106 



THE OOLOGIST 



rectly on the ground under the shelter- 

 ing branches of a hazelnut bush. This 

 nest, at the time, contained a set of 

 four eggs heavily incubated. The fe- 

 male was covering them at the time 

 of discovery and the male was perched 

 in a cedar about a dozen feet off. The 

 female was quite silent on being flush- 

 ed and quickly disappeared in the 

 surrounding undergrowth. The male, 

 however, continually uttered a sharp 

 metallic "chip" and was very nervous 

 and excited while I was making obser- 

 vations of the nest and contents. On 

 two occasions, this feathered mite, 

 actually flew directly at my face, com- 

 ing within a few inches and then dodg- 

 ing off to a nearby sapling. 



The nest, as above mentioned, was 

 placed in a hollow in the turf of the 

 bordering bank and was composed of 

 strips of bark and weeds, and lined 

 with plant down, fibers and a few 

 slender grasses. The eggs were a 

 cream-white heavily speckled with 

 chestnut-brown principally at the cen- 

 ter portions, both ends being only 

 sparsely spotted. 



On the 20th, I again visited this nest 

 and found it to contain four nestlings 

 about a day old. Both parents were 

 providing food for the young. This 

 consisted wholly of insects which they 

 captured on the wing. The female at 

 this time had lost considerable of her 

 former timidity and was coming to 

 the nest at intervals of about four 

 minutes and feeding while I was seat- 

 ed on the ground about five feet off 

 watching the proceedings. 



On the 22d I visited the nesi and 

 found it to contain only three of the 

 young, the fourth having disappeared. 

 The remaining three were progressing 

 very rapidly and appeared quite heal- 

 thy. The food brought this day was 

 wholly insectivorous and like the form- 

 er day, was caught by both parents on 

 the wing. 



On the 27th the nest was again visit- 

 ed for the purpose of placing bands of 

 the American Bird Banding Associa- 

 tion on the young, but found that the 

 nest was empty and torn apart and 

 the whole colony missing from the 

 neighborhood. 



This is the only nest of this species 

 that has thus far come to my atten- 

 tion in this state. During the last fif- 

 teen years, during the breeding and 

 nesting seasons of the Mniotiltidae in 

 this section of New Jersey, about a 

 dozen pairs of this species have been 

 observed up to the 15th of June, but in 

 no instance was a nest or the sem- 

 blance of one located, nor were the 

 birds observed gathering nesting ma- 

 terials. On two occasions copulations 

 of the sexes of this species were ob- 

 served in this immediate vicinity but 

 that was as near as I ever succeeded 

 in finding a home of this warbler. 



On the 16th nests of the Redstart, 

 Black and White, Black-throated 

 Green, and Blue-winged Warblers were 

 found in this same locality. Imemdi- 

 ately to the west of this pond, nests 

 of the Maryland Yellowthroat, Yellow- 

 breasted Chat, Yellow and Chestnut- 

 sided Warblers and Ovenbird were 

 located during the period between 

 June 13th and 28th during this year, 

 which indicates that the section is par- 

 ticularly conducive to the nesting and 

 rearing of the young of the Mniotilti- 

 dae. 



Attempts were made to secure a 

 dozen pictures with a small camera of 

 the above Wilson Warbler nest, tjui 

 failed most signally and did not se- 

 cure one exposure of the twelve worth 

 the trouble. 



Louis S. Kohler. 



Warblers in the Vicinity of Jonesburg, 

 IVIissourl. 

 Warblers are indeed hard to follow; 

 some are here one day and are gone 



