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Plate LXVII. 



OPORORNIS FORMOSA-Kentucky Warbler. 



The Kentucky Warbler is a rare summer resident, occurring in particular localities in the southern 

 and western parts of the State. Dr. Kirtland found its nest at Cleveland, Audubon notes it in South- 

 western Ohio, and Dr. Langdon writes of it as a well known summer bird of this same district. I have 

 never seen the species in Central Ohio, although I have made diligent search for it, and these nests are 

 all that I can hear of as being found in the State; but others certainly must have been taken. It 

 arrives in the vicinity of Cincinnati about the first of May, and remains until September, during which 

 time it rears a single brood. 



LOCALITY: 



Dr. Langdon, writing of a nest of this species which he found near Madisonville, says: "The 

 locality chosen for this nest was a gentle slope, well wooded and covered with undergrowth, situated 

 within a short distance of a small woodland stream on the border of an open glade." 



POSITION : 



" The nest, which was placed on the ground at the root of a small elm sapling, was concealed by a 

 sparse growth of weeds." Dr. Grearhardt of Georgia, found several nests of this Warbler, all of which 

 were on the ground, usually under a tuft of grass in a dry place. It is said, that sometimes it is placed 

 in a bush, or in a bunch of rank weeds or grass. 



MATERIALS: 



Continuing, Dr. Langdon says : " The foundation was a saucer-shaped mass of beech and maple 

 leaves loosely interwoven with a few weed-stems and retained its shape sufficiently well to permit careful 

 handling without injury; surmounting this basal portion was the nest proper, a rather bulky and inele- 

 gant structure, elliptical in shape, composed of dark brown rootlets and weed-stems, with which were 

 interwoven a few dried leaves. There was also a trace of an effort at hoi'se-hair lining, a half-dozen 

 hairs perhaps being dispersed around its interior. Its measurements are as follows : Internal long- 

 diameter, 2\ inches; internal short-diameter, 2 inches; depth of cavity, 1J inches; average thickness of 

 nest proper, about f inch; ditto of foundation, about 1 inch." 



Page 294, "North American Birds," says: "Nearly all nests met were made externally of a loose 

 ao-o-re^ation of dry oak and chestnut leaves, so rudely thrown together as hardly to possess any coherence, 

 and requiring to be sewed to be kept in place. The interior or inner nests were more compactly inter- 

 woven, usually composed of fine dark-brown roots. Instead of being small, they are large for the bird, 

 and are inelegantly and clumsily made. They measure four inches in their diameter, three in height, 

 and two in the depth of their cavity. One nest, is large and peculiar in its construction. 



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