[)LOGIST. 



169 



Nesting of the Yellow-Throated 

 Warbler. 



BY ARTHUR T. WAYNE, CHARLESTON, S. C. 



This beautiful Warbler (Dendroiua dominica) 

 is one of my earliest bird acquaintances, being 

 found near Charleston the whole year. It is a 

 permanent resident, and I have seen them when 

 the thermometer only marked 10*^ above zero. 

 They inhabit mixed woods, where there is an 

 abundance of moss {Tillandsia usncoides). In 



fact, where the moss is wanting you will rarely 

 see them. I should not call them Swamp 

 Warblers, but have time and again shot them 

 in very dense swamps. 



I have long known that this Warbler was a 

 very early breeder, as I have taken the young 

 flying about as early as April 22nd, but was 

 unable to find their eggs until last Spring 

 (! 887) . I knew that they nested in the hanging 

 moss, but one may as well hunt for a " needle 

 ih a haystack," as to hunt for the nest of this 

 bird in moss hanging down from live oak trees 

 six to ten feet, and from two to three feet 

 through. I determined to spend a month, 

 however, if necessary, to find the nest of this 

 i bird, and concluded that the best way would 

 be to wat(jh the birds. After many days of 

 following the birds, I was so fortunate as to 

 find the first nest. 



On April 10th I was watching a pair of the 

 birds in question. About mid-day the male 

 was singing with great fervor, and his mate 

 was very busy feeding, flying from one piece of 

 moss to another. I knew she had come directly 

 from the nest, as she was very restless. I 

 therefore watched her very attentively. She 

 kept on feeding for about five minutes, and 1 

 then saw her fly to a large mass of moss {usnea) 

 and I hastened to the spot to see if she was still 

 feeding, or if it was her nest. Upon reaching 

 the spot, I could not see her, so I resolved 

 immediately to climb the tree, and such a 

 climb ! When I reached the spot where I saw her 

 fly to, I looked carefully for the nest, and shook 

 the limb, but she did not come from her charge. 

 I was about to come down the tree, when I 

 thought I would take a last look. Upon ex- 

 amining the moss, she flew out— quite to my 

 surprise — and began to chirp. The nest was 

 built in the moss, and was completely hidden 

 under a large limb, about thirty feet from the 

 ground, and in a live oak tree. The nest was 

 made of the flowery part of the moss, with line 

 pieces of grass, and lined profnsely with 

 feathers. The nest is very symmetrical— with 

 well defined sides, and was built in the moss, 

 resting on a bed of the same. The eggs were 

 Ave in number, three were on the point of 

 hatching, and the other two were addled. The 

 ground color is a dirty, or bluish white, spotted 

 and blotched with lilac, pale brown, and neutral 

 tints, gathering at the larger end in a wreath, 

 with confluent blotches, leaving the smaller 

 end spotted with minute specks. Unfortunately 

 one of the eggs was broken in blowing, as the 

 young were very large. I shot the female, 

 thus rendering identification absolute. These 



