ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 
105 
violently under his weight. When she did finally leave it she sailed 
down into a smaller tree a few rods off, where she remained a silent 
and seemingly unconcerned spectator of what followed. The nest 
and its contents being safely lowered to the ground, I shot both the 
female and her mate. The latter was singing, as usual, a short 
distance off, and apparently took no more interest than the female 
in the destruction of their mutual hopes. Embryos of small size 
had already formed in the eggs, so that incubation must have 
begun three or four days previously. This nest was placed at the 
height of about thirty-five feet from the ground, on the stout hori- 
zontal branch of a Southern pine, one of a thinly scattered grove 
or belt that stretched along the edge of a densely wooded hummock. 
It was set flatly on the limb, — not saddled to it, — nearly midway 
between the juncture with the main trunk and the extremity of the 
twigs, and was attached to the rough bark by silky fibres. It is 
composed externally of a few short twugs and strips of bark bound 
together by Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) and a silky down 
from plants. The lining consists of a few hair-like filaments of 
moss and soft cottony vegetable down. The whole structure is 
neatly and firmly compacted, though essentially simple in appear- 
ance, and, from the nature of the component materials, of a grayish 
inconspicuous color. In size, shape, and general formation it very 
nearly resembles nests of the Black-throated Green Warbler [Den- 
droeca virens) in my collection. It measures externally 2.80 inches 
in diameter by 1.70 in depth; internally, 1.77 inches in diameter by 
1.30 in depth. The eggs, four in number, measure .69 by .53 of an 
inch. They are quite regularly ovate, with fine dottings of pale 
lilac scattered thinly and evenly over a grayish-white ground-color. 
A few spots or blotches of burnt sienna occur about the large ends, 
while occasional irregular penlike lines of dark brown diversify the 
remaining surface. 
Upon referring to published accounts of the nesting of this 
Warbler, I find the statements by the different authors most con- 
flicting, and the authenticity of many of the specimens open to 
gravest doubt. Both Mr. Maynard (in “ Birds of Florida,” Part II, 
page 61) and Dr. Coues (“Birds of the Northwest,” page 67) base 
their descriptions upon alleged specimens sent to the Smithsonian 
Institution by Mr. Norwood C. Giles, of Wilmington, N. C. Dr. 
Brewer refers to these specimens as “ eggs supposed to be of this 
species,” and Dr. Coues describes the nest as “ built in a large mass 
V 
