650 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



of the commonest warblers in Leeds Co., Ont.; I have frequently- 

 seen the nest placed in some crotch of a small tree from five to 

 twenty feet from the ground; the eggs are laid the first week in 

 June. {Rev. C.J. Young.) 



Many nests of this species in past years have come under my 

 observation; but it is only of those noted the present season that 

 I purpose hereto speak; on May 22nd I noticed a female redstart 

 flying from a partly composed nest, the site of which was in the 

 fork of a small maple sapling, and at an elevation of about eight 

 feet from the ground ; the nest could be easily seen, when the 

 searcher's gaze was directed to it, at a distance of four rods; the 

 woods around it were rather open, and the leaves of the sapling 

 were a yard or more above it; eight days after I found that this 

 nest contained four of the warbler's own eggs and one of a cow- 

 bird, all of which were fresh; of all the warblers, the nest of this 

 species is about the neatest and most firmly put together, thebird 

 evidently emitting a good deal of saliva upon the material of 

 which the nest is composed when she is placing the fragments in 

 position; all this work, as well as that of incubation, appears to be 

 done by the female, though it is probable that her more beautifully 

 plumaged consort occasionally supplies her with food as she 

 incubates her eggs; and he certainly largely assists in feeding the 

 young and in trying to defend them if exposed to danger ; if the 

 first efforts of this bird to propagate its species are successful, it 

 does not nest more than once in the season, otherwise it will nest 

 a second time; the materials of which the greater part of the nest 

 of the redstart is composed is a kind of fibre gathered from 

 decaying timber and the seed pods of various kinds of vines, and 

 it is usually lined with animal hair; I have never known the set of 

 eggs to exceed four in number, and generally the second set con- 

 tains only three, with the addition mostly of a cowbird's; the eggs 

 are of a whitish grOund hue, marked towards the larger end with 

 a wealth of spotting of a flesh-coloured hue, and smaller dots of 

 the same hue scattered over the surface ; another bird of this 

 species was noticed building her nest at a much higher elevation 

 deeper in the wood, and even in a more exposed position; but a 

 few days after the nest was completed it wholly disappeared, and 

 I suspected that an olive-sided fly-catcher that had made her nest 

 on an overhanging branch, a few rods off, was the author of that. 



