88 



THE NIDIOLOGIST. 



felt the power of that wondrous song. 



Near, or within the borders of wooded 

 swamps, is the Hermit's favorite nesting 

 locality — though I have found nests on 

 comparatively high and dry ground. A 

 nest found June i6, 1892, was sunken in 

 the ground among the wintergreens and 

 arbutus, in an open wood of chestnut, oak 

 and birch, and contained four half-fledged 

 young. A friend collected a fine set of 

 four eggs for me, in the same wood, on 

 June 29, 1893. A nest which I collected 

 June 6, 1892, is typical of situation and 

 structure. I was just within the borders 

 of a swampy wood of black ash, soft ma- 

 ple, yellow birch and hemlock, sunken in 

 the moist earth, among the grass and ferns; 

 composed of fine rootlets, hemlock twigs, 

 three forest leaves, mosses, fine weed-stems 

 and grasses, and lined with pine needles 

 and very fine, black rootlets and grass tops. 

 Outside diameter, 5^ inches; inside diam- 

 eter, 3^ inches; inside depth, ij4, inches. 

 It contained four fresh eggs. I have never 

 found over four eggs, nor have I ever seen 

 a nest beneath dense shrubbery or under- 

 brush. 



The Wood Thrush ( Turdus mustelinus) 

 is not as common in this immediate vicinity 

 as the Hermit. I could scarcely hope to 

 add anything of special interest concerning 

 the nesting of such a well-known species. 

 Hillsides, covered with bushes and young 

 saplings and bordered below by creeks, are 

 where I most often find their nests. This 

 species is one of the bravest of birds in the 

 defense of its eggs or young. I remember 

 examining a nest on Memorial Day, 1890. 

 It was about eight feet up in a hemlock 

 sapling. The female sat clo.se, almost al- 

 lowing me to push her from the nest; but 

 what a racket she made when .she did 

 leave. Her angry cries soon brought the 

 male, who joined in the assault upon me; 

 and before I could get down from the nest 

 a crowd of Black and White Warblers, 

 Redstarts and Chickadees arrived; even a 

 pair of Blue Jays — from whom I had taken 

 a set of four eggs — ^joined the mob. 



The Che wink {Pipilo erythrophthabmis) 

 breeds abundantly in the bushy upland 

 pastures throughout this town ; also builds 

 in the edges of woodland and open groves 

 of sugar maples. The nest is usually 

 placed at the foot of a bush, or bunch of 

 blackberry briars, sometimes in an old 

 brush-heap. I have never seen a nest of 

 this species in a bush. 



Just south of this village, on the moist, 

 springy upland pastures, which are covered 

 with rank gra.ss and brakes, the Yellow- 

 winged or Grasshopper Sparrow {Ammo- 

 dranius savannarnvi passerinus) is a common 

 breeder. Their nests are built whollj- of 

 grasses, loosely put together, and are some- 

 times slightly arched over after the manner 

 of the Meadow Lark's. As far as my ob- 

 servations go the eggs are not pure or 

 crystal white, but grayish-white, and the 

 markings are reddish-brown, lilac and lav- 

 ender; some specimens have specks of um- 

 ber among the confluent markings at the 

 larger end. 



May 31, 1893, while on a trip after Marsh 

 Hawks' eggs, in the vicinity of Tastaswassa 

 Lake, in the adjoining town of Nassau, I 

 found the Yellow-wing common, and breed- 

 ing in an old boggy pasture bordering the 

 lake. Benjamin Hoag. 



Stephentozvn, Nezu York. 



DISCOVERY OF NESTS AND EGGS OF 



LECONTE'S AND NELSON'S 



SPARROWS. 



On June 18, 1893, I arrived at Raeburn 

 from the west and joined F. Dippie, who 

 had been .some weeks collecting specimens 

 in the vicinity of Long Lake. Amongst 

 the skins he had preserved I recognized 

 Leconte's Sparrow, which he had shot a 

 few days previous to my visit, and after 

 dinner I got him to take me to the place 

 where he had obtained the bird. 



It was a dry portion of the prairie, about 

 an acre in extent and adjacent to the lake. 

 Here the marsh gra.ss grew a foot high, and 

 we heard the notes of two or three Leconte's 

 Sparrows. The tweet, tweet, is not unlike 



