212 PRAIRIE WARBLER 



fragrance and attract myriads of droning bees, is a fascinating and 

 memorable experience, whatever be its material results." 



Song. — Dr. Coues' unique characterization of the song of the 

 Prairie Warbler as suggesting the plaint of a mouse with the toothache, 

 has a certain aptness which those who are familiar with the song will 

 recognize. It is to me one of the most easily recognized and 

 remembered of Warbler's songs. 



"The ordinary call-note resembles the softer of the two chirps 

 uttered by the Yellow Warbler, but is perhaps more slowly uttered. 

 The song, uttered in spring, by the male, which sits, during the per- 

 formance, with the head held vertically upward, and the tail straight 

 down, is a lisping trill much like that of the Parula Warbler in its 

 general character; but it has a wiry quality that at once distinguishes 

 it. Once I heard another song, of which I have record only as a 

 queer, interrupted song, instead of the usual wiry trill." {Allison, 

 MS.) 



Nesting Site. — At Raleigh, N. C, Brimley 3 states that this species 

 "delights in sunny hillsides covered with bushes and saplings, building 

 its nest in one of these at a height of from one to twelve feet from 

 the ground, but usually about three or four feet high. * * * Un- 

 like some localities where this bird nests mainly in pine saplings, here 

 sweet gums are [given] the preference, with elm next best, nests being 

 only found very occasionally in pines." 



Near Washington, D. C, Coues 1 found that the nests were built 

 in an upright or oblique crotch, preferably one formed in part by the 

 main stem of a bush, from one and a half to five feet from the ground, 

 in a rather open, scrubby, hilly locality." 



They "were placed preferably in hickory and dogwood bushes. 

 Only three nests were found in the young pines, and one in a cedar 

 bush." (Coues.) 



At Saybrook, Conn., J. N. Clark (C. W. C.) found many nests 

 of this species in hilly pastures frequently in small junipers about 

 three feet from the ground. 



Nest. — All the nests of this species which I have examined are 

 characterized by the presence of a large amount of buff fern down 

 which is tightly woven or felted into their walls. 



Brimley" describes the nest as "a beautiful structure, usually being 

 largely composed of rabbit tobacco, a kind of gray-leaved, wild ever- 

 lasting very much used by birds in nest-building, and lined with soft 

 materials." 



Coues 1 writes "exceptions aside, the Prairie Warbler's nest may 

 be characterized as a neat, cup-shaped structure, with a firm some- 



