214. CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER. 
luxuriance. Ferns flourish side by side with Cardinal flowers’ and spotted balsams’. 
The Indian hemp? together with nettles and other rank herbs, struggle for existence 
with dogwood, viburnum, goose-berry and huckle-berry bushes. In cool damp places 
the aristocrats among our wild flowers, the terrestrial orchids, grow out of the rich 
black soil. Not only the exceedingly beautiful mocassin flower‘ and the yellow lady’s 
slipper®, but also the more modest coral-root®, the arethusa’, the calopogon® and 
others, are to be frequently met with. They are not so gorgeously colored as the 
cardinal flower, and to appreciate their beauty and delicate tints, they must be sought 
for. The very peculiar pitcher-plant® always attracts our attention when rambling 
about in these low and rich localities. High and broad elms and ash trees overshadow 
these thickets and copses in many places, while in others not one of the original forest 
trees escaped the axe of the woodsman. Foxes and skunks are still present in the more 
extensive swamps, but the once common Canada porcupine seems to be exterminated. 
The Ruffed Grouse, an exceedingly common bird in the days of my boyhood, rarely 
attracts our attention now by its drumming sounds. The Pileated Woodpecker or 
Logceock was frequently observed in pioneer times, its scarlet crest flashing like fire 
among the leaves. Now one may travel many days before seeing a single specimen. 
Small birds seem to be at home here, for all the thickets on the woodland border and 
the canopies of green in swampy places, the fern-clumps, the huckle-berry patches, have 
their peculiar feathered inhabitants. 
In central and southern Wisconsin the CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER always chooses 
for its summer haunts the seclusion of swampy tracts, persistently shunning the society 
of man. It is a rather timid bird, but in spring when the orchard trees bloom it may 
be regularly observed among the flowers, eagerly searching for inseéts. Like many other 
Warblers, it is not gregarious, but is often found with other species in the same tree. 
Its habits remind one of those of the Myrtle Warbler, for it is much in the air captur- 
ing flying insects with great dexterity. Most of the time it gleans quietly among the 
new leaves and blossoms, generally among the lower branches. It rarely utters its song 
during migration, except when it approaches its breeding range. Like the song of 
other species it lacks peculiarity, consisting only of a few simple notes, not unlike the 
song of the Summer and Myrtle Warbler. In Wisconsin the Chestnut-sided Warblers 
usually arrive about May 10, and remain in the orchards and gardens to the end of the 
month. In south-western Missouri I never saw them before April 25; it is about two 
weeks later when the last stragglers have left. Late in September and early in October 
I saw a few at Freistatt, Mo., on their way to the South. 
In Wisconsin the nest is finished early in June. It is placed from two to ten feet 
above the ground in a low shrub or small bushy tree. All the nests I have found were 
built in upright forks of dogwood or viburnum bushes, and none was more than five 
feet above the ground. They were found in a woody pasture, where cows passed and 
browsed daily. The structure is not so soft and fine as that of the Summer Yellow-bird, 
being built of coarser material. It is composed outwardly of narrow strips of bark, 
plant-down, and grasses, lined with fine bark-strips and a few hairs. The eggs, four to 
1 Lobelia cardinalis. 2 Impatiens fulva. 3 Asclepias. 4 Cypripedium spectabile. & Cypripedium pubescens, ® Coral- 
lorhiza odonthorhiza, 7 Arethusa bulbosa. ® Calopogon pulchellus, % Sarracenia purpurea, 
