104 
NESTS AND EGGS OE 
inner bark of small shrubs, bits of dry rose leaves, wood, strips of vege- 
tables, woody fibres, spiders’ webs, decayed stems of plants, etc., on the 
outside, and was lined with fine vegetable fibres and a few borse-hairs. 
The outside diameter was two and a half inches, and the height, the same. 
The inside diameter was two inches; depth, one and a half. The above 
nest, in its general mode of construction, resembled all he had seen. In 
other nests he found only variations in composing materials. While some 
had dead and decayed leaves instead of fine strips of bark, others con- 
tained the remains of old cocoons, or the pappus of comj)osite plants. 
But the structure from which the drawing was made, was found June 
4th, 1875, in the vicinity of Newton, Mass., by J. Warren, Esq. It was 
placed in a rose-bush, about three feet from the ground. Outside it is 
composed of bark of deciduous trees, vegetable fibres, spiders’ webs, old 
cocoons, dry leaves, pajjpus of composite plants, and cotton ravellings. 
The inside is lined with the white silken fibres of the wild flax, consti- 
tuting a rather dense layer, over which is placed a small stratum of black 
and white horse-hairs intermingled with vegetable fibres and the inner bark 
of woody plants. The external diameter is two and a half inches, and the 
height two. The cavity is one and three-fourths inches, and one and a 
half deep. In shape, the nest is nearly hemispherical, compactly and 
elaborately made, and, above all, constitutes a very snug and cosy struc- 
ture. In these particulars it bears a very close resemblance to the nest of 
the Summer Yellow-bird, hut differs in the character of the composing 
materials, there being less of the satiny fibres of the flax used in its 
workmanship. 
The eggs are of an oval shajre, pointed at one extremity, and measure 
.69 of an inch in length, and .49 in width. The ground-color is white, 
and over it are scattered spots of lilac and puiqrle, as well as others of two 
shades of umber-brown. In all the sj^ecimens which we have examined 
from New England and Northern Georgia the s]50ts are mostly accumu- 
lated about the larger half of the egg, those upon the smaller jjortion 
being finer and less numerous. 
