BIRDS OF NEW YORK 39 1 



Haunts and habits. In the breeding season it seems to prefer a second 

 growth of birch and poplar or other deciduous saplings in voung or open 

 woodland. Of its song, Gerald Thayer writes: " It has two main perch 

 songs and a flight song, all subject to a good deal of variation. It belongs 

 decidedly among the full-voiced warblers. Its commoner perch song 

 consists of a string of 6 or 8 or more lively, rapid notes, suddenly congested 

 into a pleasant, rolling twitter lower in key than the first part of the song 

 and half as long. In the other perch song, the notes of what correspond 

 to the rolling twitter are richer and the second part of the song is longer 

 and more noticeable than the first, whose notes are few and slower, while 

 the whole is more languidly delivered. The flight song, a fairly common 

 performance in late summer, is sung from the height of 5 to 40 feet above 

 the low treetops. It is like the commoner perch song but more hurried 

 and slightly elaborated, often with a few chipperings added at both ends. 

 Among the Nashville's calls, a very small, dry "chip," and a more metallic, 

 louder chip, somewhat Water thrushlike, are noteworthy." 



During the migration season the Nashville is one of our generally 

 distributed species, frequenting the blossoming orchards and the deciduous 

 shade trees of our lawns and village streets. Even in migration time it 

 seems to show a decided preference for rows of white birches or the scattered 

 birch trees on village lawns, every tree during the season exhibiting 

 each morning from 1 to 5 or 6 of these warblers among its budding leaves. 

 Sometimes during the second week of May the orchards are fairly alive 

 with this species, 50 or 60 often being counted in an hour's excursion. 

 It is a very restless species, continually peering about among the blossoms 

 and foliage and flying from bough to bough or from tree to tree. 



The nest is placed upon the ground, usually at the foot of a bush or 

 on a grassy bank in the open woodland. The eggs are white or creamy 

 white in ground color, spotted and speckled with reddish brown and lilac 

 of different shades, usually forming a distinct wreath, and the average 

 dimensions are .64 by .46 inches. Mr C. F. Stone describes the only nest 

 he has ever seen in Yates county as follows: "On May 26, 1912, W. A. 



