338 



Brewster on the Golden-crested Kinglet. 



[October 



at work on the lining, the exterior being apparently completed, 

 and was taken June 29, with a set of nine eggs, four perfectly 

 fresh, the others slightly incubated. It was placed in a tall, 

 slender spruce {A. nigra)., on the south side, within about two 

 feet of the top of the tree, and at least sixty feet above the ground, 

 suspended among fine pendant twigs about two inches directly 

 below a short horizontal branch, some twelve inches out from 

 the main stem, and an equal distance from the end of the branch. 

 The tree stood near the upper edge of a narrow strip of dry, 

 rather open woods bordered on one side by a road, on the other 

 by an extensive sphagnum swamp, the growth both in the swamp 

 and along its edges being almost exclusively spruces {A. nigra) 

 and balsams (^A. balsamifera) . 



The nest measures externally: greatest depth, 3.60; least 

 depth, 2.70 ; greatest diameter, 4.20 ; least diameter, 3.00 inches. 

 Two measurements are required for each dimension because of 

 the irregularity of the external outline. This although generally 

 rounded is broken in places by deep depressions and prominent 

 knobs or excrescences. The top of the nest is open, but the rim 

 is slightly contracted or arched on every side over the deep hol- 

 low which contained the eggs. The extent of this contraction is 

 best shown by the following measurements of the interior cav- 

 ity : diameter at top, 1.15 X 1.95 inches; diameter midway be- 

 tween top and bottom, 1.40 X 2.10. The cavity is oblong, not 

 round. The walls vary in thickness from 1.35 to .40. Out- 

 wardly they are composed chiefly of green mosses* prettily diver- 

 sified with grayish lichens and Usnea, the general tone of the col- 

 oring, however, matching closely that of the surrounding spruce 

 foliage. The interior at the bottom is lined with exceedingly deli- 

 cate strips of soft inner bark and fine black rootlets similar to, if 

 not identical with, those which almost invariably form the lining of 

 the nest of the Black-and-yellow Warbler. Near the top are rather 

 numerous feathers of the Ruffed Grouse, Hermit Thrush, and 

 Oven-bird, arranged with the points of the quills down, the tips 

 rising to, or slightly above, the rim and arching inward over the 

 cavity, forming a screen that partially concealed the eggs. 



* These have been identified by a botanist as representing five species of 

 Hypnum and one of Frullania. 



Brewster on the Golden-crested Kinglet. 



339 



The second nest was found June 16, when it was nearly com- 

 pleted, and taken June 39 with nine eggs, five of which were 

 fresh, the remaining four being slightly incubated. The locality 

 was a lonely glen on high land between two ridges. The ridges 

 were covered with young white pines. The prevailing growth 

 in the glen was spruce and hemlock, the trees of large size and 

 standing so thickly together as to shut out nearly all sunlight 

 from the ground beneath. The nest was on the west side of a 

 sturdy, heavily limbed spruce {A. nigra) about fifty feet above 

 the ground, twenty feet below the top of the tree, six feet out 

 from the trunk, and two and a half feet from the end of the 

 branch, in a dense cluster of stifl', radiating (not pendant) twigs, 

 the top of the nest being only an inch below, but the whole struc- 

 ture slightly on one side of the branch from which its supports 

 sprang. Above and on every side it was so perfectly concealed 

 by the dense flake-like masses of spruce foliage that it was im- 

 possible to see it from any direction except by parting the sur- 

 rounding twigs with the hand. Froin directly below, however, 

 a sinall portion of the bottom was visible, even from the ground. 

 The foliage immediately over the top was particularly dense, 

 forming a canopy which ixiust have been quite impervious to the 

 sun's rays, and a fairly good protection from rain also. Beneath 

 this canopy there was barely sufficient room for the birds to enter. 

 In o-eneral shape and construction this nest closely resembles the 

 one above described. It is, however, smaller, shallower, more 

 compact, rounder, and less irregular in outline, measuring as 

 follows: externally, greatest depth, 3.55; least depth, 2.45; 

 greatest diameter, 4 ; least diameter, 3.90 inches ; interior, diain- 

 eteratrim, 1.70; diameter midway, 1.75; depth, 1.40; greatest 

 thickness of walls, i .60 ; least, .75. l^he materials composing the 

 exterior are, similarly, green mosses and gray lichens, but the 

 lichens are much more sparingly used. The lining, as far as can 

 be seen without subjecting the nest to undue violence of handling, 

 is wholly of the downy under feathers of the Ruffed Grouse. 

 These are used so lavishly that, radiating inward from every 

 side, they nearly fill the interior and almost perfectly conceal its 

 contents. 



The third nest was also in a spruce whicli stood near the top 

 of a steep, picturesque hillside covered with noble old hemlocks 

 interspersed with a few rather stunted spruces, the ground be- 



