BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
443 
ground on a hillside, under a drift of dry leaves, and was discovered by watching 
the movements of the parent birds. It was made of skeletonized dry leaves and 
weed stalks, lined with finer wiry weed stalks. The five nearly fresh eggs it con¬ 
tained were white in color, dotted all over, but most thickly toward the larger end, 
with reddish-brown. In Butler and Armstrong counties I found the species to be 
tolerably common.” 
Helminthophila chrysoptera. Grolden-winged Warbler (276). In Beaver county 
this species is a tolerably common summer resident, I having found the old and 
young together in July, besides having noticed the birds throughout the other 
spring and summer months. In Butler and Armstrong counties it is perhaps more 
common as a breeder. 
Dendroica maculosa. Magnolia Warbler (269, 283, 284). This species, an abun¬ 
dant migrant in Beaver county, I discovered breeding in Butler county during my 
stay there in May and June, 1889. 
Dendroica ccerulea. Cerulean Warbler (269, 284). “This species, reported to be 
exceedingly rare in most sections, is here common as a migrant and tolerably com¬ 
mon as a summer resident. (But compare, in this connection, Wheaton per Coues, 
Birds of the Northwest, p. 233.) It has not as yet been found in Butler and Arm¬ 
strong counties. In the breeding season it is partial to high, open oak woods as well 
as to low, damp, beech woodland, in which place I often see five or six pairs in the 
course of as many hours’ walk. Inhabiting, as it does, the terminal foliage of the 
highest forest trees, it would easily be liable to be overlooked even by the most 
careful of observers, were it not for the peculiar notes ot the male, which are readily 
distinguished from those of any other warbler, and which suffice to detect its pres¬ 
ence. I can scarcely describe this song, beyond saving that it is withal a genuine 
warbler song, and that its last notes somewhat resemble the ‘ drumming ’ of our 
locust ( Cicada ); but once heard it is not apt to be forgotten. It was with these facts 
in mind that on May 24, 1890, I determined to put my previous experience to a test 
in finding the nest of the species. Proceeding to a patch of w oodland in which I 
had previously located tw r o pairs, I quickly discovered one of the males, and in the 
course of half an hour his mate appeared, whereupon I transferred my attention to 
her. After an hour’s patient watching she at last w r as seen to go to her nest, which 
was thus discovered to be saddled on the fork of a horizontal branch of a certain 
kind of tree, far out from the trunk, and fully fifty feet from the ground. The only 
way that it could possibly be reached w as by climbing a tall, slim butternut tree 
adjacent, thus enabling one to scoop out the eggs by means of a net attached to the 
end of a pole. However, on May 26 the plan was successfully carried out, though 
not without considerable risk ; in addition the nest was secured and the female bird 
shot, thus putting the identification beyond question. The male came about at the 
time, but apparently manifested little concern. The nest w r as a small, neat structure, 
tightly fastened to its branch, and composed mainly of w eed stalks and strips of bark, 
though the outside, whose texture was rendered firmer by means of a plentiful sup¬ 
ply of saliva and cobwebs, presented a decidedly white appearance owing to the 
color of the stems composing it, as well as to the bits of paper and hornets’ nestadded. 
The lining was simply finer weed stalks. It contained three eggs of the warbler 
and one of the cowbird, all fresh, so that the set w'as probably incomplete. In color 
they almost exactly resemble a set of American Redstart’s in my collection, differ¬ 
ing only in being slightly shorter. The ground color is white, with a rather decided 
suggestion of bluish-green, spotted over, in the style of most warblers, with reddish-, 
brown, the spots tending to aggregate at and around the larger end. Both the eggs, 
the nest, and the female bird are now' in the collection of Dr. C. Hart Merriam, of 
Washington, D. C. ” 
Dendroicapensylvanica. Chestnut-sided Warbler (269, 284, 285). “ An abundant 
migrant in Beaver county, spring and fall. 1 have taken and seen immature birds 
in August on two occasions (August 18, 1888, and August 24, 1889), which would 
indicate that its breeding resorts cannot be much, if any, farther north. The case is 
