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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



his nesting grounds I am able to hear it at as great a distance as the Oven 

 bird's, in fact, the note seeming to my ear fuller and louder than that of 

 any other species except the Ovenbird. 



Mr Verdi Burtch of Branchport thus describes the nesting habits 

 of this warbler in Yates county: " In Potter swamp, where the timber 

 has been well thinned out, where the ground is wet and springy, where 

 the ferns, skunk cabbage, tall rue, spice bush, bishop's cap, false Solomon's 

 seal, white baneberry and marsh marigold mingle, and poison ivy and woody 



Mourning warbler's nest and eggs 



Photo by Verdi Burtch 



nightshade cover the stumps and dead tops, and here and there a tall 

 dead stub towers above the bushes, here the Mourning warbler makes 

 its summer home, nesting along the abandoned wood roads and more 

 open places that are now grown up with grass, ferns, skunk cabbage, 

 rue and marsh marigolds. It arrives about May g to 20 and is fairly 

 common, nesting in company with Northern yellow-throats and Golden- 

 wing warblers. It begins nestbuilding the last week of May and complete 



