THE BIOLOGICAL REVIEW. 93 



or under some concealing object, either stick, bark or clump of 

 dry leaves. 



On the 31st of May, 1893, I collected a nest and set of eggs 

 of this species. The site of this nest was near the top of the 

 turned-up root of a fallen tree, in a dense thicket of bush and 

 underwood, and three feet above the hollow out of which the 

 root had been torn. Over the site a part of the root projected, 

 sheltering it from the sunshine except at noonday. The place 

 was on the edge of a swampy burn and a highland dell, which I 

 find to be a favorite nesting place of several other species. The 

 bird had been on the nest, and flushed out as I, a few feet off, 

 crashed through the tangled bush, and saw at once that it 

 contained three of her own eggs and one of a Cow-bird's, and 

 these I afterwards found had been about three days incubated. 

 The nest was composed of dry leaves, some strips of bark, a 

 little moss, rootlets and hair. The eggs are of a whitish hue, 

 thickly dotted toward the larger end with spotting of a flesh 

 color. A person not well acquainted with the nesting peculi- 

 arities of this species might easily have mistaken it for a nest of 

 the Canadian Warbler. Though placed in a similar position, 

 and composed of similar materials, it was more bulky in size, 

 and the eggs, though about the same size, had not so clear a 

 ground color, and were a little more globular in form. The 

 return of the bird, however, soon settled the question of identity. 



the mourning warbler (Geothlypis Philadelphia). 



A nest with four beautiful eggs that I collected this season 

 (1894) ^ s before me, and as they may be regarded as typical, I 

 will give some account of them. 



On the 28th of May, as I was doing some work on the 

 margin of a swampy burn and the highland wood, I discovered 

 in a clump of yellow-topped weeds a newly-made nest, of whose 

 identity I was at first uncertain, as it seemed to be rather 

 large for any of the warblers that nest in such situations. On 

 each of the two following days an egg was deposited, which 

 resembled those of the Maryland Yellow Throat. On the 3rd 



