248 SINGING BIRDS. 
ground; of grass and lichens fastened with insect silk, lined with fine 
grass. 
Eggs. 4; white with green or blue tint, spotted chiefly around the 
larger end with reddish brown and lilac ; 0.70 X 0.53. 
This very delicately colored species is among the rarest 
summer residents of the Atlantic States, and does not probably 
migrate or rather stray farther north than the State of New 
York. In the Southwestern States, particularly Tennessee and 
West Florida, it is one of the most abundant species ; it is also 
found in the western wilderness beyond the Mississippi. It is 
only in the summer that it ventures into the Middle States, 
from which it retires almost before the first chills of autumn, or 
by the middle of August. It frequents the borders of streams 
and marshes, and possesses many of the habits of the Fly- 
catchers, warbling also at times in a lively manner, and 
though its song be short, it is at the same time sweet and 
mellow. 
The principal range of this daintily dressed songster is through 
the southwestern division of this Eastern Province, between the 
valley of the Mississippi and the Alleghanian hills, north to Ohio 
(where it is abundant), southern Ontario, Indiana, and Illinois. 
It occasionally wanders eastward to central New York, Rhode 
Island, and Connecticut. 
