u-ejieral Notes ^ 



"The Chestnut-sided Warbler Nesting in Missouri. — Central Illinois is 

 generally considered to be the southernmost limit in the Mississippi 

 Valley of the summer home of this Warbler, and thus far there appears to 

 be no record for southern Iowa. I desire to say, however, that while in 

 Missouri the past June (1892) I observed D. pensylvanica on two occasions 

 and under circumstances that point most conclusively to the probability 

 of its nesting in that State. On June 3, while visiting the woods skirting 

 the River Des Peres near St. Louis, in company with Mr. O. Widmann 

 of Old Orchard, Mo., a male was discovered singing in the top of a tree 

 on the edge of a blackberry thicket and to all appearances settled for the 

 season, Mr. Widmann's attention being first directed to it by the peculi- 

 arity of its song as a summer resident for that locality. 



Later, on the 19th of the month, while riding by wagon in Reynolds 

 County, Mo., from Edge Hill to Middlebrook, and about half way between 

 those points a male and a female were detected by me in the act of copula- 

 tion, the locality being a tract of country formerly cleared of its timber by 

 charcoal burners, but now growing up with brush. This was in a region 

 about ninety miles south by southwest from St. Louis. Mr. Widmann again 

 saw a male (probably the original bird) in the first locality herein men- 

 tioned on June 21, and we were informed by Mr. Philo W. Smith, Jr., of 

 St. Louis, that he had taken as many as six nests of the Chestnut-sided 

 Warbler in one day at Greenwood, a small suburb a few miles west of the 

 city. 



In the light of our previous knowledge, the foregoing notes will serve 

 to extend considerably the known breeding range of this bird. — B. F. 

 Gault, Glen miyn, Du Page Co., Illi»oh^^ ^ ^^^^ ^^ggg 



ibr the Blue Warbler a few rods a«ay, and we seated ourselves about 

 fifteen feet from the tree, determined to see everything that happened. 

 The nest was in a small beech, about thirty feet from the ground in a 

 crotch made by a short, dead branch with, the trunk. It seemed'to be 

 a compact, typ.cal Redstart nest, though placed higher than usual -it 

 certainly had nothing to suggest a Chestnut-sided Warbler's nest. It was 

 in such plain view from where we sat that, through our glasses, we could 

 see the fuz. on the heads of the little ones, and see the larger of the two 

 scratch his bill, stroke his feathers, stand up in the nest, and stretch his 

 wing over the edge. When the sun lit up the leaves and the nest in their 

 midst we could see into the throats of the hungry babies. When the old 

 birds fed them, I saw the yellow patches on the tail of the Redstart as 

 she darted around the nest, and the while breast and yellow crown of Ihe 

 Chest.nit-sided Warbler. And in hunting, the Chestnut came within Ik 

 eet of us, so that we could see the deep chestnut of his sides and the 

 heavy black markings of his cheeks. We watched the birds closely for an 

 hour or more in the morning, two hours in the afternoon, and for a 

 short time just before dark; and each time saw the same singular 

 performance. ■iio"''" 



The birds fed the young at dangerously short intervals-we feared they 

 would leave the nest dyspeptics for life! And they would have been 

 Clammed still more, if it had not been for the time it took the Redstart to 

 diive oft the Chestnut, and the delay her attacks caused him ; for she had 

 no wish for his kind offices and, as Mrs. Miller remarked, like some other 

 philanthropists that made no diff-erenee to him! When she saw him 

 coming with food, before he was anywhere near the tree, she dashed at 

 him with .spread tail and resentment in every feather. His long-sufferino- 

 meekness was philosophical. He flew before her, waited till she had 

 spent her anger and gone off or down in the bushes for an insect, when 

 he s hpped up to the nest and fed his charges. It seemed as if she could 

 not bear the sight of him. Again and again she drove him out of the 



Was He a Philanthropist?— On the fourth of July, when in the woods 

 looking for the nest of a Black-lhroated Blue Warbler, my attention was 

 diverted by a Che.stiuit-siJcii Waibler. He came hunting over the bushes 

 near me, once Hying so low that 1 caught his image among the waving 

 reflections of the sunlit saplings in the pool at my (eet. I traced him to a 

 nest, and was rejoicing over the discovery when, on walking nearer, 1 

 was thrown into perplexity by seeing a female Redstart come to feed the 

 young. What could it mean .? 1 dared not believe my eyes. Perhaps, 

 in moving to a better position, I had lost my Chestnut's nest and come 

 upon a Redstart's. Or — could such strange things be.? Before I had 

 time to get over my bewilderment, back flew the Chestnut again, feeding 

 the babies as calmly as if to assure me that such things were, whether 

 from precedent or the premises of ornithologists they could be or could 

 not be. 



I signalled excitedly lo Mrs. Olive Thorne Miller, who was watching 



