occasional appearance near the Maine border during tlie breeding 

 season. A year later, in July, 1883, Mr. Arthur P. Chadbourne 

 captured a solitary example at Rothesay, some nine miles east of 

 this city (St. John), and this completed the record until June, 

 1884, when the nest and eggs were discovered just outside the 

 city limits by my friend and co-worker in this locality, Mr. James 

 W. Banks. For this is Bank's story that I am telling, he, with 

 characteristic generosity, desiring my name to be associated with 

 its rehearsal. 



The birds seen and heard at Edmundston were invariably on 

 the topmost branches of the tallest evergreens (usually spruces) 

 growing in the neighborhood. Our experience furnished us with 

 good and sufficient reason for remembering this fact. As the 

 birds were constantly singing, their general whereabouts was 

 easily discovered, but no small amount of patient searching was 

 required to catch sight of them ; and we soon found out that after 

 sighting and shooting a bird there was still much to be gone 

 through before it was in hand ; for after tumbling a short distance 

 it usually staid. The trees were too stalwart to be moved by any 

 shaking power we could command, so every successful shot en- 

 tailed a climb-and such a climb ! The branches of these spruce 

 trees were so close together we had to call up all our reserve of 

 muscle and skill to squirm through ; and in addition to this we 

 had to encounter the annoying twigs-rough, sharp little things, 

 with which the branches were thickly studded, and which tore 

 clothes, scratched faces, pricked the flesh as they rolled down 

 underneath our flannels, and made themselves generally disagree- 

 able. And so it came about that the Cape May was associated 

 in my mind with the stately trees and the solitude of deep forests 

 —a solitude broken by the merry notes of these songsters, the 

 chatter of squirrels, the sigh of the swaying bouglis, and by the 

 strong language of exhausted and exasperated collectors; and, 

 because of these recollections, I was altogether unprepared for 

 my friend's announcement that a pair had built in a location of 

 an almost exactly opposite character. This nest found by Banks 

 was hid among a cluster of low cedars growing in an exposed 

 position, on a rather open hill-side, near a gentleman's residence, 

 and within a stone's throw of a much frequented lane. The nest 

 was placed less than three feet from the ground and within six 

 inches of the tips of the branches, amid the densest part of the 



foliage, by which it was well screened from observation. It was 

 fastened to two of the tiny branchlets — pendent from one and rest- 

 ing upon the other — and secured to each by strawberry vines and 

 spider silk. 



On June 10 Mr. Banks was sauntering past the cedar and 

 quite accidentally brushed the branches aside, disclosing an in- 

 complete nest, and he observed on a bush near by a bird whose 

 appearance was unfamiliar, apparently not much disturbed, but 

 evidently interested in Bank's presence. At that time the day- 

 light was too flir gone to admit of any accurate account being 

 taken of the form or color of the bird, but sufficient was noted 

 to identify it afterwards as a. female Cape May Warbler. And 

 here I may add that though the nest was frequently visited during 

 the following week, the male was not seen, nor was the song 

 heard. 



On June 13 the nest was completed and two eggs wei'e laid. 

 During this visit the female was near at hand, and when Banks 

 and a comrade withdrew to the shade of an adjoining tree she 

 followed them and gave ample opportunity for a close and sat- 

 isfactoi-y examination — coming within a couple of yards and 

 coolly pluming the feathers of wings and tail, all the time keeping 

 her eye upon the intruders, but exhibiting no alarm nor uttering 

 a single note. 



On June 16 the hen was discovered on the nest and was driven 

 off'. She did not fly more than a few yards, and then perching 

 on a bush plumed her feathers while watching her disturbers, 

 occasionally uttering a faint chirping note. This note did not 

 seem like a call, nor an alarm ; nor did the bird appear at all ex- 

 cited. 



To insure the identification being perfect the bird was secured 

 before the nest was taken. This structure and the completed 

 clutch of four eggs are before me as I write. The walls of the 

 nest are composed of minute twigs of dried spruce, gi-asses, and 

 strawberry vines, with spider's webbing interwoven with the 

 coarser fabrics and knotted into numerous little balls, which ai-e 

 bound upon the surface as if for ornament. The exterior is rather 

 roughly made, but is more compact, and bears evidence of more 

 art than is shown in the nest of the Magnolia Warbler, which it 

 somewhat resembles. The interior, however, is much more neat- 

 ly and artistically formed in the Cape May's than in its congener's. 



