38 THE PINE CREEPING WOOD- WARBLER. 



and Eastern States. In the Carolinas, for instance, it is usually placed among 

 the dangling fibres of the Spanish moss, with less workmanship and less care, 

 than in the Jerseys, the State of New York, or that of Maine. In the latter, 

 as well as in Massachusetts, where it breeds about the middle of June, it 

 places its nest at a great height, sometimes fifty feet, attaching it to the twigs 

 of a forked branch. Here the nest is small, thin but compact, composed of 

 the slender stems of dried grasses mixed with coarse fibrous roots and the 

 exuvise of caterpillars or other insects, and lined with the hair of the deer, 

 moose, racoon, or other animals, delicate fibrous roots, wool, and feathers. 

 The eggs, which are from four to six, have a very light sea-green tint, all 

 over sprinkled with small pale reddish-brown dots, of which there is a thicker 

 circle near the larger end. In these districts, it seldom breeds more than 

 once in the season, whereas in the Carolinas, Georgia, and the Floridas, where 

 it is a constant resident, it usually has two, sometimes three, broods in the 

 year, and its eggs are deposited on the first days of April, fully a month ear- 

 lier than in the State above mentioned. 



Its flight is short, and exhibits undulating curves of considerable elegance. 

 It migrates entirely by day, flying from tree to tree, and seldom making a 

 longer flight than is necessary for crossing a river. The song is monotonous, 

 consisting at times merely of a continued tremulous sound, which may be 

 represented by the letters trr-rr-rr-rr. During the love season, this is 

 changed into a more distinct sound, resembling twB, twB, tS, tZ, te, tee. It 

 sings at all hours of the day, even in the heat of summer noon, when tire 

 woodland songsters are usually silent. 



It is a hardy bird, seldom abandoning the most northern of the Eastern 

 States until the middle of October. I saw none beyond the Province of 

 New Brunswick, and Professor MacCulloch of Pictou had not observed it 

 in Nova Scotia. In Newfoundland and Labrador I did not see a single indi- 

 vidual. 



I have placed a pair of these birds on a branch of their favourite pine; but 

 the colouring of the male is not so brilliant as it is in spring and summer, the 

 individual represented having been drawn in Louisiana in the winter, where, 

 as w r ell as in the Carolinas, the Floridas, and all the Southern Districts, it is 

 a constant resident. 



I have already mentioned that the Pine Creeping Warbler is the parent of 

 Vigors's Warbler. Of this fact I gave intimation to the Prince of Musigna- 

 no, during his recent visit to London. I found it abundant in the Texas, 

 where it breeds. 



Pine Creeping Warbler, Sylvia pinus, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. iii. p. 25. 

 Sylvia pinus, Bonap. Syn., p. 81. 



