Mr. Audubon adds that its call-note so closely resembles that of the Spiza ciris that it requires a practised ear to distinguish them. But its song is very different. This consists of three notes, and is loud, lively, and pleasing. This song is said to be made of sounds resembling the syllables weet, weet, weetēē. Extremely vocal in the early spring, it becomes nearly silent as soon as its brood is hatched. It resumes its song when its mate is again sitting on her eggs, as they have more than one brood in a season.
They are described as expert flycatchers, full of activity and spirit, flying swiftly after their insect prey; and catching the greater part on the wing. Their flight is low, gliding, and often protracted.
Mr. Bachman narrates a striking instance of its courage and conjugal devotion. While a pair of these Warblers were constructing a nest, a Sharp-shinned Hawk pounced upon and bore off the female. The male followed close after the Hawk, flying within a few inches and darting at him in all directions, and so continued until quite out of sight.
Wilson states that it builds a very neat and compact nest, generally in the fork of a small bush. It is formed of moss and flaxen fibres of plants, and lined with hair or feathers. The eggs, five in number, he describes as of a grayish-white, with red spots at the larger end. He noticed its arrival at Savannah as early as the 20th of March. Mr. Audubon adds that these nests are always placed in low situations, a few feet from the ground.
The late Dr. Gerhardt, of Varnell’s Station, Georgia, informed me, by letter, that the Hooded Warbler deposits her eggs about the middle of May, laying four. The nest is not unlike that of the Spiza cyanea, but is larger. It is constructed of dry leaves and coarse grass on the outside, and within of dry pine-needles, interwoven with long yellow grasses and sometimes with horsehair. They are built, for the most part, in the neighborhood of brooks and creeks, in oak bushes, four or five feet from the ground. The female sits so closely, and is so fearless, that Dr. Gerhardt states he has sometimes nearly caught her in his hand.
In another letter Dr. Gerhardt describes a nest of this species as measuring three inches in height, three in external diameter, and an inch and a quarter in the depth of its cavity. Externally it was built of dry leaves and coarse grasses, lined inside with horsehair, fine leaves of pine, and dry slender grasses. It was constructed on a small oak growing in low bottom-land, and was three feet from the ground. The complement of eggs is four.
Mr. Ridgway states that this species is a common summer resident in the
bottom-lands along the Lower Wabash, in Southern Illinois, inhabiting the cane-brakes and the margins of bushy swamps.
The eggs of this Warbler are oval in shape, with one end quite pointed. They measure .70 by .50 of an inch. Their ground-color is a beautiful bright white, when the egg is fresh, strongly tinged with flesh-color. The spots are of a fine red, with a few markings of a subdued purple.
Myiodioctes minutus, Baird.