*** Next to the yellow warbler, this is probably the best known of the wood warblers and is about the second one of the group that the novice learns to recognize. All through the eastern United States this is by far the most abundant warbler on both migrations, being about the first to arrive in the spring and the last to leave in the fall, often remaining all winter nearly up to the southern limits of its breeding range. It is a large, conspicuous warbler, not at all shy, and is to be found almost anywhere, often in enormous numbers. *** There is no wonder that it is well known. But neither Wilson, Audubon, nor Nuttall ever found its nest.

Spring.--Professor Cooke (1904) writes:

The myrtle warbler is one of the first migrants to move northward. A large flight struck the Alligator Reef lighthouse February 23, 1892, and some 60 birds struck the Sombrero Key lighthouse on March 3, 1889. By the middle of March migration is well under way all over the winter range, and the foremost birds keep close behind the disappearance of frost. . . . By the last of March all the myrtle warblers have departed from Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba, and the Bahamas. The latest recorded date of striking of this species at any of the Florida lighthouses is April 3, 1889. By the middle of the month the latest northbound birds have left southern Florida. . . . Most of the migrants cross the Rio Grande into Texas about the middle of March, and it is the middle of April before the last have passed north.

Charles L. Whittle (1922) witnessed a heavy migration of myrtle warblers along the coastal islands of South Carolina on March 4, 1920, that seemed to have been influenced largely by the presence of the waxmyrtle (Myrica cerifera). He says:

Perhaps half a mile from the northeast end of Sullivan Island the belt of waxmyrtle trees narrows to a width, measured northwest and southeast, of about three hundred feet. Here, near a seashore resort, a road had been recently cut across the belt of waxmyrtle trees at right angles to the sand bar. Streams of warblers flying along the shore northeasterly from Folly and Morris Islands, just south of the entrance to Charleston harbor, dropped to the land and converged at the southwest end of the mantle of myrtle trees and passed across the open swath cut for the new road. Posting ourselves here we counted the birds moving northeast, minute by minute as they passed the opening, for half an hour. The flight was continuous, many of the birds lighting on the ground and trees from time to time, and the number crossing per minute varied from twenty to two hundred, and accordingly averaged about one hundred per minute. As far as we could judge the number was no greater than it had been all the time since our arrival at the shore. Taking, therefore, the average at one hundred per minute, 24,000 Myrtle Warblers passed northward between nine in the morning and one in the afternoon. Not only so, but additional warblers passed close by both to the east and to the west of the stream of birds under observation. No doubt also the migration began prior to nine in the morning and did not cease at one in the afternoon.

He points out that the northern species of myrtle, or bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica), extends all along the coast from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to Florida; and he suggests that if these warblers prefer to migrate along a coastal route where these myrtles reach their maximum development and where the climate may be milder than at higher elevations inland, it may explain why they generally arrive in New Brunswick a week earlier than in Pennsylvania.

Milton P. Skinner (1928) says that, in the North Carolina sandhills, "early in March the movement becomes conspicuous, and great numbers of these warblers are then seen constantly moving through the forests and across the fields in steady streams, flitting about a few minutes, and then passing on to the northeast. These movements are near the ground, or among the tree trunks, but at other times the birds are above the tallest trees. The general direction is from the southwest to the northeast, with fifty to a hundred warblers passing over a field each hour of every day for at least two weeks."

At Buckeye Lake, Ohio, according to Milton B. Trautman (1940)--

No warbler species migrated through the area in such consistently large numbers as did the Myrtle Warbler, and none had a more prolonged spring or fall migration. The first spring transients, mostly brilliant colored males, were generally seen between April 12 and 20. Thereafter the number of individuals increased rapidly, and from May 1 to May 5 between 100 and 200 birds, mostly males, could generally be daily noted. A marked decrease usually followed this migration wave. Between May 10 and 18, during the period of maximum numbers for most warbler species, there was a second large wave and then 150 to 500, mostly females and young males, were observed daily. A drastic decline in numbers took place shortly after May 18, and by May 23 few or none remained.

