Plate XV. 



DENDRdCA /ESTIVA-Summer Warbler. 



The subject of this sketch is the most abundant of all our resident warblers, and except the Yellow- 

 breasted Chat there is no other of the family whose nest is so easily found. 



About the fifteenth of April they arrive in Central Ohio, and by the twentieth of May nidification 



is with the majority completed, and with many incubation has commenced. In July a second brood is 



sometim.es reared, and later perhaps even a third. 



» 



LOCALITY: 



In the country the nest is usually placed in the trees and bushes which grow along roads, fences, 

 levees, banks of streams, and similar places. The young trees, especially elms, which grow in narrow 

 belts along ponds and creeks, or scattered sparingly near by some water-course, seem to be preferred 

 above others; but the diciest districts are by no means deserted. In towns, the horse-chestnut, elm, 

 maple, and other shade trees, and the shrubbery of the lawn or garden are the most frequented localities. 



POSITION": 



The nest is saddled upon a branch inclined at an angle of about 45°, and is supported by small 

 branches about the circumference ; or is placed in a fork, either perpendicular or horizontal ; or is built 

 among a number of small stems growing so closely together as to form a suitable resting-place. The 

 first position is by far the commonest, and the last the rarest. Its distance from the ground is ordinarily 

 between ten and fifteen feet, but occasionally it is in the top branch of a medium-sized tree. When 

 situated in a bush it is sometimes within a foot of the ground. Along the west shore of Seneca Lake, 

 New York, near Geneva, the Yellow Warbler is the most abundant of any of the summer birds. In the 

 years 1871~'75 I found them nesting plentifully in the shrubbery growing within a few feet of the water, 

 at the foot of the steep bank which forms the shore. Of the dozens of nests observed in this neighbor- 

 hood, certainly more than half were placed in low bushes ; but in this State by far the greater number 

 are built in young trees. 



MATERIALS : 



The outside of the nest is generally composed of silver-gray weed-fibres, varying in breadth from 

 the thickness of a hair to three-sixteenths of an inch. They are arranged loosely in some specimens, 

 hanging an inch or two below the bottom ; in others they are drawn tightly, being almost felted together. 

 In place of fibres, wool, cotton, and finely split grasses are frequently used. But whatever composes the 

 exterior, there is almost invariably beneath it a layer of fine round or split grasses of a yellowish or 

 reddish-brown hue, which extends to the rim, where it is woven in with the materials of the outside. 

 Upon this layer of grass is placed the lining ; it usually consists of plant-down, over which a few horse- 

 hairs or pieces of roller-grass are placed, as if to keep it in position. Sometimes the down is dun-colored, 



71 



