26 



JOURNAL OP MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



interval of seven minutes. The male 

 was in the neighborhood part of the 

 time, but volunteered no assistance. 

 I did not have a chance to visit this 

 nest again, although I was in the vi- 

 Ci^oy July 31. 



A female olive-back came around 

 scolding and I could hear a young one 

 in some of the trees around there, 

 but could not locate it. I supposed 

 it was one of the young from the nest 

 that I had found before, but later ob- 

 servations led me to doubt this, for 

 I found a second nest of the olive-back 

 in a small fir tree near by. It looked 

 so much like an old nest that I did 

 not pay especial attention to it, at the 

 time. The next day, however, I visited 

 it again and thought I would cut the 

 tree down and examine the nest more 

 closely. This nest, too, was fully 

 twenty feet from the ground, (and 

 placed in a tree too slender to admit 

 of my climbing.) At the first blow of 

 the axe a young bird came tumbling 

 down and this was the one, I believe, 

 that I had heard the day before. It 

 was still too young to fly away, the 

 wing feathers being only partly de- 

 veloped. The back interscapular and 

 wing coverts were olive-brown, each 

 feather having a buffy stripe. The 

 throat and breast were buffy with 

 black markings, these latter forming 

 lines on the breast. The sides were 

 dashed with olive-brown. The tail 

 had not yet developed, but a few feath- 

 ers just starting gave promise of one 

 in the future. 



The bird had been injured in some 

 way, for it had wounds on the head 

 and back, and a swelling on the neck. 

 While examining the bird several 

 white larvae came out of the feathers. 

 Of what insect these were, I could 

 not determine. The female bird came 

 around during my investigations and 

 was much disturbed to find her young 



in the hands of such a monster. To 

 relieve her anxiety, I placed it in a 

 tree nearby and retired to a little dis- 

 tance to watch results. I had the 

 pleasure of seeing the mother bird 

 find her young, and feed it. There I 

 left it, and have often wondered what 

 the fate of the poor deformed bird 

 was. A few days later I visited the 

 spot but found no signs of either 

 bird. These two nests are rather re- 

 markable from the fact that they were 

 placed so high from the ground. Four 

 or five feet is generally as high as 

 they build, but both of them were over 

 twenty feet from the ground.* 



From the first of Aug. the olive- 

 backs began to be quiet. Very few 

 were heard, and still fewer seen. On 

 Aug. 12th, the same day in which I . 

 heard the last song, I noticed the 

 first indications of the beginning of 

 the migration. Late in the afternoon 

 of that day, I heard the notes of some 

 of these birds flying over. For a 

 whole week I find no mention made of 

 the" olive-back. Then on the 19th I 

 find mention of them seemingly ready 

 for migration. The next night, at 7 

 P. M., I heard the metallic note of 

 birds flying over. The migration had 

 begun in earnest. With the exception 

 of the 22d, when a male was seen, no 

 further mention of them is made until 

 the 28th. Then some were heard fly- 

 ing over before sunrise. On the 30th, 

 I left the woods, starting down the 

 tote-road long before daylight and 

 travelling in the moonlight. I heard 

 numbers of olive-backs flying over. 

 When it grew light, they ceased their 

 flight and I could hear their metallic 

 puk, puk. in the woods on either side. 

 That night when I reached home, it 

 was growing dark and birds of various 

 species were already in flight. Among 

 all the rest, I detected the notes of 

 several olive-backs flying over. Then 