The migration is about the same in Massachusetts. The birds come in waves, the adult males preceding the females. We usually see the first arrivals about the middle of April, drifting through the leafless treetops in the tall deciduous woods where we look for hawks' nests; in their brilliant new plumage with gleaming yellow patches they are easily recognized as myrtle warblers, even in the tops of the 60-foot trees. Mr. Forbush (1929) gives this picture of the later waves:

The latter days of April or very early in May when the south wind blows, when houstonias and violets begin to bloom on sunny southern slopes, when the wild cherry and apple trees and some of the birches, sumacs and the shrubbery in sheltered sunny nooks begin to put out a misty greenery of tiny leaflets, then we may look for the Myrtle Warblers, the males lovely in their nuptial dress of blue-gray, black, white and lemon-yellow. Then they may be found fluttering about in sheltered bushy bogs, catching the early insects that dance in the sunshine along the water-side. All through early May they move northward, or westward toward the mountains, migrating by day or night indifferently as the case may be.

Soon most of them have passed beyond our borders and reached their summer homes in the coniferous forests of the Canadian Zone, the first of the family to come, close on the heels of retreating winter and while frost and snow still linger in the northern woods.

Courtship.--The courtship of the myrtle warbler must be a very pretty performance. Two brief accounts of it have been published: "As summer approaches the males begin their courtship of the females, following them about and displaying their beauties by fluffing out the feathers of their sides, raising their wings and erecting the feathers of the crown, so as to exhibit to the full their beautiful black and yellow markings. After much time spent in courting they mate, and at once look about for a nesting place" (Forbush, 1929). Males seeking mates "made advances to the female contingency, hopping from twig to twig with outspread wings, chipping and fluttering, now repulsed by the fair one, and now accepted by another one to whom advances were made, to finally spend a few days in a favorable spot and begin nest building" (Knight, 1908).

Nesting.--On August 1, 1907, at Clarkes Harbor, Nova Scotia, I found the first and only nest of the myrtle warbler that I have ever seen; it was about 15 feet from the ground on a horizontal branch of a large spruce tree, about 5 feet out from the trunk, and contained three young birds that were nearly fully feathered. Robie W. Tufts says in his Nova Scotia notes: "I have seen these nests built at varying heights from 5 to 50 feet high. One found on June 6, 1919, contained four slightly incubated eggs. It was placed close to the stem of a pine tree, near the top, about 50 feet up. My field experiences tend to support the theory that these birds normally raise two broods a year." He found one nest built in an apple tree in an orchard, of which he says: "Of the large number of nests of this species I have examined, this is the only one not built in a conifer."

There are two Nova Scotia nests of the myrtle warbler in the Thayer collection in Cambridge, both taken by H. F. Tufts. They are slightly different in composition and structure, but are probably fairly typical of the species. One, found saddled on a spruce limb 10 feet from the ground, is rather bulky and loosely built; the foundation and sides are made of fine coniferous twigs mixed on the bottom with grasses and rootlets and around the rim firmly interwoven with black horsehair, or perhaps moose hair, and finer rootlets; the cup is smoothly lined with finer hair and feathers. Externally it measures, roughly, 4 by 5 inches in diameter and about 2 inches in height; the cup is about 2 inches in diameter and 1 3/4 inches deep. The other, a very pretty nest found 8 feet up in a small spruce, close to the trunk, is more finely and compactly built; the base and sides are made up mainly of green mosses and a few gray lichens mixed with fine twigs and a few fine grasses, all firmly interwoven; internally the cup is smoothly lined with fine black and white hairs on top of a few feathers. Externally it measures 2 1/4 inches in height and 3 by 3 1/2 inches in diameter; the cup is 2 inches in diameter and about 1 1/2 inches deep.

Of nestings in Maine, Knight (1908) says: "As soon as nest building begins, the favorite locality selected is a thicket of evergreen trees near the highway, some open pasture containing a few clumps of scattered evergreens, small thickets of evergreens along the banks of some stream or river or about the shore of a pond or lake, or a row of trees about some country dwelling or in an orchard. In the vast majority of cases an evergreen tree is selected as a nesting site, though occasionally some hardwood tree, such as a maple, apple or birch, may be taken. A majority of nests seem to be placed in cedar trees, with fir and spruce following as close second choices."

Forbush (1929) mentions two Massachusetts nests in tall white pines. A nest studied by Mrs. Nice (1930a) at Pelham, Mass., was "six feet up in a small red cedar on a branch next to the trunk. It was a rather shallow affair, composed of cedar twigs and bark, plant fibers, a piece of string and pine needles, and was lined with a few horse hairs and many Ruffed Grouse feathers."

