pLOGIST [Vol. 12-No. 10 



LOGIST. 



171 



Igponad coloi- white, the bhiigk'' or purplish 

 Wn%v entirely wanting. Notwithstanding the 

 vai'iiition to wliicli the is subject, I have 

 se<^ii 11" other which a/^houest collector could 

 palm off for it. ^ \ 



If the bird is SJiccesslul inVearing one brood, 

 I do not thinlf it attempts a Second, but when 

 disturbed in any way will build "^hree times or 

 pevhap;> oftener, in a season. ^, have never 

 fou^ii'it breeding, and seldom feeding, outside 

 of/pine timber. 



Nesting of the Yellow-throated War- 

 bler. 



BY R. B. MCLAUGHLIN, STATESVILLE, N. C. 



The Yellow-throated Warbler, {Dendrma 

 dominica) first came under my observation on 

 April 9th, 1887. I was out in search of nests 

 of the Pileated Woodpecker and had entered a 

 small tract of primitive woods consisting most- 

 ly of oaks interspersed with a very large species 

 of pine, usually called "lumber" pine here, to 

 contra-distinguish it from a smaller variety 

 I which is found on the barrens. These pines 

 ' with their lofty trunks rugged and bare, and 

 ; their limbs all clustering around in a circle near 

 their tops, which waved majestically twenty or 

 thirty feet above the surrounding timber, were 

 strikingly picturesque and formed the most 

 conspicuous feature of the landscape. From 

 I the tops of these pines came the peculiar song 

 fof a bird entirely new to me, and though I 

 i thought it a migrant, which were then plenti- 

 ful, some unknown to me. yet I became so 

 much interested in the song that I decided to 

 i shoot one of the birds for identitication. 

 ; I IMiilc the pines were from a hundred and 

 iten to a hundred and twenty-tive feet high, and 

 the birds had a preference for the top which 

 was very decided, and on leaving one pine flew 

 to another, never seeming to feed in the other 

 jtrees, though I saw a savage flght between two 

 imales in the top of an oak. Judging from their 

 songs, there were about eight males in all which 

 [were well scattered over the piece of woodland, 

 »nfl T guess I gave about all of them a call, but 

 found them so high that it was useless to do 

 anything but hold my powder. I suppose the 

 temalcs were arriving since a fight ensued 

 whRnever the males met; at any rate, I saw 

 tour. 1 returned a week or more later with 

 murderous intentions and found them still in 

 the tops of the pines, but after some ineffective 

 shooting, killed one, which Dr. A. K. Fisher 

 very kindly identified for me. 



all, but built closely to the main body of the 

 tree, the bottom part resting on a short dead 

 stick. It does not contain a sprig of moss nor 

 j a lichen as described by Audubon, but reseni- 

 .bles closely that o£ the Pine Warbler, which I 

 hope will be described later, being about half 

 as large and is composed outwardly of about 

 the same materials, yet somewhat finer in qual- 

 ity, and is lined with a quantity of horse-hair 

 instead of feathers. It has one prominent fea- 

 ture, however, and there is some attempt at 

 weaving. I was surprised to see a nest so 

 warm and compact at that time, so far south. 

 I .did not see the mother bird but shot her mate 

 which went with the nest and egg to the U. S. 

 National Museum. The egg is white rather 

 heavily spotted with brown. . , ..^^ 



• o &Q. XII.Qot .18S7 p. /yi'lj'^ 



j Notes on the Nesting of the Yellow- 

 Throated Warbler. 



BY WAI.TEU IIOXIE, FROGMOHK, S. 



I the Ycllo 



a). TlH 



,--tbr 



In a recent issue of the O. & O. (October, 

 I 1887), two articles appeared on tlie Nesting of 

 a ted Warbler {Dimdi-a'ca domin- 

 eiicnee of the two observers 

 ciy ilillcicut, that it would ap- 

 liiHinh one or the other of them 

 Hilt we taiie into con- 



"Ib well practised 

 ' t iml thn-e is a wide differ- 



musl bi! wrong, 

 slderatlon that tbf 

 oolle(:tors, and aisc 



once ill 1,1 

 tions ai'c n 

 natural cxi 



localitii 



ulc. 



wliich their observa- 

 miist jiauso and seek for a 

 1 of the apparently conQict- 

 y record. 



Leavin- out ot account the difference of lo- 

 x\V\iy, it secuij^ jis Ibougli the haliits of the bird 

 itselt will almost explain away all these con- 



.vlii<-li Ih, 



llictii 



g poi 



IHl. Ill 



Pi 



Ul I 



Tits, 

 pair of 



e-emiiii-iitly a searcher for 

 CSS an adept at fly-catching 

 .111 iilsi) if occasion requires 

 111- work at picking into the 

 fter tbe manner of the Nut- 

 In fact, 1 remember once 

 Vellow-throated Warblers 

 shower down so much bark and rotten chips 



from the partially decayed limb of an oak, that 

 I was quite suspicious that they were excavat- 

 ing, or at least enlarging a hollow in which to 

 build; and I do not think it would be a sur- 

 prising fact to find a nest in such a location. 



A general rule for all birds seems to be that 

 the greater their range of adaptability to ob- 

 tain subsistence, the greater is their range in 

 nest architecture. This observation does not 

 necessarily imply a wide geographical distri- 

 bution, which would of itself explain much of 

 the local variation in nesting habits. But a 

 bird that inhabits the moss-shrouded swamps 

 of the sea coast, the open sunny pine barrens 

 of the back country, and even extends his 

 range into the hard wood forests of the foot 

 hills, must of necessity be well able to rear his 

 young in such widely difl'ereut places as a 

 bunch of hanging moss or an open nest placed 

 against the trunk of a pine tree. 



O.&O. 3 JII.Jaly> . 1 88 8 9 *1^0 -/fif 



