LAND BIRDS. 625 



olive, below grayish-white, the breast and throat often merely tinged with yellow; wmgs 

 and tail as in male except that the wing-bars are narrower and grayer. 



Length 4.9o to 5.60 inches; wing 2.70 to 3; tail 2.10 to 2.45. Female rather smaller. 



284. Palm Warbler, Dendroica palmarum palmarum (Gmel.). (672) 



Synonyms: Western Palm Warbler, Western Eed-poll Warbler, Western Yellow 

 Red-poll Warbler, Wagtail Warbler. — Motacilla palmarum, Gmel., 1789. — Sylvicola 

 petechia, Sw. & Rich., 1831. — Dendroica palmarum, A. O. U. Check-list, 1886. 



Yellow below from chin to under tail-coverts, streaked on breast and 

 sides with reddish-brown and dusky. Crown chestnut; wing-bars in- 

 distinct or wanting; outer tail-feathers white-tipped on inner webs. 



Distribution — Northern interior to Great Slave Lake; in winter South 

 Atlantic and Gulf States, the West Indies and Mexico. Of rare but regu'ar 

 occurrence in the Atlantic States in migration. 



This is another of our hardy warblers, arriving early in the spring and 

 lingering late in the fall. It enters the state from the south about the 

 first of May, sometimes as early as the 20th of April, and passes northward 

 in a leisurely manner, some lingering until after the middle of May. At 

 Ann Ar]:)or Mr. Wood gives the earliest date in twenty-five years as April 

 26, 1886, and it is seldom seen at Lansing before the 6th or 7th of May. 

 However, a specimen was killed on Spectacle Reef Light, northern Lake 

 Huron, May 5, 1889, and others on May 11, 1888, May 15, 1891 and May 

 19, 1893. Fall records for the same lighthouse are September 25 and 29, 

 1889, October 3, 1893 and October 5, 1890. 



Although entirely unhke the Yellow-rumped Warbler in appearance, 

 the two species have many points in common, and the present bird is 

 equally fond of the ground, where it alights constantly for food, hopping 

 about in search of seeds and insects, very much like a sparrow. It is 

 usually found in flocks, sometimes as many as fifty together, though more 

 often in small squads of six to ten. It frequents the edges of fields, the 

 borders of woods and the sides of hedges and roads, but is also seen fre- 

 quently in open fields, particularly in the wetter parts of cattle pastures, 

 where it perches on weed-stalks or on the ground, and Avhen alarmed 

 flies to the nearest fence, where it sits, wagging the tail up and down in 

 a manner entirely unlike that of any other warbler. 



Apparently it is not very abundant in Michigan, most of our reports 

 stating that it is rare, rather uncommon, or at least irregularly common. 

 It is not known to nest within our limits, nor has it been recorded from 

 any part of the state in summer, so far as we are aware. Usually by the 

 20th of May it has passed northward beyond out borders, and it returns 

 again in September. It is the only warbler of its genus (except Kirtland's) 

 which regularly nests on the ground, a fact entirely in keeping with its 

 terrestrial habits. In New England, where it (or its equivalent subspecies, 

 hypochrysea) is abundant, it has been known to nest occasionally, both 

 fresh eggs and newly hatched young being found near Bangor, Me., June 

 1, 1892, and another nest at Pittsfield, Me., with five fresh eggs June 13, 

 1894. 



The usual nesting ground of the western form is in the Hudson Bay 

 region and Alaska, where it is said to nest at the foot of a small tree or 

 at the edge of a hummock, sinking its nest among the grasses and mosses. 

 The nest itself consists of these materials, together with bark strips, down 

 and feathers, and the eggs are creamy white, spotted with purple and 

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