262 BIEDS — SYLVICOLID^. 



Muskingum. Here, May 10, 1876, I found them abundant in the same 

 situations as above described, and think it not unlikely that a consider- 

 able number of the birds breeding about Cleveland migrate by way of 

 the Muskingum Valley. 



During the breeding season they are to be found on the banks of the 

 smaller streams and creeks, or if about larger rivers, near the swift 

 channels forming islands, where the sycamore trees reach far over the 

 water. In ravines where there is but little water they may also be 

 found, but the necessary sycamore tree is always present. Though I 

 have never discovered the nest and eggs, I have seen the parents feed 

 their young in the latter week in June and first in July. I have no 

 description of the nest and eggs of var. albilora. Mr. Brewster (Bull. 

 Nutt. Orn Club, ii, 1877, 102) gives an interesting account of var. 

 dominica, from which I extract the following description of the nest and 

 eggs. " This nest was placed at the height of thirty-five feet from 

 the ground, on the stout horizontal branch of a southern pine, in a 

 thinly scattered grove or belt that stretched along the side of a densely 

 wooded hummock. It was set flatly on the limb — not saddled to 

 it — nearly midway between the juncture with the main trunk and the 

 extremity of the twigs,' and was attached to the rough bark by silky 

 fibres. It is composed externally of a few short twigs and strips of bark 

 bound together by Spanish moss ( Tillandsia usneoides) and a silky down 

 from plants. The lining consists of a few hair-like filaments of moss 

 and soft cottony vegetable down. The whole structure is neatly and 

 firmly compacted, though essentially simple in appearance, and, from the 

 nature of the component materials, of a grayish inconspicuous color. It 

 measures externally 2.80 inches in diameter by 1.70 in depth; inter- 

 nally 1.77 inches in diameter by 1.30 in' depth. The eggs, four in num- 

 ber, measure .69 by .53 of an inch. They are quite regularly ovate, with 

 fine dottings of pale lilac scattered thinly and evenly over a grayish- 

 white ground color. A few spots or blotches of burnt sienna occur about 

 the larger ends, while occasional irregular pen-like lines of dark brown 

 diversify the remaining surface." Other nests are described as being 

 constructed in a mass of Spanish moss, the cavity being lined with moss, 

 grasses, and plant down. 



Young birds in September resemble adults, but are of a considerably 

 lighter shade and softer tone in color, the black streaks somewhat ob- 

 scured and softened by whitish edgings, and the whole bird presenting 

 a richer and cleaner appearance. 



