G8 DENDRCECA PALMARUM, YELLOW RED-POLL WARBLER. 



some poibaps breediufj). — CouES, Pr. Bost. Soc. xii, 18G8, 109 (South Carolina, 

 ■wintering). — Allen, Bull. M. C. Z. ii, 1871, 268 (Florida, wintering). — Mayn., 

 B. ria. 187-2, 52; Guide, 1870, 104.— Coues, Key, 1872, 104. 



Sylvia i)cteclna, Wils., Am. Orn. vi, 1812, 19, pi. 28, f. 4 (not of early authors, which re- 

 fers to species like cvnitva). — Nutt., i, 1832, 364. — AxiD., Orn. Biog. ii, 1834, 259, 

 360, itls. 163, 164. 



Sylvicola petechia, Sw. & Rich., F. B. A. ii, 1831, 215, pi. 41. — AuD., Syn. 1839, 58. — AuD., 

 B. Am. ii, 1841, 55, pi. 90.— Hoy, Smiths. Rep. 1864, 437 (Missouri).— Trippe, 

 Pr. Ess. Inst, vi, 1872, 114 (Wisconsin). 



"Seittriis petechia, McCul., Bost. Journ. N. H. iv, 406." 



Si/Jvicola ruficapilla, Bp., List, 1838 ; Consp. i, 1850, 307. (Not Motadlla r., Gm.) 



lihimanphus vHjicapHhis, Cab., J. f. O. iii, 1855, 473 (Cuba). 



Hob. — Eastern North America to the Lower Missouri. North to Labrador, Hudson's 

 Bay, and Fort Simpson. No record of breeding in the United States south of Maine. 

 Winters in the Southern States, from the Carolinas to Texas ; Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, 

 and St. Domingo. No Mexican or Central American quotations. 



The Palm Warbler is an extremely abundaut bird in the Sonthern 

 States in winter, and equallj- common in the rest of the United States 

 during the migrations, but has not been observed to breed south of the 

 British possessions, excepting in Maine, where, according to Mr. Board- 

 man, it occasionally nests near Calais. It passes rapidly through the 

 Middle and Western States very early in the spring, sometimes reaching 

 the Connecticut Valley before the snow is gone, and returns more leis- 

 urely in autumn, lingering late by the way. It is found in New England 

 through October, and has even been seen in Massachusetts in Novem- 

 ber, its habits are somev\^hat peculiar, some of them, such as the con- 

 tinual jetting of the tail and fondness for the ground, recalling the 

 Seiiiri rather than a bird of its own genus. Unlike most Warblers, it 

 is rarely, if ever, found in high thick woods, being partial to coppices, 

 hedge-rows, straggling shrubbery, and especially old waste fields, where 

 it delights to ramble and flutter in company with Yellow-rumps and va- 

 rious kinds of Sparrows. It keeps much on the ground, running among 

 the weeds and stubble, and even on the open dust of the wayside, with 

 a peculiar tremulousness, something like that of the Titlark. Its song, 

 if it have one, I have never heard ; its only note, with us, is a slight 

 "te/^j," indistinguishable from that of several of its allies. This is cor- 

 roborated by Dr. Brewer, as I learn from an early proof-sheet of his 

 work. He says: "They have no other song than a few simple and fee- 

 ble notes, so thin and weak that they might almost be mistaken for the 

 sounds made by the common grasshopper." I am entirely ignorant of 

 the nidification, which is described by l3r. Brewer as follows : 



"The Red-Poll usually selects for the site of its nest the edge of a 

 swampy thicket, more or less open, placing it invariably upon the ground. 

 They are usually not large, about three and a half inches in diameter and 

 two and a half in dei)tii, the diameter and depth of the cavity averaging 

 each only half an inch less. The walls are compactly and elaborately 

 constructed of an interweaving of various fine materials, chiefly fine dry 

 grasses, slender strips of bark, stems of the smaller plants, hypnum and 

 other mosses. Within, the nest is warmly and softly lined with down 

 and feathers. 



"Mr. Kennicott met Avith a nest of this bird at Fort Resolution, June 

 18. It was on the ground, on a hummock, at the foot of a small spruce, 

 in a swamp. When found it contained five young birds. 



"Their eggs are of a rounded-oval shape, and measure 0.70 of an inch 

 in length by 0.55 in breadth. Their ground-color is a yellowish or creamy- 

 white, and their blotches, chiefly about the larger end, are of a blending 

 of purple, lilac, and reddish-brown." 



