THE ORNITHOLOGISTS’ AND OOLOGISTS’ SEMI-ANNUAL. 23 
gion, about the latter part of April. It builds its nest in chimneys 
and appears to prefer the old-fashioned square chimney ; ones that are 
not inuse. It rarely builds in chimneys that are in use if others can 
be found, which would leave us to infer that it was not particularly par- 
tial to smoke. In the unsettled sections of country, it builds in the 
trunks of hollow trees and in caverns. 
The nest is composed of small twigs which it breaks off with its 
feet and cements together. ‘The nest is stuck firmly to the side of 
the chimney or hollow tree, with the same glutenous substance that 
is used in cementing the twigs. 
The eggs, usually four in number, are dusky-white and unspotted. 
Not unfrequently, small or “luck eggs” are found in the nests, which 
is the case with two sets that I have collected. Two broods are usu- 
ally reared in a season. It feeds on insects and the larve of small 
beetles, the indigestible portions of the food being disgorged. 
THE BLACK AND WHITE WARBLER. 
Mniotilia varia. 
BY WM. L. KELLS, LISTOWEL, ONT., CANADA. 
This species, in some of its food-seeking habits, resembles the 
Brown Creeper, for which reason it has, until lately, been denomi- 
nated the Black and White Creeper. It also frequents much the 
same situations, though it does not penetrate so deep into the forest ; 
but is often, especially in spring-time, observed on the outskirts of 
the woods and in new fallows, where the other species of Creeper is 
never heard or seen. Its movements, while in quest of its insect food 
on the trunks of trees, are generally in a circular manner, and its mode 
of procedure, rather a series of hops, than creeping jerks. It will 
also run out along the branches and cling to a limb with its feet, sus- 