Dr. Paul Harrington has sent me his notes based on the study of 44 nests of the myrtle warbler in Simcoe County, Ontario. He says that the white pine is generally chosen as a nesting tree, the nests being placed from 6 to 40 feet up, averaging 15 feet; "28 nests were built on horizontal limbs about two-thirds out from the trunk, but none at the outermost end. They were conspicuous from below but not from above, as clumps of needles overhung them in such a way as to afford good protection." Of the remainder, 2 were built in the top clump of needles in young trees; 5 were in small spruces, the lowest 3 feet, the highest 15, and all on horizontal limbs, 3 near the trunk and 2 halfway out on the limb; 5 were about 15 feet up in crotches of small cedars; 3 were found in red pines, in the outermost clumps of needles 10 to 15 feet from the ground; and 1 nest was 6 feet up in a small balsam. He says that the nest is lined thickly with feathers and a few hairs. "The feathers are so placed that, as well as lining the nest, they form a screen over the inside when the bird is not sitting. This is done by the shafts of the feathers being woven or imbedded into the inside of the nest and the vane lying free." At Petawa he found these birds nesting in small jack pines.

Dr. F. A. E. Starr, in his notes from northern Ontario, also says that any conifers are suitable nesting sites: "I have found only one exception to the use of a conifer. This nest was built in a hawthorn, and when I collected the nest, the birds moved to a cedar." A. D. Henderson writes to me: "The myrtle warbler is a fairly numerous summer resident at Belvedere, Alberta, and in the Fort Assiniboine District. It nests mainly in the muskegs in tamarack and spruce trees, but occasionally in deciduous trees close to a muskeg." The nests are mostly from 10 to 15 feet up. One nest was in a jack pine, "in a bunchy growth at the end of a limb." Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway (1874) state that MacFarlane found nests on the ground in the Anderson River region.

Eggs.--Most observers agree that four or five eggs form the usual set for the myrtle warbler. Tufts says that "five eggs are more commonly found than four." Dr. Starr says in his notes that "four eggs are rarely laid, two or three being the usual numbers, while sometimes only one is laid, along with those of the cowbird." This is probably an abnormal situation in which the cowbird fills the nest with its own eggs, leaving little room for those of the warbler.

The eggs are ovate to short ovate and slightly glossy. The ground color is creamy white and is speckled, spotted, or blotched with "auburn," "argus brown," "Brussels brown," "chestnut brown," or "cinnamon-brown," with undermarks of "light brownish drab," "vinaceous gray," or "purplish gray." Generally the spots are concentrated at the large end, forming a wreath, but some are marked all over and may also have a few scrawls of blackish brown. I think the handsomest are those having the rich creamy white ground almost immaculate except for a solid wreath, around the large end, of spots and blotches of the brown overlapping and intermingled with the undertones of gray, so that they resemble somewhat the eggs of the wood pewee. On lightly marked eggs the drab or gray spots are the most prominent.

The measurements of 50 eggs average 17.5 by 13.3 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 20.3 by 13.2, 17.9 by 14.8, 14.8 by 12.9, and 16.0 by 12.4 millimeters (Harris).

Young.--The incubation period for the myrtle warbler is from 12 to 13 days and the young remain in the nest normally from 12 to 14 days. Incubating the eggs and brooding the young is apparently done entirely by the female, but both parents are active in feeding the young and in cleaning the nest. Mrs. Nice (1930a), with the help of Miss Lucille Baker, watched a nest containing young for a total of 19 hours, over a period of 6 days. On the first day the female brooded 25 percent of the time, but less later on; the brooding periods averaged 9 minutes.

A great deal of her energy was expended in delousing the nest--thirty-six minutes on July 28 and seventy-four minutes during the forenoon of the next day, but after that there was little trouble. Once, during thirteen minutes she made over 250 captures, all of which she ate. . . .

The male brought food sixty times, the female forty-eight times, so that the young were fed once in 10.9 minutes. About one-third of the time the male brought two insects, while the female did so on about one-sixth of her trips. During the last five and one-half hours, the male brought food once in twenty-two minutes, the female once in eighteen minutes. . . .

Excreta were eaten by the female through July 29, but she carried one away at 7:05 p.m., July 28. She ate twelve sacs and carried eleven; her mate carried twenty-five and ate one. . . . He picked lice off his legs and gave them to the babies.

