ORNITHOLOGIST 
AND 
OOLOGIST. 
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Established March IST.'i, 
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VOL. VI. 
ROCKVILLE, CONN., APRIL i88i. 
NO. 2 
Hooded Warblers. 
NESTING IN SOUTHERN CONN. 
It was back a mile from the public roads 
in the deep old woods, chestnuts, beeches 
and birches of seventy-five years standing 
with a short undergrowth of kalmia aver¬ 
aging some two and a half feet in hight. 
This shrub is abundant here and is fre¬ 
quently foimd in patches of considerable 
extent. I was passing quietly along in 
such a place when something flitted across 
my path almost from under my feet. It 
passed so swiftly from sight I could not 
distinguish it, disappearing instantly in 
the adjacent shrubbery, but I knew what 
it was for I had been through the same ex¬ 
perience before. Scrutinizing every shrub 
ever so carefully, I failed to fix my eyes on 
the nest that I knew was there, for I could 
soon hear the sharp, clear note of the fe¬ 
male Hooded Warbler a few paces away in 
the thickets, and catch an occasional 
glimpse of her as she flitted from shrub 
to shrub, and from one thicket to another, 
and I could see the white patches of the 
tail open and shut with every movement. 
Taught by past experience I presently 
abandoned searcliing and retired a short 
distance, carefully marking the spot, to 
watch the bird and wait developments. 
As I moved away from the spot I could 
perceive that the bird approached it again 
by the continually repeated “telip ” nearer 
and nearer at each repetition, till in five 
minutes it was silent or with only an occa¬ 
sional note, and I knew she was on the 
nest. I listened keenly for every note as 
I again approached the spot, for this bird 
will occasionally repeat her note when on 
the nest, as I have often proved, and when 
she went fluttering off, I saw the little 
shrub tremble and knew that there was 
the nest closely hidden among the dark 
green kalmia leives, but very easy to see 
now that I knew just where to look. 
Pieces of yellow birch bark, beech and 
chestnut leaves carefully matted and 
boimd together and to the triangular 
crotch, formed the base of the structure, 
rounded and neatly finished at the top 
with the inner bark of chestnut and ce¬ 
dar, with fine grass and scales from beech 
buds and a little fern down mixed in, and 
all secured compactly together with spider 
webs. I speak advisedly having seen the 
bird diligently gather the webs. Inside 
the nest was neatly and smoothly lined 
with mixed horse hair and very fine grass. 
Largest outer diameter three inches and a 
half, inner diameter two inches, and depth 
two inches, and built in a little kalmia 
bush about fifteen inches from the ground. 
This description will answer for most of 
the many nests I have found of the spe¬ 
cies, with varying quantities of birch bark 
and fern down, invariably in a kalmia 
bush. This was the twenty-sixth of May, 
1879, and within this nest was four beauti¬ 
ful little eggs, pearly and rosy, but dif¬ 
ferently marked from any I had before 
seen of the species, just about regulation 
pattern for size, averaging 23-32 inch in 
length, and 18-32 inch in greater breadth, 
being marked with very minute dots, a few 
scattered over the surface but mostly in a 
ring around the larger end. Eleven days 
after this event I found another nest and 
set of three eggs in the same spot, scarcely a 
foot from where I found the other; these 
eggs were quite unlike the former set in 
