Breezy Point, Warren, N.H. - Third trip up Mt. Moosilauke [delete]N.H.[/delete]
1894.  
June 22
(No. 5)                                                                                                            
  While searching for Thrushes' nests among the young balsams     
at an elevation of about 3500 feet I stumbled on a nest of                       
the Black-poll Warbler. It was built just 37 inches above the               
ground on a stout branch of a fallen and dying Black Spruce.             
The foliage of the spruce branch although still green afforded the       
nest little shelter but it was beautifully covered by the spreading,     
luxuriant shoots of a little balsalm which extended out close
above it.  A score or more of these young balsams, four or five
feet tall, had shot up around and through the spruce forming
a dense thicket. Happening to step on the trunk of the spruce      
I saw some bird flit off among the balsalms. Following I
came upon a female Black-poll, a remarkably fine old
bird so heavily and conspicuously streaked on the throat and
sides that I took her at first glance for a male. She was absurdly
tame allowing me to get within three or four feet of her
and flitting about close to the ground pretending to feed
just as does the female Swamp Sparrow when started from
her nest. The pretense was so obvious that I felt
sure at once that this Warbler had just left her
nest but I had to look for it very carefully before I
found it. I afterwards returned to it with Faxon &
found the bird sitting. Unlike most sitting birds she
kept moving her head about uneasily as we stood within
a yard or so of the nest looking at her. I nearly
touched her before she would leave her eggs. She then
began acting precisely as she had acted during my first
visit, flitting about among the balsams pretending to
catch insects. She did not once chirp nor show in any
way that she noticed out presence. I finally, with great
reluctance, decided to shoot her but my cartridges were bad
and the two shots that I fired only wounded her slightly.