THE NIDIOLOGIST. 



165 



eggs were obtained. Had I remained in 

 Golden a few weeks longer I might have 

 taken several more sets. We spent the 

 night at a mountain house and came home 

 next day by another route. The man we 

 stayed with told us of a bird on a stream 

 nearby that had built its nest in the same 

 place for several successive years By his 

 description we knew he meant the Water 

 Ouzel, and he evinced a great deal of satis- 

 faction on learning the bird's name. Said 

 he: "I've been wonderin' for a long time 

 what that thing's name was and I thought 

 it might be something of that kind." 



On our way home we found the place he 

 had told us about and the Ouzels were 

 there repairing a timeworn nest. The 

 rocks beneath the nest were white from the 

 excrement of the birds and it looked as 

 though several generations of Ouzels had 

 there been hatched out. 



Cory Chamberlin. 



College Park, Cal. 



Breeding of the Kentucky Warbler 

 in South-Eastern Perinsyluania. 



IN the opinion of the writer, the Ken- 

 tucky Warbler is more abundant in the 

 neighborhood of West Chester, (a small 

 town some twenty-five miles northwest of 

 Philadelphia,) and within a few square 

 miles of that locality than anywhere else. 

 There seems to be something particularly 

 favorable in the character of these woods 

 to the breeding of this Warbler. In this 

 place it may be well to state that the coun- 

 try is a rolling one, well watered, the 

 Brandy wine being the only large stream; 

 but there are innumerable small ones. It 

 is not, however, in the woods bordering on 

 the Brandywine that one must look for the 

 nesting places of this Warbler, because here 

 the character of the woods is hilly, welj 

 suited to the Worm-eating Warbler, but not 

 to this bird. On the contrary, well back 

 from the vallej^ of the Brandywine, are to 

 be found the low, damp woods which are 



the kind the Kentucky Warbler loves, but 

 singularly enough it almost invariably 

 places its nest alongside a path and within 

 a few feet of it, or near the edge of the 

 wood; rarely in the depths of it. I well 

 remember in my earlier collecting days, 

 looking into the deepest and wildest por- 

 tions of the woods for hours without avail, 

 only to find the nest in the part I had hith- 

 erto passed over as being useless to look 

 into. 



As is the case with all ground-breeding 

 Warblers the nest of this bird at first re- 

 quires practice to find, but once learn the 

 secret of it and a great many can be secured. 

 This may be best explained by stating that 

 the Kentucky Warbler is very fond ot a 

 certain locality and will return to it year 

 after year, even when disturbed. I have 

 proved this by examining carefully the sets 

 of eggs from the same locality each year 

 aud can readily see therein the same char- 

 acteristics reproduced to the minutest ex- 

 tent. 



They commence breeding about the 20th 

 of May, and there is scarcely a difference of 

 a day whether the spring be late or early. 

 About three days are consumed in making 

 the nest, which is large and very bulky, 

 but at the same time handsome and usually 

 quite compactly built. The exterior is 

 composed of oak or beech leaves (almost 

 invariably the leaves of these two trees are 

 used) sometimes a few leaf stems and sticks; 

 then comes the lining, which is very neatly 

 made of a fine black root (which seems to 

 exist in great abundance in this locality) 

 and usually an additional lining of black 

 horesehair, but this latter is not always the 

 case. After the nest is built about a week 

 elapses before the set is complete. The fe- 

 male always lays one egg a day, as is the 

 case with nearly all the small birds. The 

 eggs are usually five in number, but four is 

 by no means an uausual number for a com- 

 plete set and when the Cowbird lays an egg 

 in the nest before the Warbler has com- 

 pleted her set, three is very often the num- 

 ber. [Continued on page 167.] 



