LAND BIRDS. 615 



county, by Jerome Trombley, of Petersburg; from the neighborhood of 

 Detroit by Walter C. Wood; from Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, Washtenaw 

 county, by A. B. Covert, Norman A. Wood, Robert H. Wolcott, and Dr. 

 Van Fossen of Ypsilanti, and from Kalamazoo by Dr. Morris Gibbs and 

 several of his friends. It undoubtedly breeds wherever it is found in 

 Michigan, but, inhabiting as it does the upper branches of the tallest trees 

 of the ])ottoni lands, mainly sycamores, its nest is not easily found, and 

 although the birds have been seen several times constructing nests (twice 

 in Monroe county and once in Kalamazoo coimty), the eggs, so far as we 

 can learn, have never yet been taken. Mr. Trombley reported the birds 

 as common near Petersburg, Monroe county, in the Raisin River valley, 

 in 1884, when they first appeared on April 20 and became common on 

 April 30. The following year they were first noted on April 20 and again 

 on the 29th and on May first. In 1886 two were seen April 17 and another 

 April 18, and they became common April 25. The following year they 

 were observed in about .the same numbers and at about the same time, 

 ))ut in 1888, although oi:)served April 20, 21 and 25, Mr. Trombley says 

 they were not common. In 1890 he was sure that two or three pairs 

 bred along the Raisin River near there, but during succeeding years they 

 grew less abundant, until in 1897 he called them rare, and since that time 

 but few have been seen. In 1905 Mr. Trombley told us personally that 

 he had never taken the nest of this species, but that he once saw a pair 

 ])uilding a nest and watched them for several days in succession, but the 

 nest was on one of the highest branches of a very tall tree and was absolutely 

 inaccessible. He finally shot the male in order to positively identify 

 the subspecies and the nest was never finished. The trees in that vicinity 

 have all l)een cut now. 



Dr. Gibbs informed us (1905) that one nest was found, probably in the 

 year 1876, near Kalamazoo, in a sycamore, near the tip of a small branch 

 at least seventy feet from the ground. It was impossible to reach the 

 nest, and no eggs have ever been taken in that vicinity. He took a male 

 at Kalamazoo May 10, 1877, and other specimens were taken by Geoi'ge 

 B. Sudworth, May 6, 1876 and May 3, 1877. Another specimen was 

 received from a friend who captured it in a grocery store in Kalamazoo, 

 September 21, 1878. Dr. Gibbs also informed us that W. H. Collins of 

 Detroit wrote him that he had one specimen, taken there [Detroit] May 

 10, 1879, and another taken September 15, 1880. Mr. Walter C. Wood 

 secured a pair near Detroit in July 1899 and feels sure that they were 

 breeding there (B. H. Swales). Mr. Norman A. Wood of Ann Arbor tells 

 us that there is a mounted specimen of this subspecies in the collection 

 of Dr. Van Fossen of Ypsilanti which was taken near that place, and 

 writes, under date of May 29, 1906, "I have found a small colony of the 

 Sycamore Warljler along the Huron River within four miles of Ann Arbor. 

 I secured a fine pair to mount for the Museum. The first one was seen 

 Apiil 22 and a male was taken on the 25th. On May 4 a female was taken 

 and others seen, and still others were oliserved on May 6. These birds 

 were feeding in a grove of trees, one-half of which were sycamores, and 

 they seemed to avoid the other trees and feed only in the tops of the tallest 

 sycamores, where I saw them gleaning food from all the limbs, going over 

 them very carefully, especially on the under side. In action the}' resembled 

 the IMack and White Creeper, and the song as well reminds one of this 

 bird only it is much louder and in a higher key." 



All observei's agree that this species is partial to sycamores and in Mich- 