Mr. Knight (1908) says: "The female does most of the work of incubation, but on very rare and exceptional occasions I have found the male bird incubating and even engaged in song while on the nest. . . . The natal down rapidly dries and fluffs out on the young birds and is sepia-brown in color. At the end of six to seven days pin feathers begin to appear; and by the twelfth to fourteenth day the young are well advanced in their juvenal plumage and able to scramble out of the nest. Two to three days after leaving the nest they are able to essay short flights."

Plumages.--Mr. Knight (1908) refers to the natal down as sepia-brown. Dr. Dwight (1900) describes the juvenal plumage, in which the sexes are alike, as "above, the feathers centrally dull black, edged with drab and buffy brown, producing a streaked effect. Below, much whiter but similarly streaked, a tinge of pale primrose-yellow on the abdomen. Wings and tail dull black, edged with drab, palest on primaries and outer rectrices. Two very indistinct buffy white wing bands. Upper and lower eyelids with dull white spots."

The first winter plumage is acquired by a partial postjuvenal molt in August, which involves the contour plumage and the wing coverts, but not the rest of the wings or the tail. This plumage is entirely different from the juvenal and the sexes are only slightly differentiated. Dr. Dwight (1900) describes the young male as "above, sepia-brown, grayer on the back and obscurely streaked with black, the rump and a concealed crown spot lemon-yellow, the upper tail coverts black, broadly edged with plumbeous gray. Wing coverts black, plumbeous edged and tipped with white tinged with wood-brown forming two wing bands. Below, dull white, washed with pale buff on the throat and sides and obscurely streaked on the breast and sides with black, veiled by whitish edgings. Sides of breast with dull yellow patches. Incomplete orbital ring and faintly indicated superciliary stripe white or buffy." He says of the young female: "The black streaking of this dress is less obvious both above and below than in the male, the plumage everywhere is browner, and the crown patch very obscure."

The extensive prenuptial molt begins early, usually in March, before the birds have left their winter quarters; a few new feathers may be assumed even in late February but most of the molt occurs in April while the birds are migrating; it is, however, generally completed by the time the birds have reached their breeding grounds. Dr. Dwight (1900) says this molt "involves most of the body plumage and wing coverts, occasionally a tertiary but not the rest of the wings nor the tail. The black and gray of the upper surface, the white wing bars and the yellow crown and rump are new, some of the old upper tail coverts and part of the feathers of the abdomen and crissum being retained in many cases, those of the back and elsewhere less often. Young and old become practically indistinguishable although the young usually have browner and more worn wings and tails, obvious in the primary coverts, but the differences are not absolute." In the female, "the first nuptial plumage is assumed by a restricted moult, leaving behind many brown feathers. The brown feathers of the lores and auriculars are assumed by moult."

The adult winter plumage is acquired by a complete postnuptial molt, beginning late in July. In the male, this "differs little from the first winter dress, but the wings and tail are blacker with brighter gray edgings, noticeable especially in the primary coverts. The back is usually grayer and the lower parts whiter, with broader streakings above and below." In the female there are similar differences, the adult winter female resembling the young male at that season. Adults have a complete postnuptial molt in July and a prenuptial molt as in the young birds.

Food.--Forbush (1929) sums up the food of this warbler very well as follows:

The Myrtle Warbler is one of the few warblers that can subsist for long periods upon berries and seeds, although undoubtedly it prefers insects when it can get them. Along the coast during the milder winters there are many flies rising from the seaweed in sheltered spots on mild days even in January, and there are eggs of plant-lice and some hibernating insects to be found on the trees, but the principal food of the Myrtle Warbler in New England during the inclement season is the bayberry. They can exist, however, on the berries of the Virginia juniper or red cedar and these seem to form their principal food when wintering in the interior; berries of the Virginia creeper or woodbine, those of viburnums, honeysuckle, mountain ash, poison ivy, spikenard and dogwoods also serve to eke out the birds' bill of fare. In the maple sugar orchards in early spring they occasionally drink sweet sap from the trees. In the southern Atlantic states they take palmetto berries. North and south they also eat some seeds, particularly those of sunflower and goldenrod. During spring and summer they destroy thousands of caterpillars, small grubs and the larvae of saw-flies and various insects, leaf-beetles, dark-beetles, weevils, wood-borers, ants, scale insects, plant-lice and their eggs, including the woolly apple-tree aphis and the common apple-leaf plant-louse, also grasshoppers and locusts, bugs, house-flies and other flies including caddice-flies, crane-flies, calcid-flies, ichneumon- flies and gnats, also spiders.

