PEAIEIE WARBLER. 65 



scriptious, on the other hand, are made from his own observations, and 

 are evidently correct. He describes a nest that came under his observ- 

 ation, as scarcely distinguishable from that of the I), (estiva. It was 

 not pensile, but fixed in a forked branch, and formed of strips of the 

 inner bark of the red-cedar, fibres of asclepias, and caterpillar's silk, and 

 thickly lined with the down of the Gnaphalium plantagineum. He 

 describes the eggs as having a white ground, sharp at one end, and 

 marked with spots of lilac-purple and of two shades of brown, more 

 numerous at the larger end, where they formed a ring. He speaks of 

 their note as slender, and noticed their arrival about the second week of 

 May, leaving the middle of September. 



"At another time Mr. Nuttall was attracted by the slender, filing notes 

 of this bird, resembling the suppressed syllables Hsh-Hsh-Hsh-Hshea, be- 

 ginning low and gradually growing louder. With its mate it was busily 

 engaged collecting flies and larvae among a clump of locust-trees in Mount 

 Auburn. Their nest was near, and the female, without any precautions, 

 went directly to it. Mr. Nuttall removed two eggs, which he afterward 

 replaced. Each time, on his withdrawal, she returned to the nest, and 

 resorted to no expedients to entice hioi away. 



"Several nests of this Warbler have been obtained by Mr. Welch in 

 Lynn. One was built on a wild rose, only a few feet from the ground. 

 It is a snug, compact, and elaborately woven structure, having a height 

 and a diameter of about two and one-half inches. The cavity is two 

 inches wide and one and one-half deep. The materials of which the 

 outer parts are woven are chiefly the soft inner bark of small shrubs, 

 mingled with dry rose-leaves, bits of vegetable wood, woody fibres, de- 

 cayed stems of plants, spiders' webs, etc. The whole is bound together 

 like a web by cotton-like fibres of a vegetable origin. The upper rim of 

 this nest is a marked feature, being a strongly interlaced weaving of 

 vegetable roots and strips of bark. The lining of the nest is composed 

 of fine vegetable fibres and a few horse-hairs. This nest, in its general 

 mode of construction, resembles all that I have seen ; only in others the 

 materials vary — in some dead and decayed leaves, in others remains of 

 old cocoons, and in others the pappus of composite plants being more 

 prominent than the fine strips of bark. The nests are usually within 

 four feet of the ground. The eggs vary from three to five, and even six. 



"The late Dr. Gerhardt found this bird the most common Warbler in 

 Iforthern Georgia. There its nests were similar in size, structure, and 

 position, but difiered more or less in the materials of which tbey were 

 made. The nests were a trifle larger and the walls thinner, the cavities 

 being correspondingly larger. The materials were more invariably fine 

 strips of inner bark and flax like vegetable fibres, and were lined with 

 the finest stems of plants, in one case Avith the feathers of the Great 

 Horned Owl. In that neighborhood the eggs were deposited by the 15th 

 of May. 



" In Massachusetts the Prairie Warbler invariably selects wild pasture- 

 land, often not far from villages, and always open or very thinly wooded. 

 In Georgia their nests were built in almost every kind of bush or low 

 tree, or on the lower limbs of post-oaks, at the height of from four to 

 seven feet. Eggs were found once as early as the 2d of May, and once 

 as late as the 10th of June. They arrived there by the 10th of April, 

 and seemed to prefer hillsides, but were found in almost any open 

 locality. 



" In Southern Illinois, Mr. Eidgway cites this species as a rather rare 

 bird among the oak barrens wheie it breeds. He also met with it in 



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