442 NESTS AND EGOS OF 



was saddled on the horizontal limb about eight feet from the ground and about ten 

 feet from the trunk. Blackburn's Warbler has been found breeding in Southern 

 Michigan, where nests have been taken in pine trees at an elevation of forty feet 

 In all cases the nests are placed high in hemlocks or pines, which are the bird's 

 favorite resorts. Mr. J. W. Preston met with the Blackburnian Warbler breeding in 

 the hemlock and spruce regions of Northern Minnesota. One nest was found placed 

 against the trunk and upon a small branch which grew from the tree at a height of 

 twenty feet; another was built in the fork of a horizontal branch near the end, five 

 feet from the trunk and thirty feet from the ground. One nest contained two, the 

 other three eggs, and in each was a Cowbird's egg. From all accounts the nests of 

 this species are elegantly and compactly made, consisting of a densely woven mass 

 of spruce twigs, soft vegetable down, rootlets and fine shreds of bark; the lining is 

 often intermixed with horse hairs and feathers. The full complement of eggs is 

 four, and they are described as greenish-white or very pale bluish-green, speckled 

 or spotted, chiefly around the larger end, with brown or reddish-brown and lilac- 

 gray; average size .69x.50. The sizes of the set taken by Dr. Merriam are .69x.50, 

 .70X.45, .71X.49, .69x.50, respectively. 



663. YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER. Dendroica dominica (Linn.) Geog. 

 Dist. — South Atlantic States north along the sea coast regularly to Maryland; casu- 

 ally to New York, Massachusetts, etc., south to the West Indies. 



The Yellow-throated Warbler breeds commonly in the South Atlantic States, in 

 some portions of which it is resident throughout the year. The nest is placed on 

 branches of pine trees, usually at a considerable elevation. It is also not infrequently 

 built in the pendulous tufts of Spanish moss, which 

 grows abundantly on the live oaks and other trees. Mr. 

 William Brewster found a nest of this species in Cam- 

 den county, Georgia, May 2, which was placed at a height 

 of thirty-five feet from the ground, on' the stout, hori- 

 zontal branch of a Southern pine, in a thinly scattered 

 grove. The nest was set flatly on the limb — not saddled 

 to it — nearly midway between the juncture with the main 

 663. Yellow-throated trunk and the extremity of the twigs, and was attached 



to the rough bark by silky flbres. It is composed of short 

 twigs, strips of bark, bound together with Spanish moss and silky down; the lining 

 is soft, hair-like vegetable down. Mr. Arthur T. Wayne obtained nests and eggs 

 of this Warbler in the mixed woods near Charleston, South Carolina. The nests were 

 found built in the tufts of tree moss, and lined with feathers. The heights range 

 from thirty to about forty feet above the ground. Mr. R. B. McLaughlin found, on 

 June 4, a nest of this species built close to the main body of a small pine tree, in 

 woods near Statesville, North Carolina. The nest rested on a short, dead twig, 

 nineteen feet from the ground. It contained three young birds and one egg. The 

 eggs are three or four in number, rarely flve. They are of a dull greenish or grayish- 

 white, spotted with various shades of brown and lavender-gray almost entirely near 

 the larger ends; in some specimens they form wreaths about the crown. This bird 

 deposits its eggs early, usually in the first part of April. The average size of ten 

 eggs is .74X.53. 



663o. SYCAMORE WARBLER. Dendroica dominica albalora Ridgw. Geog. 

 Dist. — Mississippi Valley, west to the Plains, north to Lake Erie and Southern Michi- 

 gan,, and east to Western North Carolina; in winter south to southern Mexico, Hon- 

 duras, Guatemala and Nicaragua. 



