94 THE OSPREY. 



when the first nest is found, it seems "no trick at all" to find others, as, after 

 finding the first nest, I readily found and examined about a dozen others 

 during the season. 



I would look for this tiny woodland warbler to nest, in the state, where- 

 ever the long folds of usnea lichens ( Usnea loagissima) are found in abundance. 



1 had looked for the nest of this warbler for a long time, but unsuccess- 

 fully until the year above mentioned. On June 9th, while visiting my friend 

 Mr. C. H. Morrill, at Pittsfield, Maine, we had taken his boat and paddled 

 about the lake, examining and photographing nests of Bronzed Grackles, Red- 

 wing Blackbirds, Pied-billed Grebes, Swamp Sparrows, Oven Birds and Water 

 Thrushes, Tree Swallows, and several others, and as we landed on a point that 

 made out into the lake, we heard the pleasing t-z-z-z-r-p of the Parula, as it 

 fed busily in the taller trees, along the shore. Its song, uttered in a slow, 

 drawling tone at first, but rapidly increasing and finishing up with a sharp 

 accent on the last zip. This song was repeated at intervals of from a half minute 

 to a minute. 



We felt positive that this bird must be breeding near the shore, as there 

 was an abundance of evergreen trees, fairly covered with long folds of usnea, 

 hanging from their branches. While Mr. Morrill went to photo nests of the 

 Oven-bird and Wilson's Thrush, found previously, I remained near the boat, 

 looking for the nest of a pair of AVater Thrushes, which were gathering food 

 for their young, among the fallen trees and drift-wood lying along the shore. 

 As I stood out on a log at the edge of the water, watching the Water Thrush 

 tipping along the edge of the water, I saw a Parula flit to a fold of moss just 

 over my head about fifteen feet up. The lichens hung from a limb of a dead fir 

 balsam about three feet out from the trunk. The bird began to pull and 

 arrange the moss into a nest-like shape. While watching her thus at work, 

 I noticed a similar fold of lichens growing from a limb on the opposite side of 

 the same dead stub and at about the same distance from the ground. This 

 fold had the appearance of being a completed nest. I climbed up to it and 

 sure enough it was a completed nest. The female flushed from the nest and on 

 examination I found it contained four fresh eggs. 1 called Morrill and to- 

 gether we watched the other bird working on her pendant domicile, but we 

 could make no photos of either nest in situ. 



Mr. Morrill returned to the spot on June 24th and the nest first observed 

 under construction had been completed and contained four eggs also. It was 

 a very pleasant incident to me that we should find these birds nesting in the 

 tree so near neighbors. This tree was standing out at the edge of the water, 

 as the water had flowed back several feet from the former high water mark. 

 At last I had learned to know where to look for the nest of the Northern 

 Parula Warbler, aud later, as I was driving along the roads or rambling in the 



