106 



THE OOLOGIST. 



of this species in tlie latter half of May, 

 and while the sites of all these nests 

 were on the banks of I'iver and fluvia- 

 tile lakes, no site found was in water 

 or over water. All of these nests were 

 in stubs and tree-trnnks on the dry 

 ridges between the river and the 

 swamp lying alongside, in most cases 

 on ground the Warblers had never seen 

 overflowed this year, and in other in- 

 stances as near as five feet to the edge 

 of the water. Then ihe heights of the 

 sites surprised me. From what I had 

 read of the nesting habits of this spe- 

 cies (I had never visited the haunts of 

 this Warbler during the breeding pe- 

 riod) I had inferred that most of the 

 sites were very low, and so nearly of 

 the same height that a rise of the water 

 ior a very few inches would destroy 

 many nests. My notes, however, re- 

 cord only two nests below tive feet 

 from the ground, and in the majority 

 of instances the sites were about nine 

 feet from the ground, the actual 

 heights being found and recorded in my 

 notebook. The distances from the 

 ground varied from four feet eight 

 inches to fourteen feet. If the stub or 

 trunk inclined, the cavity was always 

 on the under side, this, however, being 

 the work of the Downy Woodpecker or 

 ■Chickadee which excavated the cavity. 

 Most of the nests were in recently 

 excavated, unused cavities, begun by 

 the builders in the preceding fall and 

 finished during the winter and early 

 spring. They wei'e always in rotten 

 wood, so decayed that the surrounding 

 parts could be easily torn away with 

 the fingers, though one nest, the one 

 iourteen feet from the ground, could 

 •only be exposed by cutting away the 

 -wood with a hatchet. The cavities 

 were usually made obliquely into the 

 trunk, so that the nest was placed just 

 within the bark or behind a thin layer 

 of wood. The entrance was ordinarily 

 a hole about one inch and a half in di- 



ameter, its appearance suggesting a 

 probable Chickadee's nest. 



The usual depth of the cavity was be- 

 tween five and seven inches, the most 

 of them being nearer the less number, 

 and the cavities averaged about three 

 inches in diameter, though the cavity 

 was commonly longer than wide, three 

 and a half by two and a half being the 

 usual measurements. Very few nests 

 were found in cavities having rough or 

 irregular or broken entrances, the 

 small subcircular entrance above de- 

 scribed being the favorite in the re- 

 gions we visited. In one instance, 

 while the entrance to the cavity was 

 unimpaired, the cavity was so split that 

 the bird sitting on her eggs could be 

 plainly seen as I approached the nest. 



In another instance, the bird had 

 built her nest in the upper part of a 

 long slit in the stump, the nest being 

 held in place by irregularities on the 

 inside and there being; nothing to hide 

 the structure from observation. With 

 these two exceptions, the sites were all 

 as above described, though some wri- 

 ters state that the rough and irregular 

 cavities are the favored nesting sites. 



It is especially in its nidification that 

 the dry season most affects this War- 

 bler. Their nests have been praised 

 for their beauty, and i confess that I 

 was disappointed when I tore open the 

 cavity containing the first nest of this 

 Warbler I had ever found, and saw 

 only a flimsy affair of dark and dried 

 material. The prettiest part of the 

 nests, was the foundation, which was 

 ordinarily composed of small pieces of 

 dark green tree-moss, varying to a 

 thickness not exceeding . two inches, 

 depending on the size of the cavity. 

 On this moss was laid a layer of fibrous 

 roots, skeleton leaves, dried leaves and 

 weed-stems, averaging less than an 

 inch in thickness. The nest was fin- 

 ished with fine dried grass and a few 

 horsehairs. In some instances the moss 

 was almost entirely lacking, and in 



