THE BAY STATE OOLOGIST. 49 



in a convenient position. One of the birds was working at the nest and the other 

 close by was uttering its quick notes ; both of them desisted from their occupation 

 and coming closer to me, gave me a downright good scolding. As I did not talk 

 back, they finally gave me a good examination, and being motionless, they prob- 

 ably took me for a new strange growth and resumed their work. One of the birds, 

 the female no doubt, would fly to where a colony of caterpillars had built a large 

 globular web, and taking as much of the silk as possible in her bill, would return 

 and fc work it around the twigs and also across the twigs from one to the other, 

 forming a bridge. This was kept up for some time, until the bridge, being strong- 

 enough, a few fragments of leaves and grasses were placed on top ot it, and the 

 bird, getting on these, pressed the whole thing down between the fork. This they 

 kept up for some time, occasionally adding some of the caterpillar silk to places 

 where the strain appeared to be too great, and in a couple of hours the nest was 

 ••bulging'" downwards considerably. The male took no hand in the building, but 

 alter each addition to and pressing down of the structure, he would come to the 

 nest and a good deal of Vireo talk was indulged in. He was probably bossing 

 the job. I would have liked to watch them all day, but time was precious and I 

 had to leave. 



The nest was composed of leaves, grasses, pieces of rotten wood, lichens and 

 moss, and lined with fine grasses. Three to four (never five) eggs comprise a set, 

 most often, four. The eggs are pure white, spotted with vandyke brown. In 

 some eggs, the spotting is nearly uniform over the whole egg; in others, only a 

 few faint, small spots are seen, thus preventing a wide range of variations. Size, 

 .75X.57 inches. This species is one of the foster parents ot the Dwarf Cowbird. 

 Fully one-half of the nests examined contain either eggs or young of that species. 



(to be continued.) 



