26 



THE ATLANTIC SLOPE NATURALIST. 



Mr. Ritenberg said that be bad left a 

 nest which he suspected might prove 

 to be that of the Mourning Warbler. 



As I had seen these warblers in the 

 locality several times I was naturally 

 much interested and promptly accom- 

 panied him to the place. To avoid 

 any question I regarded it advisable to 

 secure the bird if possible. As Mr. 

 Ritenberg had his gun, I had him 

 stand back and I carefully, but quickly 

 approached the spot he designated. 



A small greenish bird flew out to- 

 ward a low brush pile nearby and lie 

 shot it near the edge of the pile. It 

 proved to be a female Mourning War- 

 bler, and I knew that we had found 

 the nest of one of the rarest of western 

 New York's summer birds. 



The nest was in a clump of woody 

 nightshade and nettles growing on 

 ground that is covered with water 

 nearly one-half of the year. It was 

 entirely concealed, built up of layers 

 of dead leaves for a distance of several 

 inches. On top of the pile a cup- 

 shaped hollow was well-lined with 

 skeleton leaves, fine weed stems and 

 dry, dead grasses, and last of all an 

 inner lining of fine black rootlets. 



The eggs, five in number, did not 

 tally with the description of many 

 supposed sets of this bird. They are 

 now in my hands and do not in any 

 way closely resemble those of the j^el- 

 low-throat, nor in fact, any other 

 species of Gcothlypis, as far as my ex- 

 perience goes. 



They have not the white ground of 

 the Maryland yellow-throat, but show 

 the creamy ground of the Kentucky 

 Warbler's eggs, although much smaller 

 and finer in type of markings than 

 that bird's eggs. The markings are 

 all of the light shades of brown, no 

 black spots or lines, and are distrib- 

 uted over the entire egg, though in- 

 clined to group or wreath at the 

 larger end. The whole effect is more 

 delicate than the sets of the. Kentucky 

 Warbler I have seen, and entirely dif- 

 ferent from sets of the Yellow-throated 



or the only set of the Connecticut War- 

 bler I have seen. 



I have seen one set of four eggs, and 

 an incomplete set of two eggs of the 

 Mourning Warbler, besides this set, 

 which were undoubtedly right, al- 

 though the birds were not secured. 

 Both sets showed the lack of back 

 markings though the} 7 averaged larger 

 in size and coarser in markings. The 

 creamy ground was evidence in all 

 cases. I regard all of the so-called 

 sets of this bird showing black marks 

 on a white ground as unquestionably 

 sets of the Maryland Yellow-throat. 



THE CONNECTICUT WARBLER — Gcothlypis Clgilis. 



This Warbler is more retiring in 

 disposition and habits than the Mourn- 

 ing, and hence even more difficult to 

 locate while nesting. Here in Monroe 

 county, N. Y., I noted a pair I felt 

 certain were breeding last summer, 

 but after repeated efforts I gave up the 

 search for the nest and had to satisfy 

 myself with the skin of the male bird 

 as evidence. On the 30th of May, this 

 year, I accidentally stumbled on to the 

 only set of this bird's eggs I have ever 

 been fortunate enough to see. I was 

 crossing an opening in a large swamp 

 about one-half mile south of where I 

 saw the pair of Connecticut Warblers 

 last year, and was amusing myself by 

 switching the tops of the sedges, grow- 

 ing in a few inches of water, with a 

 short stick I carried, when something 

 that looked like a small mouse slipped 

 out of a clump of sedges in front of me 

 and disappeared at once. My stick 

 had uncovered a nest containing four 

 eggs built up a foot in the center of a 

 clump of sedge that; would certainly 

 never have been discovered but for the 

 stick. 



I was obliged to stand then in the 

 water for quite a long time, probably 

 for half an hour, before the bird came 

 back and even then, after I heard her 

 chipping around me, it took some time 

 to get her off the ground, or rather out 

 of the sedges far enougli to identify 

 her. She finally flew up into a patch 



