ORNITHOLOGIST 



AND 



OOLOGIST. 



$1.00 per 

 annum. 



Established March 1875, 

 Joseph M. Wade, editor and publisher. 



10 cents 

 single copy. 



VOL. VI. 



ROCKVILLE, CONN., APRIL 1881. 



NO. 2 



Hooded ^Varblers. 



NESTING IN SOUTHERN CONN. 



It was back a mile from the public roads 

 in the deep old woods, chestnuts, beeches 

 and birches of seventy-five years standing 

 with a short undergrowth of kalmia aver- 

 aging some two and a half feet in hight. 

 This shrub is abundant here and is fre- 

 quently found in patches of considerable 

 extent. I was passing quietly along in 

 such a place when something flitted across 

 my path almost from under my feet. It 

 passed so swiftly from sight I could not 

 distinguish it, disappearing instantly in 

 the adjacent shrubbery, but I knew what 

 it was for I had been through the same ex- 

 perience before. Scrutinizing every shrub 

 ever so carefully, I failed to fix my eyes on 

 the nest that I knew was there, for I could 

 soon hear the sharp, clear note of the fe- 

 male Hooded Warbler a few paces away in 

 the thickets, and catch an occasional 

 glimpse of her as she flitted from shrub 

 to shrub, and from one thicket to another, 

 and I could see the white j^atches of the 

 tail open and shut with every movement. 



Taught by past experience I presently 

 abandoned searching and retired a short 

 distance, carefully marking the spot, to 

 watch the bird and wait developments. 

 As I moved away from the spot I could 

 perceive that the bird approached it again 

 by the continually repeated "telip " nearer 

 and nearer at each repetition, till in five 

 minutes it was silent or with only an occa- 

 sional note, and I knew she was on the 

 nest. I listened keenly for every note as 

 I again approached the spot, for this bird 

 will occasionally repeat her note- when on 

 the nest, as I have often proved, and when 



she went fluttering off, I saw the little 

 shrub tremble and knew that there was 

 the nest closely hidden among the dark 

 green kalmia le ives, but very easy to see 

 now that I knew just where to look. 

 Pieces of yellow birch bark, beech and 

 chestnut leaves carefully matted and 

 bound together and to the triangular 

 crotch, formed the base of the structure, 

 rounded and neatly finished at the top 

 with the inner bark of chestnut and ce- 

 dar, with fine grass and scales from beech 

 buds and a little fern down mixed in, and 

 all secured compactly together with spider 

 webs. I speak advisedly having seen the 

 bird diligently gather the webs. Inside 

 the nest was neatly and smoothly lined 

 with mixed horse hair and very fine grass. 

 Largest outer diameter three inches and a 

 half, inner diameter two inches, and depth 

 two inches, and built in a little kalmia 

 bush about fifteen inches from the ground. 

 This description will answer for most of 

 the many nests I have found of the spe- 

 cies, with varying quantities of birch bark 

 and fern down, invariably in a kalmia 

 bush. This was the twenty-sixth of May, 

 1879, and within this nest was four beauti- 

 ful little eggs, pearly and rosy, but dif- 

 ferently marked from any I had before 

 seen of the species, just about regulation 

 pattern for size, averaging 23-32 inch in 

 length, and 18-32 inch in greater breadth, 

 being marked with very minute dots, a few 

 scattered over the surface but mostly in a 

 ring around the larger end. Eleven days 

 after this event I found another nest and 

 set of three eggs in the same spot,|scarcely a 

 foot from where I found the other; these 

 eggs were quite unlike the former set in 



