LAND BIRDS. 591 
Mr. Covert informed Dr. R. H. Wolcott that he found it nesting at South 
Lyons, Washtenaw county, in 1895, and Mr. Covert states in his manuscript 
list of 1894-95 that D. C. Worcester found a nest in a tamarack swamp 
near Ann Arbor, May 17, 1893. Mr. L. J. Cole tells us that he suspects 
that the bird breeds in the low places among the sand dunes near Grand 
Haven, Ottawa county, and the writer has found it during the nesting 
ae near Petoskey, Emmet county, although no nests were actually 
ound. 
The subspecies was named usnee by Mr. Brewster from the fact that 
so far as observed it nests invariably in masses (usually pensile) of the 
so-called ‘‘ Beard-moss,” belonging to the genus Usnea which so frequently 
festoons the trees in swampy places and overflowed woodlands. The 
bird selects a swinging mass of this moss and in its interior builds a neat 
nest, mainly of pieces of the moss itself, but sometimes with a few rootlets 
and hairs interwoven, the nest being usually arched over or completely 
closed at the top, with the entrance through a hole in the side. Not in- 
frequently the nest is within two or three feet of the water, and instances 
are recorded where many of these nests have been destroyed by the rising 
of the water in heavy freshets. Ordinarily, however, they are placed 
from five to twenty feet above the water (or ground) and are so skilfully 
concealed as to be found only by patient watching of the birds. The 
eggs are three to five, white, speckled with reddish brown, and average 
.64 by .46 inches. 
According to Bicknell it has two different songs. In one the notes 
coalesce into a fine insect-like trill; in the other four similar notes are 
followed by four others, weaker and more quickly given. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Adult male: Upper parts, from forehead to tail, bright grayish blue, with « patch 
of greenish yellow in the middle of the back; sides of head and neck blue like the back, 
this color extending along the sides of the breast and belly; lores black; a white spot 
on the lower eyelid; two conspicuous white wing-bars; chin and middle of breast clear 
bright yellow; throat and upper breast mixed black, brown and yellow; belly and under 
tail-coverts white; most of the tail feathers with white spots which are large and squarish 
on the outer two pairs. Female similar, but less brown and black on throat and breast, 
these parts often being entirely yellow; upper parts duller blue, and white wing-bars 
narrower. 
Length 4.10 to 4.90 inches; wing 2.20 to 2.40; tail 1.60 to 1.85. 
