270 CANADIAN WARBLER. 
drum of the Ruffed Grouse sounded through the woods. Nature was quietly at home 
here, and the foot of man came seldom. Here the hand of the flower gatherer seldom 
disturbed the plants, and the skin and egg collector never trespassed, and this was the 
reason, why such a lovely picture could be seen in its dewy, fresh completeness. While 
culling some of the fragrant yellow lady’s slippers, yellow violets, and wood sorrel, a 
small bird fluttered away, almost from under my hand. I knew that there was a nest, 
but I could see nothing except a bunch of dry Sphagnum moss under a dense fern. 
Examining this more closely I noticed a small hole, and on entering my finger I felt four 
warm eggs. A few sharp notes brought the male near the nest, and I was surprised to 
see such a beautiful bird before me in this little wilderness. The nest, composed exteriorly- 
of swamp moss, fine grasses, and dry leaves, lined with pine needles and a few cattle 
hairs, was in such harmony with its surroundings and the highly colored bird, that I 
only could stand and admire. The bluish-ash color of the back and the bright yellow 
of the under-parts, the breast spotted with black, made it certain that I had the 
beautiful CANADIAN WARBLER before me. 
This bird is distributed over eastern North America, westward to the Plains. It 
breeds from northern IIlinois and Connecticut northward to New Foundland, Labrador, 
and Lake Winnipeg. In the mountain regions of New York and Pennsylvania it also 
breeds. Prof. Brewster found it abundant in the niountains-of North Carolina, “from 
about 3,000 feet nearly, or quite, to the tops of the highest mountains. Over the lower 
portions of its range it frequented rhododendron thickets bordering streams, above 
5,000 feet, the balsam forests. As its vertical distribution extends downward below the 
upper limits of that of the Hooded Warbler, the two species probably come together in 
places, although I saw no instances of this. At Highlands, June 1, 1885, Mr. Boynton 
found a nest placed in a grassy spring-bank, and ‘composed chiefly of old leave-stems 
and small roots, lined with fine black roots which resemble hair.’ It contained four 
perfectly fresh eggs.” 
In Wisconsin the Canadian Warbler is a rather rare bird. I have seen it in many 
localities, but never found another nest. Mr. W. Brewster, in his paper “Notes on the 
Birds of Winchendon, Worcester County, Massachusetts” (Auk, Vol..V, 1889, p. 392), 
says that it is everywhere abundant in the spruce swamps. A brood of young, 
barely able to fly, were met with June 25, 1887, and the next day Mr. Purdie found 
another nest with eggs. ‘The nest was in the face of a low, Sphagnum-covered mound 
about eighteen inches above its base. In the soft mound behind the outer covering of 
Sphagnum the birds had excavated a cavity about the size of one’s fist. In the bottom 
of this cavity was the nest, a loosely formed, but nevertheless neat structure, composed 
outwardly of dry leaves, and lined with pine needles, black rootlets, and a little horse 
hair. The bird entered by a small round hole, the bottom of which was about on a 
level with the top of the nest. All the nests (a dozen or more) of this species which I 
have examined were built like the one just described, although the height above ground 
has varied, one which I took at Lake Umbagog in 1879, being higher than my head 
in a patch of moss that covered the face of a perpendicular cliff. I have yet to see a 
nest placed on the ground and open at the top, as most of the book descriptions 
indicate.” 
