1902 J Kells Nesting of some Canadian Warblers. 147 



this land of the evenings sunshine, and in some low, thick, leafy 

 underwood or dwarf conifer its nests will be found. The fact that 

 this species is observed to feed much on the fruit of the myrtle 

 tree, especially at the period of the autumn misfration, appears to 

 be the reason why it has received the name of the myrtle warbler. 

 The particular kinds of insects on which it feeds are no doubt par- 

 tial to the vegetation in the localities that it usually frequents, and 

 the fact that certain kinds of insect infest the foliage and bark of 

 certain species of trees that grow only in certain soils, is no doubt 

 the reason why certain varieties of birds that feed specially on 

 those certain kinds of insects, are found only in those locations 

 where such particular woods and their insect parasites abound. 



The myrtle warbler was among the few speaes of ihe warblers 

 noted by Audubon when he visited the coast of Labrador in the 

 summer of 1833, ^"'^ 't has been traced acros<=; the continent, 

 south of Hudson Bay, to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, 

 and among these to the wave-washed shores of the Pacific Ocean; 

 and we note it on the list of the warblers in the new territory of 

 Vukon. Nelson, in his report of the birds of Alaska, says, regard 

 ing this species : " It is a woodland species, and makes but very 

 short stops along the inhospitable coast, but hastens to more 

 congenial localities in the interior, where it rears its young. In 

 the autumn migrations it hastily seeks its more southerly haunts 

 and rarely lingers along the bare coasts of the north, as do some 

 of its relatives." 



Turner also speaks of this bird as being found at Fort Yukon, 

 where it breeds, but they inhabit only the wooded portions of the 

 district. It was also found to be quite abundant among the wil- 

 low thickets on the river banks at Bristol Bay. 



Some notes on the nesting of this warbler from my pen were 

 published in the Canadian Sportsman and Naturalist^ 1882, and 

 some years afterwards a more ample account was contributed to 

 The Ornithologist and Oologist, published in Boston. From this 

 article Prof. Davie, in his fourth edition of " The Nests and Eggs 

 of North Americal Birds," makes quotations, and from this work 

 Mr. Thomas Mcllwraith makes extracts in his second edition oi 

 "The Birds of Ontario." In his recently published articles on 

 " Birds of the Garden," and " The Birds of Ontario in Relation to 



