190 NASHVILLE WARBLER. 
south-western Missouri never before April 28. In central Wisconsin they are seen about 
May 10, and by the 26 of that month the last have migrated northward or retreated 
to the coniferous woods, where they breed. During migration they habitually frequent 
the bushy borders of woods, openings, shrubbery, and orchards about houses, often 
even visiting city gardens and parks. As their color is not bright,:they are easily 
overlooked, even when quite abundant. They are very active and industrious, being 
almost continually in motion. According to my experience they are more sociable than 
other members of the genus, often as many as a dozen searching one tree for inse¢ts, 
especially in fall. In spring rarely more than two are seen together. 
Their summer haunts are preferably high dry pine-woods with a more or less 
dense growth of small shrubs, ferns, and herbaceous plants. Here they lead a quiet and 
retired life, and, like their allies, place their nest upon the ground. I have never been 
able to discover their domicile, although the birds are not uncommon during the breeding 
season in Wisconsin, my native state. The best account on the nesting habits of the 
Nashville Warbler has been given by Prof. J. A. Allen, the President of the American 
Ornithologist’s Union. Referring to Springfield, Mass., he says: ‘Abundant in May 
and in early part of autumn. Arrives May 1 to 5, and for two or three weeks is a 
common inhabitant of the orchards and gardens, actively cleaning insects among the 
unfolding leaves and blossoms of the fruit-trees. Nearly all go north, but a few retire 
to the woods and breed. During June, 1863, I frequently saw them in my excursions in 
the woods, often three or four males in an hours walk. Its song so much resembles that 
of the Chestnut-sided Warbler, that it might readily be mistaken. To this cause, and 
to the difficulty of seeing such small birds in the dense summer foliage, is doubtless 
owing to the fact of its being so commonly overlooked by naturalists during the 
summer months, rather than to its [supposed] extreme rarity in this latitude at that 
season. I have found the nest of this species for two successive seasons, as follows: 
May 31, 1862, containing four freshly laid eggs. The nest was placed on the ground, 
and protected completely, concealed above by the dead grass and weeds of the previous 
year. It was composed of fine rootlets and dry grasses, lined with fine dried grass and 
a few horsehairs, and covered exteriorly with a species of fine green moss. The eggs 
were white, sprinkled with light reddish-brown specks, most thickly near the larger 
end.... The following year, June 5, 1863, I found another nest of this species within 
three or four feet of where the one was discovered the previous year, containing three 
eggs of this species and one of the Cow-bunting; in all of which the embryos were far 
advanced. The nest, in every particular, was built and arranged like the one ahove 
described, and the eggs must have been laid at just about the same time.... The 
locality of the nests was a mossy bank at the edge of a young woods, sloping south- 
ward, and covered with bushes and coarse grass.” 
Wilson discovered this Warbler near Nashville, Tenn., from which fa&t it was 
named by him NASHVILLE WARBLER. 
A variety, the CaLavERAS WarBLER, Helmintophila ruficapilla gutturalis Riwc- 
WAY, occurs in the western part of our country, from the Rocky Mountains to the 
Pacific. 