To the above comprehensive list there is little to be added, although wild cranberries and the berries of the poison sumac might have been included. Myrtle warblers are doubtless instrumental in spreading the seeds of poisonous species of the Rhus, which is not to their credit; they also help to disseminate the red cedar, as they digest only the outer covering of these and the bayberries. These warblers are often seen on the beaches and sand dunes eating the seeds of the beachgrass, or in open fields feeding on grass seed and doubtless various weed seeds. They frequent the fresh holes bored by sapsuckers to drink the flowing sap and eat the insects that are attracted to it. In Florida, in winter, they drink the juice of fallen oranges in the groves and even the broken oranges on the trees.

They are somewhat expert as flycatchers, taking mosquitoes and gnats in the air. Knight (1908) writes: "During the fall months they enter the city gardens and orchards, climb over the roofs and along the gutters of houses, peering into every nook and cranny. They hover on beating wings about such crannies of the clapboards and finish where they may have spied some delicious, big fat spider, chrysalis or other delectable morsel, and such finds are speedily devoured. Now peering, now hovering, and now springing into the air after some winged insect, they stop about a building for a few hours or days, slowly but surely retreating southward."

Behavior.--Much of the behavior of this friendly little bird has been referred to in connection with its activities about our homes and gardens and its nesting habits. Tilford Moore tells me that "these birds seem to have a tendency toward 'creeperism,' in that they are often seen hanging to the bark of a vertical trunk or branch, and are usually on the larger branches rather than among the smaller twigs. They often flutter a lot when hanging to the bark." And Wendell Taber sends me this note: "On May 5, 1940, Richard Stackpole and I watched a flock in West Newbury, Mass. The birds were running about on the grass near a stream. Again, they would alight at the base of a tree and run up it several feet. I think all the birds that performed this feat were females. They were most deceptive, and we kept thinking we were seeing brown creepers until we put field glasses on them."

William Brewster (1938) writes of the behavior of a female about her nest, 35 feet from the ground in a hemlock: "The female Yellow-rump was sitting and for some time she absolutely refused to leave her eggs. Watrous first shook the branch and then with a long stick poked and shook smartly the twigs within an inch or two of her head. At length she hopped out of the nest and stood for a moment or more on its rim looking about her. Then she fluttered down towards the ground with quivering wings and wide spread tail, moving slowly and alighting several times on a branch or cluster of twigs where she would lie prostrate for a moment beating her wings feebly and simulating the movements of a wounded or otherwise disabled bird."

Dr. Stone (1937) describes the flight of the myrtle warbler very well:

We soon learn to identify their rather jerky flight as they rise from the bushes, and with a series of short wing flips turn now to the right, now to the left, in their zigzag progress, rising somewhat with the beats, and falling in the intervals. Sometimes a bird will go but a short distance, flitting from bush to bush, while others will climb higher and higher in the air, drifting in their jerky way across the sky like wind-blown leaves. . . .

As soon as the Myrtlebird alights on a bush there is a short, sharp flip of the tail, not a seesaw action, but one involving the body as well, and as it comes to rest the head is drawn in and the plumage ruffled up making the outline more nearly globular, while the wings are dropped slightly so that their tips are a little below the base of the tail.

Francis H. Allen has sent me the following notes on the behavior of this species: "Aug. 17, 1915, Mt. Sunapee, N.H. On the summit of the mountain an immature myrtle warbler, very tame, flitted and hopped about on the ground, over moss and rocks, and in bushes and trees, feeding industriously on small insects. It seemed to pay no attention to my companion and to me, and at one time hopped between us when we stood about 6 feet apart, and came within 2 feet of my outstretched hand as I held a crumb out towards it. I followed it about a little and found it quite fearless, except when I made a sudden movement. The bird could fly well and seemed perfectly well able to take care of itself.

"July 5, 1931, Mt. Whiteface, N.H. One or more were seen flying up fifty or a hundred feet above the tops of the low spruces and darting about up there after insects--doubtless the black flies which were abundant on the summit.

"Oct. 25, 1941, Plymouth, Mass. A sizable flock were feeding actively, flying back and forth across the narrow Eel River, feeding among foliage, catching flies and eating bayberries. One came within 6 feet of me and calmly ate bayberry after bayberry."

Voice.--Aretas A. Saunders contributes the following account of the songs: "The songs of the myrtle warbler show some differences from those heard from birds on migration or on the breeding grounds. The song in general is a series of short, rapid notes in a rather colorless simple, but musical quality. The number of notes, in my 41 records, varies from 7 to 21 and averages about 12. The songs heard on migration, however, average 11 while those on the breeding grounds average 14.

