NESTING HABITS OF THE CERULEAN WARBLER. 



BY W. E. SAUNDERS. 



Some years ago, while on a short walking trip through the west- 

 ern peninsula of Ontario, I located a woods in which the Cerulean 

 Warbler (^Dendroica aerukd) was exceedingly common. Ever 

 since, I have wished for an opportunity to visit that locality in 

 early May that I might make their acquaintance in the house- 

 keeping season and perhaps get a few nests. Near London, 

 only 60 or 70 miles farther east, they average uncommon, and near 

 Toronto they are seldom seen. 



On May 16, 1900, I got back near the place and in a day's hunt 

 succeeded in finding two pieces of woodland where they were 

 common, and though there appeared to be as yet no sign of nest 



ing we noticed a female, leisurely feeding and hopping around in 

 a tree in front of us. By the time we were ready to move, she 

 had covered two or three trees so often that we felt sure her nest 

 was in one of them and we got on opposite sides of the clump of 

 trees to watch her. Then it began to dawn on us why we had 

 met with so little success in the morning, for it kept us both busy 

 to keep track of the little greenish bird traveling high up among 

 the green leaves. However, after a half hour or so she disap- 

 peared in a place where one watcher would not have been able to 

 guess at her whereabouts, but to the other, she was easy, and two 

 steps to one side revealed the nest. A climb of forty-five feet in 

 a leaning basswood reached the nest, which contained one egg 

 only, but as we were not very sanguine of finding more we took 

 it. 



We then decided to hunt together, and the difficulty was solved. 



