102 GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET. 
swamp and along its edges, being almost exclusively spruces' and balsams’.... Out- 
wardly the walls are composed chiefly of green mosses* prettily diversified with grayish 
lichens and Usnea, the general tone of the coloring, however, matching closely that of 
the surrounding spruce foliage. The interior at the bottom is lined with exceedingly 
delicate strips of soft inner bark and fine black rootlets similar to, if not identical with, 
those which almost invariably form the lining of the nest of the Black-and-Yellow 
Warbler. Near the top are rather numerous feathers of the Ruffed Grouse, Hermit 
Thrush, and Ovenbird, arranged with the points of the quills down, the tips rising to, 
or slightly above, the rim and arching inward over the cavity, forming a screen that 
partially concealed the eggs. 
“The second nest was found June 16, when it was nearly completed. It ééntaimed 
nine eggs. The locality was a lonely glen on high land between two ridges. The ridges 
were covered with young white pines. The prevailing growth of the glen was spruce 
and hemlock, the trees of large size, and standing so thickly together as to shut out 
nearly all sunlight from the ground beneath. The nest was on the west side of a 
sturdy, heavily limbed spruce!, about fifty feet above the ground, twenty feet below the 
top of the tree, six feet out from the trunk, and two and a half feet from the end of 
the branch, in a dense cluster of stiff, radiating (not pendant) twigs, the top of the 
nest being only an inch below, but the whole structure slightly on one side of the 
branch, from which its supports sprang. Above and on every side it was so perfectly 
concealed by the dense flake-like masses of spruce foliage, that it was impossible to se¢ 
it from any direction except by parting the surrounding twigs with the hand. From 
directly below, however, a small portion of the bottom was visible, even from the 
ground. The foliage immediately over the top was particularly dense, forming a 
canopy, which must have been quite impervious to the sun’s rays, and a fairly good 
protection from rain also. Beneath this canopy there was barely sufficient room for the 
birds to enter. In general shape and construction this nest closely resembles the one 
above described..... 
“The third nest was also in a spruce which stood near the top of a steep, 
picturesque hill-side, covered with noble old hemlocks, interspersed with a few rather 
stunted spruces, the ground beneath rough and broken by ledges whose rugged outlines 
were more or less softened by a luxuriant covering of moss and rock ferns. It proved 
to be empty. 
“The ground-color of the eggs varies from creamy-white to exceedingly deep, often 
somewhat muddy, cream-color. Over this light ground are sprinkled numerous mark- 
ings of pale wood-brown, while at least three specimens have a few spots and blotches 
of faint lavender. The brown markings vary in size from the finest possible dots to 
rather large blotches. In most of the specimens they are distributed pretty thickly over 
the entire shell, but in nearly all they are most numerous about the larger ends where 
they form a more or less distinct wreath pattern.— Lest the detail of the above descrip- 
tion mislead the reader as to the general appearance of these eggs, it may be well to 
add that while there can be no doubt that the markings are genuine pigment spots 
1 Abies nigra. 2 A. balsamifera. 
* These have been identified by a botanist as representing five species of Hypnum, and one of Frullania, 
