Lake Umbagog journals, 1871-1916 (inclusive)
Page 18
Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Contributed by Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library. | www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Transcription
Dendroica Blackburniae. Lake Umbagog, Maine. Nest and eggs. 1896. One of the nests found (by me) on the 2nd (in the woods June 6. at the W. extremity of the Mason logging works) yielded to- day a remarkably handsome set of 4 eggs of the Blackburnian Warbler. Although they were perfectly fresh the female sat so closely that thumping and shaking the tree (a slender one) failed to start her and when Watrous climbed it he nearly touched her before she slipped off. She then dropped like a stone to the ground over which she crawled and tumbled and fluttered with wide-spread tail and quivering wings much like a Water Thrush or Oven Bird and evidently with the hope of leading us away from the nest. Such a demonstration on the part of a tree-building Warbler is, I think, unusual. This a nest was fully 20 ft. above the ground near the end of a long, slender branch at least 10 ft. from the main stem of the tree, a solitary and not very vigorous young spruce growing under some large hemlocks and yellow birches which cast a dense shade over the spot. I photographed the nest which we took successfully by bending over another tree within reach.