66 THE OOLOGIST 27 
nesting material. It was then up to 
me to keep them in sight until they 
reached the nest. 
By watching one place so much I 
discovered that a great many more 
birds nested in a favorable locality 
than I had any idea of. 
Roaming about and looking at ran- 
dom I soon found produced no Ceru- 
lean nests, and with one exception, 
all that I found were discovered by 
watching the females. This one ex- 
ception was on a limb two inches in 
diameter of a big oak. The nest was 
built amongst a couple of little 
sprigs that grew up and because of 
the leaves could be seen from only 
one spot on the ground. I passed 
this tree so often that once I happen- 
ed to glance up while in just the right 
place. 
The females built their nests alone, 
in no case did the male help, although 
often he accompanied her to and fro. 
The nesting material was always 
procured on or near the ground. One 
female Cerulean. that I saw gathering 
nesting material, I followed up and 
found to have just started a nest 
forty feet up and seven feet from the 
trunk in a big oak, on a limb two 
inches in diameter. This was on the 
morning of May 13th. On the 19th 
she finished the nest, taking seven 
days to do the work. On the 26th the 
female began to incubate a set of four. 
Altogether I found twelve nests, six 
in one season. 
Six of these nests I have data for 
showing height and distance from the” 
trunk. Of these six one was in a 
maple forty feet up and twelve feet 
out on a limb one and one-half inches 
in diameter. The other five were in 
oaks which is the tree preferred in 
that region. These five were as fol- 
lows: 
30 feet up, 5 feet out on a 2 in. limb 
40 feet up, 10 feet out on a 2 in. limb 
Ay ANOS 
40 feet up, 7 feet out on a 2 in. limb 
45 feet up, 6 feet out on a 3 in, limb 
40 feet up, 9 feet out on a 1% in. limb 
They were always built on top of 
a horizontal limb at a point where a 
branch started out or where several 
sprigs put out to give the female a 
chance to fasten the nest securely. 
The nests are small and neat. A typi- 
cal one measures three and one-fourth 
in diameter and one and one-half 
inches deep. 
The material used is shreds and 
strips of inner bark, shreds of weeds, 
fine strips of grape vine bark, and veg- 
etable material, and in one case a 
few small pieces of a newspaper that 
I had thrown away were used. The 
lining was fine shreds of bark, some- 
times hair and frequently fine grasses. 
The eggs greatly resemble the eggs 
of the Yellow warbler, being of a 
greenish -ground color, and well spot- 
ted with browns and purple, principal- 
ly in the form of a wreath about the 
larger end. 
To collect the nest and eggs I cut 
two long light poles. At the small 
end of one I left a fork on which I 
fastened a paper shoe box filled with 
cotton. On the end of the other I 
fastened a little forked stick with the 
tip pointing back. By holding the box 
cut under the nest and carefully pull- 
ing the nest over, I landed all safely. 
Also used the same outfit for Gnatcat- 
chers and Hummers. Here at home 
I use the same rigging for warblers 
and others that are out of reach. 
R. B. SIMPSON. 
pon SOE ee 
We are in erceipt of a communica- 
tion to the effect that one of our sub- 
scribers has “indisputable scientific 
proof enough at my command to down 
the combined efforts of all the authori- 
ties and ornithological societies of 
America.” He must be well equipped 
with ammunition! 
