THE OOLOGIST 



23 



up their nome in damp, dark woods 

 ■where the ferrs with their luxurious 

 growth predominate. The male utters 

 ■short calling notes to the female. 

 The Oven Bird is found in the same 

 locality. Aibout the middle of May 

 they start nest-building, which are al- 

 most invariably constructed in a clus- 

 ter of ferns, about 12 or 15 inches 

 from the ground. 



Those nests that we found are 

 about 4 inches in circumference and 

 3^/^ inches in height on the outside 

 dry swamp grass interwoven with 

 dry leaves and coarse rootlets, lined 

 with the finest rootlets. Notwith- 

 standing Nehrling's, Chapman's and 

 Davies' statement, "lined with fine 

 hair," they may, however, conform 

 with the locality. The eggs are white, 

 sprinkled with reddish dots near the 

 larger end, and lay froni 3 to 5 eggs. 



While the female sits on the eggs, 

 the male is perched on a dry small 

 twig of a sapling from 10 to 1.5 feet 

 from the ground. I saw a male in 

 this position , and having a stout 

 stick in hand with which I parted the 

 ferns in looking for the nest, I threw 

 it at the bird and brought it down. 

 It now adorns our collection of birds, 

 They utter a peculiar song, which 

 is different from that of any other 

 warbler, thereby leading to the detec- 

 tion of their nests. We took the pic- 

 ture of the nest June 3, 1906, and 

 found another one in the same piece 

 of woods. The shyness of this very 

 peculiar dark feathered warbler makes 

 it very difficult to find. After rearing 

 the young, they leave us again at the 

 end of September. 



EDWARD REINECKE, 

 Buffalo, N. Y. 



Photo by Reinecke. 

 Nest and Eggs of Mourning Warbler. 



