114 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ALABAMA 



Though the foregoing is. the only note on the yellow- 

 throated warbler published by the Doctor, he afterwards 

 recorded rather extended observations on the nesting of 

 the species. These original notes follow: 



"April 2, 1893. No. 1. Asbury McShan found a yel- 

 low-throated warbler building in a sweet gum tree not 

 far from the Greensboro station, and just over, the path, 

 in a pendant bunch of gray moss about forty-five feet 

 from the ground. She could be plainly seen with a field 

 glass through the moss whenever she brought material 

 to the nest. 



"On the third and fourth she was occupied morning 

 and evening at her work. At six o'clock she was work- 

 ing on the third; and later still she could be seen 'till 

 almost night at her labor. 



"The male was heard singing some distance from the 

 scene of his mate's constant occupation, for many hours ; 

 and he seemed quite indifferent to what she was doing, 

 though perhaps she listened to his song attentively, and 

 found relief in the sweet music of her charmer. 



"She flew generally to the limb from which the moss 

 hung and ran down till she reached the bunch when she 

 fluttered like a butterfly before the opening on the side 

 of the moss and then vanished in the waving epiphyte, 

 soon to emerge and to dart so swiftly forth that the eye 

 could scarcely follow her as she wound her aerial journey 

 now through the tree tops, and now suddenly descending 

 and skimming along the ground to seek rootlets or straw 

 or vegetable down for her cosy nest. I saw her once tear 

 the lining from an old nest of last year — a brown thrash- 

 er's I believe. 



"What instinct compels these birds thus to conceal 

 their nests in this pendent moss? Is it the inherited 

 memory of hundreds of ancestors that have built in vain 

 upon the bare branches till they have sought concealment 

 and safety in their rocking cradles upon the tallest trees? 

 Has the cunning serpent or the jay robbed them of their 

 treasures till the instinct of concealment is common to 

 these denizens of the lofty forest trees ? 



"April 4, 1893. No. 2. Asbury found a nest of D. 

 domimca this afternoon. It is in a bunch of Tillandsia 



