232 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



the grape-vine. Nuttall describes a nest found in Acton, 

 as follows : — 



" It is fixed in the forked twigs of a hazel, about breast-high. 

 The fabric is rather light and airy, being made externally of a few- 

 coarse blades and stalks of dead grass, then filled in with fine 

 blades of the same ; the whole matted and tied with caterpillars' 

 silk, and lined with very slender strips of brown bark and similar 

 white-pine leaves." 



The nests which I have collected, and some I have before 

 me, are of a different character from his description, being 

 compactly and neatly made of bark from the cedar, and 

 grasses, and lined with horsehair ; but I have no doubt that 

 this species, like many others, varies in breeding habits in 

 different localities. The eggs are three or four in number, 

 and are laid about the first week in June. They are of a 

 delicate creamy-white color, and marked at the great end 

 with spots of brown, which are often confluent: the spots 

 are of two colors, a reddish-brown and purplish-brown. 

 The dimensions vary from .70 by .51 inch to .63 by .50 inch. 

 But one brood is raised in the season in this latitude. 



This is another of those birds which seem to have become 

 quite abundant within a few years. Wilson, Nuttall, and 

 others speak of it as being a very rare species ; and it is now 

 one of the most common of birds in localities where it was, 

 a few years since, quite rare. It prefers a growth of low 

 shrubs and scrub-oaks and birches to a forest of tall trees, 

 and is seldom seen in the latter. 



Its note consists of the syllables 'ehe 'che 'ch 'cheea, 

 repeated at short intervals : it has also, at times, a rattling 

 cry something like the alarm-note of the Maryland Yellow- 

 throat. 



The female has nothing but a sharp chirp, which she 

 often emits in answer to the song of the male. When 

 approached while on the nest, she sits quietly until the 

 intruder is quite near. I once had a dog make a point 



