeds, and is lined very neatly with fine 
roots, hair and feathers. It is not quite as bulky as the nests 
of some other warblers, but is very firm and well built. The 
eggs are four in number, ashy white, dotted all over with two 
shades of brown, darkest about the larger end. I cannot think 
they bring out asecond brood. The young of this species were 
found by Mr. Washburn at the Thief river in August. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Above, blueish ash, streaked with black; under parts white; 
forepart of breast and sides black, the feathers mostly edged 
with white; crown, rump and sides of breast y2llow; cheeks 
and lores black; eyelids and a superciliary stripe, two bands 
on the wing, and spots on the outer three tail feathers, white. 
Length, 5.65; wing, 8; tail, 2.50. 
Habitat, eastern North America. 
DENDROICA MACULOSA (GmEtin). (657.) 
MAGNOLIA WARBLER. 
It has always been difficult to explain the circumstance of my 
obtaining this species in 1869, on the 27th day of April, the 
habit of the species being almost unexceptionally rather on the 
other extreme of arrivals. It varies also extremely in the 
numerical character of its migrations, some years being very 
