OF NEW ENGLAND. 107 
eggs average ‘68 X ‘50 of an inch, and are generally white 
with purplish- or reddish-brown spots and blotches, which are 
sometimes confluent. These markings are either scattered over 
the egg, more thickly at the larger end than the other, or are 
grouped in aring about the crown. An egg of this species 
in my collection is buff (darker than that of the Wood Pewee) 
with a few lilac markings, but I have seen no others like it. 
(c). The Chestnut-sided Warblers are summer-residents 
throughout New England, but are much more abundant in the 
southern parts than further to the northward. They reach 
‘the neighborhood of Boston in the second week of May, and 
pass the entire summer here. They are never gregarious, but 
usually they are particularly common at the time of their 
spring-migrations, when they frequent considerably the shrub- 
bery and trees of cultivated estates, before retiring to their 
summer-haunts. Their habits at this time have often reminded 
- me of those of the “‘ Yellow-rumps,” for they are often much 
in the air, taking flights from one place to another at quite a 
height from the ground, that is, from thirty to sixty feet above 
it. At other times they glean quietly among the foliage of the 
maples, and other budding trees, generally among the lower 
branches. Occasionally they perform a rapid and graceful 
movement through the air to seize some passing insect, or stand 
like a flycatcher to watch the flies and gnats, which they now 
and then secure by darting after them. They never seek their 
food upon the ground, so far as I know, and only descend to it 
when picking up materials for their nests. Their haunts in 
summer are chiefly pasture-lands, “scrub,” and open, moist 
woodlands, such as contain.oaks, chestnuts, afd maples, and 
an undergrowth of bushes, vines, and saplings. I have never 
met these birds in thick or dark woods, and have but once seen 
their nest placed in an evergreen, it being in that instance in a 
low spruce by a brookside. It is to be remembered, however, 
that in different sections of the country birds show preference 
for different kinds of land, and often vary their habits to an 
extent that is surprising, and even confusing. Finally come 
those variations in coloration, caused by climate, which have 
