414 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



or abundant transient visitant in nearly all parts of the State, an iving 

 from the 3d to the 9th of May, sometimes as early as the 2d, at other times 

 as late as the 12th. The main troop of migrants has passed northward 

 from the southern counties from the 19th to the 30th of May, returning 

 in the fall from the 15th to the 30th of August, and passing south from the 

 1 8th to the 30th of September, sometimes as late as the 10th of October. 

 It also breeds in all portions of New York State, though uncommonly 

 on Long Island and only locally in the southeastern portions of the State; 

 but throughout the Alleghanian and Canadian zones it is a common sum- 

 mer resident, especially in the bushy pastures of eastern, central and western 

 New York and the outskirts of the Adirondacks, its distribution varying 

 considerably in different years, dependent upon the season and the char- 

 acteristic cover to be found. A considerable increase of slashings and 

 brambly thickets in any section of the State is almost sure to be followed 

 by a decided increase in the numbers of this species as summer residents.- 



Haunts and habits. The Chestnut-sided warbler nests about the 

 edges of woods, bushy pastures and neglected roadsides, usually in wilder 

 and more deserted situations than those frequented by the Yellow warbler. 

 It is partial to the deciduous bushland throughout the hillsides of western 

 New York ; rarely found within the depths of the forest or where there is 

 any considerable admixture of evergreens. Its hunting ground, as Gerald 

 Thayer writes, lies between the ground and the tops of the small deciduous 

 trees. 



Its song is a " full-voiced warble." Two types are distinguishable, 

 " both too liquid to be suggested by any set syllables except the clearly 

 enunciated ending of one of them which may be written ' wee-chew, tit- 

 a-wit-a-wit-a-wit-we chew,' 1 being something like the phrasing of the whole 

 song. The other is an elaboration of this rolling warble, with the wee- 

 chew left off." During the migration this is one of the commonest species 

 in all parts of the State and its cheery little song may be heard in all the 

 orchards and shade trees from the first to the third week in May about 

 our villages and parklands and the edges of woods. 



