CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 68 1 



and spotted with brown, lilac and purplish. {G. R. White.) They 

 nest in June, building in upright crotches in bushes 10-20 feet up ; 

 white birches seem to be the favorite tree for their nests, probably 

 on account of the position of the limbs ; the nest is firmly constructed 

 of strips of bark, grasses and plant down, lined with hair ; eggs 3 or 4. 

 (W. H. Moore.) This is one of the commonest warblers in Leeds 

 county, Ont. ; I have frequently seen the nest placed in some crotch 

 of a small tree from five to twenty feet from the ground; the eggs 

 are laid the first week in June. {Rev. C. J. Young.) 



Many nests of this species in past years have come under my 

 observation; but it is only of those noted the present season that 

 I purpose here to speak; on May 22nd I noticed a female redstart 

 flying from a partly composed nest, the site of which was in the 

 fork of a small maple sapling, and at an elevation of about eight 

 feet from the ground ; the nest could be easily seen, when the sear- 

 cher's gaze was directed to it, at a distance of four rods ; the woods 

 around it were rather open, and the leaves of the sapling were a 

 yard or more above it ; eight days after I found that this nest con- 

 tained four of the warbler's own eggs and one of a cowbird, all of 

 which were fresh; of all the warblers, the nest of this species is 

 about the neatest and most firmly put together, the bird evidently 

 emitting a good deal of saliva upon the material of which the nest is 

 composed when she is placing the fragments in position; all this 

 work, as well as that of incubation, appears to be done by the female, 

 though it is probable that her more beautifully plumaged consort 

 occasionally supplies her with food as she incubates her eggs; and 

 he certainly largely assists in feeding the young and in trying to 

 defend them if exposed to danger ; if the first efforts of this bird to 

 propagate its species are successful, it does not nest more than once 

 in the season, otherwise it will nest a second time ; the materials of 

 which the greater part of the nest of the redstart is composed is a 

 kind of fibre gathered from decajdng timber and the seed pods of 

 various kinds of vines, and it is usually lined with animal hair; I 

 have never known the set of eggs to exceed four in number, and 

 generally the second set contains only three, with the addition 

 mostly of a cowbird's ; the eggs are of a whitish ground hue, marked 

 towards the larger end with a wealth of spotting of a flesh-coloured 

 hue, and smaller dots of the same hue scattered over the surface; 

 another bird of this species was noticed building her nest at a much 



