ORNITHOLOGIST 



— a:nd— 



OOLOGIST. 



Sl.OO per 

 Annum. 



Joseph M. Wade, Editor and Publisher. 

 Established, March, 1875. 



■ SingJe Copy, 

 10 Cents. 



VOL. VI. 



NORWICH, CONN., SEPTEMBER, 1881. 



NO. 7. 



Kentucky Warbler. 



ITS NESTING HABITS 



Kentucky Warbler, Opororius formosa. 

 Season of 1881. Locality, Wheatland, 

 Knox Co., Ind. The first specimen was 

 taken April 21st, and a week later they were 

 common in all the bottom woods- This 

 name applies to the heavy timbered tracts 

 that are overflowed by the rising of rivers. 

 The woods in such places are high and 

 dense, almost to the exclusion of under- 

 growth. 



In its habits the Kentucky Warbler re- 

 sembles the Golden Crowned Thrush, 

 walking deliberately on the ground and 

 mounting a log or low limb to sing. The 

 song is a ringing whistle, a miniature of the 

 Cardinal Grosbeak's, which it much resem- 

 bles. It is by no means shy; on the con- 

 trary it quickly resents an intruder, flying 

 from branch to branch constantly uttering 

 its mellow chirp Both birds take part in 

 these demonstrations and seem as anxious 

 before as after they have nests. 



May 9th, I flushed a pair and found a 

 partially made nest, but having to leave for 

 a month, Mr Ridgway collected and pre- 

 pared the set for me, May i8th, then with 

 four fresh eggs. June 7th, I took the last 

 nest of the season with four fresh eggs, also 

 at Wheatland. The time intervening was 

 spent at Mt. Carmel, III, where seven 

 others were found in various stages of in- 

 cubation. 



A nesting place is usually selected on a 

 slightly raised piece of ground for a dry 

 situation, and a large hollow, 7 to 10 inches 

 across, is made among the dead leaves. 

 This is filled in first with leaves very nicely 



arranged for the outside; then dry grass 

 stalks and delicate limbs are put together 

 more solidly and lined Avith fine roots and 

 usually a very few hairs. The outside 

 leaves are difficult to remove with the in- 

 ner nest. Some nests are placed between 

 the several stems of bushes but are all so 

 sunken in the leaves as to have the upper 

 rim even with the surface. The hollow in 

 the nest is large and deep. Five eggs was 

 the largest number taken. In shape and 

 color they resemble finely dotted Chats and 

 Golden Crowned Thrushes, and are about 

 the size of those of the Indigo bird. It is 

 only by accident that the nest is found, as 

 the sitting bird has to be almost stepped 

 upon before leaving it. It sometimes 

 feigns injury, fluttering along the ground; 

 at others leaves quietly. Once it was al- 

 most accidental that I noticed the move- 

 ment of the leaves of a small plant caused 

 Ijy the bird as it left the nest.— Z^. T. Jeiicks. 



Black Throated Blue Warbler 



NESTING IN CONNECTICUT. 



I have succeeded this year (1881) in 

 finding another nest of Dendroeca ccerides- 

 ce/is, being the third nest of this species that 

 I have found in this town. (See Bull. Nutt. 

 Orn. Club, Vol. L, p. n.) The nest was 

 in a large tract of woods, as were the others, 

 on a hillside near low, swampy ground 

 through which ran a small brook. It was 

 placed in a laurel bush, ten inches from the 

 ground, resting on two long, slender and 

 nearly horizontal branches. The eggs, four 

 in number, were far advanced in incuba- 

 tion, although it was on the seventh of June 

 that I found them, while the eggs that I 