"The songs heard on migration are quite indefinite in form; the pitch rises and falls irregularly, and no two songs are much alike. An individual bird may sing many variations, each song it sings often being a little different from the others. The notes, however, are all about the same length and loudness, accented notes that stand out from the others being rare. This song shows indications of a somewhat primitive character.

"The song on the breeding grounds is somewhat more definite; the notes are often joined in 2-note phrases, the first note of each phrase higher in pitch than the second and each phrase successively higher, so that the song trends upward in pitch. This is true of 10 of my 13 records of the song on the breeding grounds in the Adirondacks. The other 3 have a slight downward trend. In addition to the more regular form, these songs have a somewhat brighter, livelier, and more musical sound than those heard on migration.

"Songs of this species vary from 1 to 2 4/5 seconds in length. There are usually about seven notes per second. Only 3 of my records show any irregularity in the time of the notes, that is having some notes that are shorter or longer than the others. Pitch of the songs varies from F''' to E'''', a half tone less than an octave. Single songs vary from one to four and a half tones, averaging about two and a half tones; only 5 records are greater in range, and only 16 are less, nearly half the records having the average range.

"Since the myrtle warbler winters in Connecticut, I am able to get the first dates of singing. In 30 years of records the average date is April 13; the earliest April 2, 1923, and the latest April 25, 1920. In the Adirondacks the last date of singing noted was July 31, 1926.

"The call-note, tchick, is louder than in most warblers. I found it pitched on D''. Another note is a fainter tseet tseet, usually doubled and pitched on F-sharp'''."

Francis H. Allen describes the song in a different way as follows:

"The only syllabifications I find in my notes are of a bird heard in West Bridgewater, Vt., June 19, 1907, which sang whee whee whee whee whee whee whee whee hew hew, sometimes with three or even four hews at the end and sometimes with only one; and one of a bird at South Tamworth, N.H., July 23, 1942, whose song consisted of two trills, ching ching ching ching ching weedle weedle weet.

"The ordinary call-note is a hoarse chep, easily distinguished from the call of any other New England warbler. I have also heard occasionally a slight tsip or tsit, suggesting a chickadee. The feeding call of the young out of the nest is a rapid succession of several explosive chips or pits with a rolling quality--a sort of chatter or chippering."

On June 7, 1900, in Washington County, Maine, I recorded the song of the myrtle warbler as wheedle wheedle wheedle wheedle wheedle, repeated five to seven times so rapidly as to be hard to count and all on one key, usually ending abruptly but occasionally in a little trill.

Few writers have accorded the song of the myrtle warbler much praise, but Bradford Torrey (1885) pays it this tribute: "For music to be heard constantly, right under one's window, it could scarcely be improved: sweet, brief, and remarkably unobtrusive, without sharpness or emphasis; a trill not altogether unlike the pine-creeping warbler's, but less matter-of-fact and business-like. I used to listen to it before I rose in the morning, and it was to be heard at intervals all day long."

Field marks.--The male myrtle warbler in spring plumage is easily recognized at a considerable distance in its blue-gray, black, and white plumage, offset by conspicuous patches of bright yellow on rump, sides, crown, and by the black sides and cheeks. The female is much duller and browner, the yellow being less conspicuous and the black cheeks lacking. Young birds and fall adults are much like the female, but the yellow rump, showing plainly as the bird flies away from the observer, will distinguish the species at any season or age.

Enemies.--So much of the breeding range of the myrtle warbler is beyond the normal breeding range of the cowbirds that, until recently, it was supposed to be largely free from the imposition of this parasite. When Dr. Friedmann (1929) published his book on the cowbirds he had only three records of such molestation, but more have turned up since, particularly in the Middle West where the ranges of the two species overlap considerably. Dr. Paul Harrington writes to me from Toronto: "Sixty-five percent of the nests examined contained eggs or young of the cowbird; it would not be exaggerating to say the two-thirds of the initial nests are parasitized. The egg or eggs of the cowbird are often deposited before the nest is completed, leading to many a deserted nest. Twice I have found a cowbird's egg imbedded, as so often happens in the yellow warbler's nest, but in both cases yet another was in the nest with the owner's. Twelve percent of the nests with eggs of the cowbird were deserted, but none in which the owner's eggs were also present. Generally but one of the parasite's eggs was found, occasionally two and rarely three."

