THE PRAIRIE WARBLER. 243 



others, considerable differences in the description of the 

 nest, &c. Wilson's description is as follows : — 



" The nest of this species is of very neat and delicate workman 

 ship, being pensile, and generally hung on the fork of a low bush 

 or thicket. It is formed outwardly of green moss, intermixed with 

 rotten bits of wood and caterpillars' silk : the inside is lined with 

 extremely fine fibres of grape-vine bark; and the whole woul^ 

 scarcely weigh a quarter of an ounce." 



Audubon says, — 



" Its nest, which forms by far the most interesting part of its his- 

 tory, is uncommonly small and delicate. Its eggs I have uniformly 

 found to be four in number, and of a white color, with a few brown- 

 ish spots near the larger end. The nest is sometimes attached to 

 three or four blades of tall grass, or hangs between two small sprigs 

 of a slender twig. At first sight, it seems to be formed like that of 

 the Humming-bird; the external parts being composed of deli- 

 cate gray lichens and other substances, and skins of black cater- 

 pillars, and the interior finished with the finest fibres of dried 

 vines." 



Nuttall says, in contradiction to these descriptions, — 



" The nest was hardly distinguishable from that of the Summer 

 Yellow-bird (Yellow Warbler), being fixed in a trifld branch (not 

 pensile), and formed of strips of inner red-cedar bark and asclepias 

 fibres, also with some caterpillar silk, and thickly lined with cud- 

 weed down (Gnaphalium plantagineum), and slender tops of bent 

 grass (Agrostis). The eggs, four or five, were white, rather sharp 

 at the lesser end, marked with spots of lilac-purple, and others of 

 two different shades of brown, rather numerous at the great end, 

 where they appear most collated together in a circle.'' 



Nuttall's description of the nest is certainly the most 

 correct, so far as shown in all the specimens that I have : 

 probably, in different sections, the breeding habits of this 

 bird are, like those of some others, subject to great varia- 

 tions. 



