OF EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA. 30I 



This simple and unpreteading ditty, throughout 

 the month of June, is kept up for hours together 

 with scarce an intermission. The note of complaint 

 or uneasiness is expressed by a simple chip uttered 

 rather slowly and at measured intervals. 



Early in May, say about the 15th, mating com- 

 mences; and about the i8th the birds are ready 

 to commence nest-building. The nest is generally 

 placed in.low bushes, and but occasionally in small 

 trees. A suitable site having been selected, both 

 male and female apply themselves assiduously to 

 the work, until the structure is finished, which 

 usually rec^uires four days. Considerable variation 

 is discernible in the architecture of different indi- 

 viduals; some nests are rudely constructed and 

 are so exceedingly loose and tenuous as to be 

 distinctly seen through; while others have much 

 of periphery with little of thickness and depth of 

 cavity. A typical nest is beautifully hemispherical 

 in configuration, neatly though loosely built, and 

 possesses a cavity artistic and symmetrical in con- 

 tour. Exteriorly, it is composed, unless in rare 

 cases, of fine rootlets, and is lined with black and 

 white horse-hairs. In a beautiful domicile before 

 us, very few roots are discernible;, the bulk of the 

 nest being composed of horse-hairs, densely and 

 compactly interwoven, and covered exteriorly with 

 a few twigs and lint. Again, we have nests which 

 are made entirely of fine rootlets. A curious 

 anomaly is sometimes met with in nest-building. 

 When a nest is placed in a thicket of bushes and 



