A.nk. X.IV, JtUy, 1887, P;t>, ? - ;? f V. 

 NESTING OF THE PARULA WARBLER (COM- 

 FSOTHLYPIS AMERICANA') IN CAP^ MAY 

 COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.^ 



BY MARK L. C. WILDE. 



Perhaps no other portion of the State of New Jersey is better 

 adapted as a breeding ground for the Parula Warbler than Cape 

 May County. Quite a number of its streams, including Dennis 

 Creek and tributaries, are dammed off to supply power to the 

 various saw and grist mills, thereby forming mill-ponds, and in 

 some cases these streams spread over a considerable area, owing 

 to the extreme shallowness of the valleys. 



I Read before the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club of Philadelphia. 



37 



beautify the mill-ponds. Various ericaceous bushes and open 

 sphagnum bogs are scattered throughout this region, and these 

 bogs often continue to the very sources of the small streams 

 which supply the mill-ponds with water. 



The Parula Warblers breed undisturbed in these secluded 

 spots, where the Kingbirds may be seen with outstretched wings, 

 swaying on the topmost branches of the cedars, and where 

 insects and Hummingbirds {Trochilus colubris) may be heard, as 

 they swiftly wing their way across the ponds. Uninterested 

 persons seldom if ever intrude, probably on account of the ' out- 

 of-the-way ' localities, and the difficulties connected with pene- 

 trating the dense bushes which surround 'their breeding grounds. 



The trees here in the upper portion of the mill-ponds increase in 

 size, gradually culminating into dense red-water cedar-swamps, as 

 they follow the small streams to their sources. 



Viewed from a short distance these saturated cedar-swamps 

 present the appearance of a solid mass of dark green, and when 



