﻿Some Bird-Notes from the Magdalens 



47 



ner of the Franklin's Gulls in the West. The owners might possibly have 

 been Forster's Terns, but this is too much out of their range to render it 

 likely, and it is more probable that a pair of the common species, seeing a 

 pile of dead reeds, thought they might as well hollow out a nest among 

 them. 



Seldom have I seen more beautiful nests than some of those built by the 

 northern song-birds, made soft, snug and warm to counteract the cold wind 

 and fog of the northern June. One of the Fox Sparrow was a 'dandy.' 

 The female flushed right before me from a low spruce bush, about waist - 

 high, in a scrubby tract, and there was the large, compact nest, constructed 

 first as an outer cup of green moss, then an inner nest of grass, and inside 

 that one of black and white horse-hairs. In it were four heavily browned 

 eggs, as large as those of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak. 



Another gem of bird -architecture was built by Blackpoll Warblers, 

 which are verv abundant. It was in an exactlv similar situation to that of 



NEST OF BLACK-POLL WARBLER 



the Fox Sparrow, and I found it by thrashing through the scrub with a 

 long switch and thus starting the owner off from her nest. It was, of 

 course, smaller and daintier, yet it was built after the same plan and of 

 about the same materials as the other, save that for the inside lining, in 

 addition to the horse-hair, was a beautiful and abundant assortment of 



