-^^0. 3.] SENNETT ON THE ORNITHOLOGY OF TEXAS. 385 



we shot over twenty specimens, and could have taken any number more 

 had we set out for them alone. In feeding habits I could see nothing 

 different from our familiar Blue Yellow-back, P. americana. 



When the few specimens of this new species were obtained in 1877, little 

 or nothing was seen of its breeding habits. One of the great induce- 

 ments to repeat the trip to the Eio Grande was to further our knowledge 

 of this pretty Warbler. From the time of my arrival at its habitat, early 

 in AjDril, nearly every day specimens were obtained and examined, to 

 ascertain the condition of the ovaries, with the view of finding nests and 

 eggs. How well I remember my anxiety, about the middle of May, 

 when, after a number of weeks' stay and examination of many birds of 

 this species, dissection showed the eggs to be only just developing. 

 The weather was growing intensely hot, the time for our departure was 

 set in the near fature, and it seemed as if we could not obtain an egg of 

 a bird so common, before returning home. But on ]\lay 17, while my 

 assistant and I were trying to save some large birds, Paucho, our Mexi- 

 can guide, brought me the most interesting and peculiar nest I had 

 seen in that locality, together with one broken egg, belonging to this 

 new Warbler. He observed the nest while riding about the timber and 

 chaparral, and it was while standing on liis saddle, reaching for it, that 

 his horse started and threw the only egg it contained to the gTOund. 

 Our prospects thus looked brighter, and we had hopes of finding other 

 nests within a few days. Instructions were given to all the Mexicans 

 about the ranch to search clumps of moss and orchids for them, but 

 without avail, and we left the country the latter part of May with but 

 a single nest and a poor broken egg to illustrate the breeding habits of 

 P. nigrilora. The date, May 17, of finding nest and egg, I judge to be 

 unusually early. The great majority must breed in June, for on July 

 5, of the season before, what I have no doubt were young of this bird 

 were found near Brownsville by Dr. Merrill, but not recognized. aSTone 

 of our Northern form, P. americana, were observed on the trip, and the 

 only form of Farula breeding on our southern border is nigrilora. This 

 Warbler must arrive on the Eio Grande in March, for in the first part of 

 April it Avas there in full force. I confidently expect this bird to be 

 found in wooded districts north of the Eio Grande and possibly north of 

 the Nueces Eiver. That this form has not been met with in Mexico by 

 the several field ornithologists who have visited that section seems 

 strange, yet the small size and forest habits of the bird would account 

 perhaps fo? its being so long concealed from observation. 



The nest is exceedingly interesting and beautiful. It is made in a 

 gray mistletoe-like orchid, an air-planl very common on the Eio Grande, 

 which establishes itself on the small branches of trees, and varies in size 

 up to eight or ten inches in diameter. This one is six inches long by 

 four and one-haK inches ^vide, quite firm in texture, and was fastened 

 some ten feet from the ground, to the end of a droopmg branch of brazil- 

 tree in open woodland. The nest is constructed very simply, being 

 formed by parting the gray leaves of the orchid and digging into its 



