90 



ORKITHOLOGIST [Yol. 6 



bred, and it is interestinf? to note that tlie wood- 

 coclt now i-pgiilai'ly breeds in North Lancashire, 

 as it indeed does in most English counties from 

 the Tweed to the Lizard. On the east coast of 

 Scotland — often extending, as ascertained by 

 systematic observations, along :the entire coast 

 line of Britain — the first fli^t of woodcocks 

 generally ocfurs dni'ing the first ten days of 

 November. These birds soon pass on, unless 



north winds lsee|) them to cover." The sec- 

 ond and greatest flight occurs about the middle 

 of December. Since the llthof October streams 

 of immigrants h.'ive been constantly flowing on 

 10 our coasts, from hooded crows, woodcocks, 

 green and golden plovers, to tiny gold-crested 

 wrens, our smallest British birds, which cross 

 the North Sea hi great nuraljers in autumn, and 

 recross again in spring to the breeding haunts 

 in Northern Europe. 



Sky lafks, as usual, have arrived already 

 from ov'ersea in enormous numbers, and the 

 arrival of blackbirds, song thru'ghes, chaf- 

 tinchfis, and other small birds has ali the same 

 time been large. Lunn buntings, youilg birds, 

 have also put in an appearance. 



Nesting of the Black-throated Blue 

 Warbler. 



BV E(5IiKl{T HA(i(!, UTICA, N. V. 



Mr. John Burroughs, the Rev. C. M. Jones, 

 of Eastford, Connecticut, and the writer, if not 

 the only persons who have found the nests of 

 the Black-throated Blue Warbler {Dendrmca 

 rceriilescens), are. as far as ray reading goes, 

 the only ones who have thought it worth while 

 to put their discoveries in print. 1 do not count 

 Audubon's Nova Scotia nest, quoted also by 

 Baiid, Brewer, and Ridgway, as it was evident^ 

 ly not correctly identified. The description 

 agrees exactly witli the nests of the Black- 

 throated Green Warbler (Dendrceca virens) tak- 

 en by me. 



In the year 1884, my friend Dr. William M. 

 Ralph found a large piece of woods near Hol- 

 land Patent, N. Y., in which these warblers 

 remained during the breediiig season. In 188.5 

 a fairly careful search failed to And their nests, 

 but the birds were still there in considerable 

 numbers, though a thorough exploration of all 

 the neighboring pieces of woods failed to ftnd 

 them anywhere else. In 1886 we wei-e more 

 successful, and I think that an account of our 

 experience will be interesting. 



To begin with, the piece of woods deserves 

 description. It is one of the largest in the 



neighborhood, being at least a mile in length, 

 and from a quarter to ;i half in width. A large 

 part of it is swampy and heavily timbered — the 

 home of the Winter Wi-en (Annrthura troglody- 

 tes hyemalus) and the Black-throated Green War- 

 bler {Dendrceca rdre.m) ))oth of which we have 

 found nesting there. There is, however, a 

 small tract in it of high and dry ground, near- 

 ly, if not quite, surrounded by a swamj). On 

 this knoll, which is covered with large timber 

 standing rather openly, but grown up thickly 

 with brush from thi-ee to ten feet high, on the 

 dryest part, where the brush was lowest, and 

 composed almost entirely of sugar maple, we 

 found three of the four nests which rewarded 

 our efforts. 



On May 29th, 188G, Dr. Ralph found the first 

 nest. It was placed two feet from the ground 

 in the upright fork of a little ivuiple bush. It 

 was a loose structure, measuring, outside di- 

 ameter, three inches; inside, one and three- 

 quarter inches ; outside depth, three and three- 

 quarter inches; inside one and one-half inches. 

 It was composed of strips of rotten wood, 

 held together and lined with tine black roots, 

 and further secured with a few strips fit the 

 bark of deciduous trees. It cont.'iined four 

 eggs, which were somewhat inculjated, and 

 measured .6(ix.50; .(i0x..5l; .(tlx.;")], and XA 

 x.,51 inches. They ar(^ while, rather sparsely 

 marked with lilac and bi'own spots and dots, 

 heaviest at the large end. In shape and gen- 

 eral appearance they resemlile some specimens 

 of eggs of the Americaii ISedslart (,S<'toplHiii(t 

 rutieiila). 



