THE BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER. 223 



breeds, though not nearly so abundantly as in those first 

 mentioned. It arrives from the South from about the 25th 

 of April to the 1st of May, in Massachusetts. I have often 

 seen this species, as late as the last week in May, busily 

 engaged in destroying insects (of which its food, as also that 

 of the other "Warblers, consists), apparently without being 

 mated, as several individuals of both sexes were together, 

 seemingly in harmony, but without those little fondlings 

 and attentions peculiar to mated birds. The nest is seldom 

 built before the 10th of June in this latitude. It is con- 

 structed of fine grasses, fibrous roots, fine strips of bark from 

 the cedar, and the leaves of the pine : these are entwined 

 together strongly and neatly, and the interior of the nest is 

 lined with horsehair and fine moss. Nuttall, in describing 

 the only nest of this bird that he ever saw, says, — 



" On the 8th of June, I was so fortunate as to find a nest of this 

 species in a perfectly solitary situation, on the Blue Hills of Milton, 

 Mass. The female was now sitting, and about to hatch. The nest 

 was in a low, thick, and stunted Virginia juniper. When I ap- 

 proached near the nest, the female stood motionless on its edge, and 

 peeped down in such a manner that I imagined her to be a young 

 bird : she then darted directly to the earth, and ran ; but when, 

 deceived, I sought her on the ground, she had very expertly disap- 

 peared, and I now found the nest to contain four roundish eggs, 

 white, inclining to flesh-color, variegated, more particularly at the 

 great end, with pale, purplish points of various sizes, interspersed 

 with other large spots of brown and blackish. The nest was formed 

 of circularly entwined fine strips of the inner bark of the juniper, 

 and the tough, fibrous bark of some other plant, then bedded with 

 soft feathers of the Robin, and lined with a few horsehairs, and 

 some slender tops of bent grass (Agrostis)." 



Early in June, 1863, a nest of this species was discovered 

 in a grove of pines in West Eoxbury : it was built in a 

 small fork of a pine, about ten feet from the ground. The 

 nest and its contents, four eggs, were removed; but the 

 birds remained in the neighborhood, and soon commenced 