Dr. F. A. E. Starr says in his notes from Ontario: "Occasionally, when a cowbird usurps a nest, the birds continue building till the cowbird's egg is imbedded. This is all in vain, however, as out of 30 nests, I have yet to find one which did not contain from one to three eggs of the cowbird." And A. D. Henderson mentions in his notes from Belvedere, Alberta, a nest that held five eggs of the myrtle warbler and one egg of the Nevada cowbird, and another nestful consisting of four eggs of the warbler and two of the cowbird. Probably very few young of the warbler are likely to survive in nests with young cowbirds, which means that this parasite must seriously interfere with the normal increase in the warbler population.

Harold S. Peters (1936) lists two lice, two flies, and two mites as external parasites on the myrtle warbler.

Fall.--The myrtle warbler is one of the latest of its family to move southward and is also one of the most leisurely in migration; the migration covers practically the whole of September and October and much of November, the earliest arrivals sometimes reaching the Gulf States before the last ones have left Canada. Abundant in the spring, it is much more so in the fall, when it can often be seen in enormous numbers. As the birds drift along southward, many stop along the way where food is abundant and some spend the winter at no great distance from the southern limits of the breeding range. In Massachusetts, we usually look for them during the latter half of September or during those golden October days when woods are ablaze with the gorgeous autumn colors. As we stroll along the sunny side of the woods on some bright morning after a frosty night, the air is full of pleasing bird music. The robins, now wild woodland birds, are twittering or uttering their wild autumn calls as they drift through the trees; the white-throated and the song sparrows, from the brushy thickets below, give forth their faint, sweet notes like soft echoes of their springtime songs; and the myrtle warblers mingle their distinctive call-notes with these other voices as they glean for aphids on the birches. In the open grassy fields and weed patches, too, we find many myrtle warblers associated with the scattered flocks of juncos and field and chipping sparrows, feeding on the ground. And later in the fall, we find them in the bayberry patches near the seacoast, or even on the salt marshes or among the sand dunes with the Ipswich and savanna sparrows.

Southward along the Atlantic coast the flight is heavy; Dr. Stone (1937) says that, at Cape May, N.J., "on October 13, 1913, Julian Potter encountered a great flight of Myrtle Warblers which he estimated at 3,000. . . . October 31, 1920, was a characteristic Myrtle Warbler day. All day long they were present in abundance. The air seemed full of them wherever one went. Thousands were flittering here and there in the dense growth of rusty Indian grass (Andropogon), in the bayberry thickets, in pine woods and in dune thickets."

From their breeding grounds in the northern interior these warblers continue to drift southward during October, not in compact flocks but straggling in a continuous stream, some alighting while others are moving on. In Ohio, according to Trautman (1940), "the numbers continued to increase rapidly until approximately October 5. Between October 5 and 20 the species was more numerous over the entire land area than it was at any other season, and thousands were daily present. It was particularly abundant on Cranberry Island, where it fed upon insects, cranberries, poison sumac, and other berries. On several occasions an estimated number between 1000 and 1200 individuals was seen within an hour on this island. After October 20 there was a rather gradual decline in numbers. By November 1, comparatively few remained, and in some years the birds had disappeared."

Winter.--The myrtle warbler winters abundantly throughout the southern half of the United States east of the Great Plains, commonly as far north as southeastern Kansas, southern Illinois, southern Indiana and northern New Jersey, and less commonly or rarely and irregularly farther north. It is the only one of the wood warblers that is hardy enough to brave the rigors of our northern winters amid ice and snow and sometimes zero temperatures.

Robert Ridgway (1889) writing of its winter habits in southern Illinois, says:

It may often be seen in midwinter, when the ground is covered with snow, in the dooryards along with Snowbirds (Junco hyemalis), Tree Sparrows, and other familiar species, gleaning bread crumbs from the door-steps, or hunting for spiders or other insect tidbits in the nooks of the garden fence or the crevices in the bark of trees; and at evening, flying in considerable companies, to the sheltering branches of the thickest tree tops (preferably evergreens), where they pass the night. Not infrequently, however, they roost in odd nooks and crannies about the buildings, and even in holes in the straw or hay stacks, in the barnyard. A favorite food of this species are the berries of the Poison-vine (Rhus toxicodendron), and during the early part of winter large numbers of them may be seen wherever vines of this species are abundant.

