OF VIRGINIA 287 
is usually placed in a thick bush or clump of vines, from 
six to eighteen inches above ground, composed of weed 
stems, fine grasses and bark fiber, lined with fine grasses. 
Four eges is a full setting, a dull white, spotted and 
specked with reddish-brown or chestnut, and fainter under- 
markings of lilac. Their food is similar to the preceding 
species, the Blue-winged Warbler. 
GENUS COMPSOTHLYPIS. 
[648]. Compsothlypis americana americana (Linneus). 
Parula Warbler. 
Rance.—Southeastern United States. Breeds in 
Austral zones from the District of Columbia and south- 
eastern Virginia, south to Alabama and Florida; winters 
probably in Florida and northern West Indies. 
A most common breeding bird in its favorite haunts, 
the cypress or juniper swamps of the southeastern section ; 
Cape Henry southward. These trees seem to furnish 
particularly fine feeding grounds, and whenever you find 
one festooned with the long, hanging Spanish moss, here 
also are you likely to find one or more nests. In this 
section I should call them a colony bird, for in days past 
I have seen on the trees in and surrounding one small 
lake, as many as two hundred pair breeding in company. 
The Dismal Swamp and its surrounding low territory 
has been an ideal spot for a feeding and breeding home 
in years past, but of late, the cutting of the juniper for 
commercial purposes, and the disappearance of the moss 
to a great extent, has driven the majority of the birds 
elsewhere. Weather conditions seem to play an important 
