BLUE -WINGED WARBLER 



Helminthophila pinus 



By Louis S. Kohler 



On May 24th of the present year, while waiting 

 for a train at Little Falls, New Jersey, I strolled 

 south of the station platform into a copse of maples 

 and oaks, thinking that, perhaps, by accident, I might 

 happen across a nest of the Ovenbird or Redstart, the 

 males of which species were in full nuptial song in the 

 low shrubbery underneath the taller deciduous 

 growths. While observing the male Redstart per- 

 forming his gymnastic turns in a small maple sapling, 

 a flash of bright yellow passed overhead and dropped 

 into a clump of tall grass and as it alighted on an 

 overhanging weed, I identified it as a female Blue- 

 winged Warbler. This bird, having a wisp of dried 

 grass in its bill, quickly disappeared in the depths of 

 the grassy hummock and I immediately investigated 

 and found it to contain a nearly completed nest. On 

 approaching the nest, the female arose to an adjacent 

 sapling and uttered a sharp metallic alarm note 

 which brought its beautiful mate quickly to its side 

 and both began uttering these alarm notes and con- 

 tinued to do so while I was examining their future 

 home. This nest was placed about three inches from 

 the ground in the clump of grass and was composed 

 of dead leaves of the maple and oak forming a deep 

 cup-shaped container for the inner material which 

 consisted of fine grasses, grapevine peelings and plant 

 fibers delicately woven together so as to form a beau- 

 tiful structure, although the whole presented rather 