What few myrtle warblers remain in southern Massachusetts are usually to be found in situations similar to those frequented in late fall, especially near the coast where there is a good supply of bayberries and other berries. When this supply is exhausted they move elsewhere, though they can subsist to some extent on the seeds of the pitch pine, on grass seed, and on various weed seeds. In New Jersey, they are found in similar situations. Farther south they are abundant inland as well as on the coast, living in all kinds of environments--old fields, cultivated lands, thickets, brushy borders of the woodlands, and in woods of scrub oaks and pine. They are common to abundant on both coasts of Florida and in the interior and often come into the orange groves, to feed on the fallen oranges. A. H. Howell (1932) says: "Not infrequently they may be found in numbers on the Gulf beaches, or in reeds in the salt marshes of the coast or in the Everglades. They are partial to the borders of streams or sloughs, and sometimes venture out on the floating vegetation in rivers or lakes."

The following is contributed by Dr. Alexander F. Skutch: "In December, 1932, it was vividly brought home to me how widely the myrtle warblers are spread over the earth during the winter months, and in what varied climates they dwell. On the ninth, a clear, cold, winter day, I met a small party of these yellow-rumped birds in a barren field at the edge of a woods in Maryland. On the twenty-fourth, I watched them fly above the tatters of melting snow in New Jersey, within view of the skyscrapers of New York. That afternoon I embarked upon a ship, and a week later arrived upon a banana plantation in Guatemala, where the air was balmy and the landscape vividly green, where snow and bleak winds seemed to belong to another world. Yet here, too, were myrtle warblers, hundreds of them, feeding in the open pastures and along the roadways, wherever the vegetation was not too dense, then rising up in compact flocks, wheeling and dropping together, moving always as though actuated by a true group spirit. During three days on that plantation, I met 23 kinds of winter visitants from the North; yet the myrtle warbler appeared to be the most abundant of them all; certainly I saw far more of them than any other migratory bird; yet this was in part because they foraged in more exposed places. Of all the warblers I found here, this was the only species that moved in flocks; for most of the wood warblers that winter in the Central American lowlands are strict individualists. It is also significant that of all the 23 species of wintering birds, this, the most abundant in December, was the only one then common that I had not recorded from February to June of the same year, when I passed 4 months studying the birds on that same plantation.

"Although it has been recorded from Central American localities as early as October and as late as April, the myrtle warbler is certainly most abundant as a winter visitant from November to March. All my own records from points in Guatemala, Honduras, and Costa Rica fall within these 5 months. It arrives later and departs earlier than warblers less tolerant of cold.

"The myrtle warbler winters in a variety of situations. At Puerto Castilla, on the northern coast of Honduras, I found these warblers abundant at the end of January, 1931. Here they foraged upon the lawns between the cottages, hopping rather than walking like water-thrushes, and when alarmed flew up to rest upon the broad fronds of the coconut palms that lined the sandy beach. At the other extreme, I have found them in mountain pastures, rarely as high as 8,500 feet above sea level. In the highlands, this bird is likely to be confused with the Audubon warbler, from the mountains of western United States, in similar dull winter attire. But the Audubon warbler, even at this season, wears five patches of yellow--on the crown, throat, both sides and rump--while the myrtle warbler shows only four, lacking that on the throat. The presence of yellow on the throat is a distinguishing feature.

"At the end of December, 1937, I found myrtle warblers abundant in the vicinity of Buenos Aires de Osa, a hamlet in the lower Terraba Valley of Costa Rica, of interest to the birdwatcher because, although lying in a region covered by the heaviest lowland forest, it is surrounded by extensive open savannas which support a rather different bird-life. Here fork-tailed flycatchers were also abundant, roosting by night in some orange trees behind the padre's house, by day spreading in small flocks over the savannas, where they perched in the low bushes, only a few feet above the ground, and darted down to snatch up the insects they descried. It was surprising to find the myrtle warblers associating intimately with the flycatchers; just as, in the Guatemalan highlands, I had found Audubon's warblers flocking with bluebirds. The myrtle warblers not only foraged about the bushes which served the flycatchers as watch-towers; but the two kinds of birds, so dissimilar in size and habits, changed their feeding grounds together. While I sometimes found the warblers alone, I saw them in company with the fork-tailed flycatchers too often for the association to be looked upon as accidental. I could not discover that either warbler or flycatcher derived any material advantage from the presence of the other. It seemed to be a case of pure sociability." ***