DELAWAEE VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 11 



June 5th, we did not hear their song once; we decided to give 

 the ground a thorough search, and from eight to eleven o'clock 

 worked hard to cover every possible hiding place where the 

 nest might be concealed. Mosquitos, gnats and nettles did not 

 add perceptibly to the pleasure of the search, but as one of our 

 main objects in coming to Warren county was to see and hear 

 the Mourning Warbler in its summer home, no trouble or dis- 

 comfort was considered in accomplishing this end. 



Across the river in the grass flats, ten or twelve pairs of 

 Bobolinks were nesting in the clover, then about knee high, and 

 the males were in constant song, and to me, accustomed to but 

 a few days of their presence in the spring migration, their con- 

 cert was a great treat. 



As we were about to give up the search, Mr. Simpson walked 

 round to the edge of the thicket where it merges into a grass 

 field, and there at the very edge, among the tall weeds, he 

 flushed a bird from the nest. She was off and out of sight too 

 quickly to determine her identity, but as I was photographing 

 the nest she gradually became bolder, and finally both birds 

 came into plain view, proving beyond doubt the identity of our 

 prize. It had the appearance of having originally been placed 

 on the ground, but by the rapid growth of the weeds with which 

 it was entangled had been raised about six inches. The outside 

 of the nest was made of coarse weed-stalks and stems; so ar- 

 ranged that the nest was much broader one way than the other, 

 the greatest width over all being nine inches, while its shortest 

 diameter was but six inches. It was four inches in depth over 

 all, while the cup was two and a quarter inches deep. The sec- 

 ond layer was composed of dry oak leaves, and next came a 

 substantial layer of grape-vine bark in strips, some of them a 

 foot long and one-eighth to one-quarter inch in width. The 

 inside lining was a thin layer surrounding the entire cup of the 

 nest, and consisting of strong, hair-like filaments of a reddish 

 color, not unlike in appearance the fruit stalks of the hair-moss, 

 used by the Worm-eating Warbler for the same purpose, except- 

 ing that they are much longer and tougher than that material. 



The eggs were four in number and measured .81 x .52, .80 x 

 .55, .79X.55 and .78x.52 (in hundredths of an inch). The 



