7 
Nest and Eggs of Swainson’s Warbler. 
liquely upwards and outwards, forming a bristling fringe, an 
arrangement which may have been accidental, or perhaps 
was intended to give the exterior a natural and inconspi¬ 
cuous appearance. If the latter, the design was most happily 
conceived, for from the outside the whole affair looks like a 
bunch of old leaves. Something very like it might be made 
by taking the nest of our Oven-bird (Siurus auricapillus), 
tearing off the domed top, and pressing one side down among 
a cluster of elastic sprouts. In a word, it is a ground-nest 
placed in a bush, or rather a hybrid between the ground and 
bush types of bird architecture, loosely, yet on the whole 
substantially constructed, planned with rare cunning, and 
admirably calculated to escape detection from prying eyes. 
The interior cavity measures 1*75* in diameter by 1*50 in 
depth ; the entire nest externally 4*00 across the top, 4*50 in 
horizontal diameter at the middle, and about 4*00 in total 
depth. 
The other nest is described to me by Mr. Wayne as “ a 
rude structure, in fact a mere bunch of leaves, chiefly of the 
sweet gum and cane, lined almost entirely with f pine-straw/ 
some rootlets, and a few strands of horsehair. Although 
rough outwardly, I must say that it is beautifully finished 
inside.” 
The eggs measure respectively ’75 x *59 and ’74 x *59. The 
one giving the former dimensions is almost perfectly ellip¬ 
tical, the opposite ends being essentially uniform in size 
and outline. The other is more oval, but its smaller end is 
still decidedly blunt and rounded. In colour both are dull 
dead white with a bluish tinge, so faint that it is appreciable 
only in certain lights, or when the specimen is placed on 
white cotton or by the side of a perfectly white egg, as that 
of a Swallow or a Woodpecker. The shell is smooth to the 
touch, but under a glass shows rather numerous pits or pores ; 
it has a moderate polish, more than that of a Swallow^s egg, 
less than that of most Woodpeckers. At first sight both 
eggs appear immaculate, and one is really absolutely so. The 
* The measurements given in this article are all in-inches and their 
hundredths. 