On the same day Di-. Ral|ih found iinother 

 nest, just completed, about which he .saw the 

 birds, but it was empty. On June nth we 

 went together to collect this nest, when w<! 

 found to our disappointment and surprise that 

 it was gone, literallj' every bit, except one lit- 

 tle strand of bark wrapped about a twig. As 

 there were no tracks of any kind, and as not a 

 twig or leaf of the little bush was disturbed, it 

 was evident that it liad been taken away, either 

 by the owners, or by some other birds for the 

 purpose of nest building elsewhere. Our own 

 opinion being that the owners had determined 

 to "'move house," we carefully S(!arched the 

 knoll again, and were rewai-ded by finding a 

 nest on which the bird was sitting on a single 

 egg. This we left until the ]4th, when, on 

 visiting the nest again, it still contained only 

 one egg. The nest was placed in the upright 

 fork of a little maple, nine inches from the 

 ground, and was composed of the saiiiie mate- 

 rial as the former one, and measured, outside 



June 1887.] 



ATO OOLOGIST. 



91 



diameter, three iru-hes; inside, one and three- 

 quarter inches; outside depth, four and a half 

 inches; inside, one and a half inches. The sin- 

 gle egg proved to be dried up; undoubtedly 

 infertile, and aluiormal, in that the shell was 

 thick and rough in places and very thin in otli- 

 ers — in fact in one little spot there. was no 

 shell at all, though of conrse this did not show 

 until tlie egg was blown. It was a very pretti- 

 ly shaped egg, perfectly symmetrical, rather 

 liUint at the larger end, anil tapering to a point 

 at the smaller end. It was pinkish wliite, and 

 s[)otted and blol(^hed with darker shades of 

 [link and l)rownish pink; ("specially at the 

 larger enil, wliere llii! spots became confluent, 

 making a perfect wreath. It measured .74x 

 ..')(! iiK^hcs. 



After researching the knoll witiiout success, 

 we crossed a large liclil to a similar piece ol 

 woods. It soon (tomnieiu'cd to rain, and we 

 were turning our faces towards home, when in 

 crossing a rather open lillle space on the side 

 of a hill where the gronnd was dry and grown 

 up with just siicli brush as the other knoll, I 

 discov. iiil .1 hinl (in her nest. She was so 

 lame as Id :i11ih\ me l,o put my face within 

 thr(_'e feet oi' her, and what was my siu'prise 

 and pleasure to see that shi! was a, female 

 Black-throated Blue Warbler. With a shout 

 which frightened the bird from tlie nest, I 

 called my companion to me. When lie came, 

 however, he expressed some doubt as to the 

 identity of the (>ggs. Altliough the nest agreed 

 witli the others, the eggs were so diflerent that 

 lie could hardly believe tliat I had not mistaken ^ 

 the bird. So to satisfy him, and to corroborate 

 my eyes, wc sat down to wait. In a, very few 

 minutes bolh birds appeared. Hitting about in 

 evident distress, and within five minutes the 

 fenuile was on tiie nest again, and Dr. Ralph 

 was s;ilistic(l, especially when he had put his j 

 lace where I had put mine before, and, as I 

 might s:iy, counted each feather. 



The nest was composed of exactly the same 

 materials as trhe others, put together in the ' 

 same loose manner, placed a foot from the 

 ground in the upright fork of a little maple, • 

 and measured, outside diameter, three and one- . 

 half inches; inside, two and a quarter; outside 

 depth, five iuches ; inside, one and one-half 

 inches. The eggs which were rather more 

 than half incubated, were four in number, and ' 

 at first gave tlie impression of being like those j' 

 of the Nuthatches more than anything else, | 

 being pinkish (markedly so before blowing), j 

 quite heavily marked and blotched with dark j 

 brownish pink, especially at the larger end, and I 



a few fine marks and scratches of a darker col- 

 or. They were rather blunt at the smaller end, 

 and seemed large for the bird. They measured 

 .75 x .54 ; .72 x .5.5 ; .76 x .54, and .72 x .52 inches. 

 These measurements, however, are no laigi^r 

 tlian that of the single egg found in the former 

 nest, but the effect was that of larger eggs on 

 account of the shape; and the contents would 

 undoubtedly be somewhat more on that ac- 

 count. 



