EASTERN YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER 351 



portion of the state and sometimes considerably to the westward. It 

 is absent in the mountains but a few may be noted in the valleys of 

 the foothills. According to the findings of Pearson and the Brimleys 

 (1942) it appears about Raleigh on March 9. Probably the coastal 

 areas are visted earlier, perhaps by March 1. Uncertainty prevails 

 regarding the arrival of birds in the western parts of the state. These 

 authors quote T. D. Burleigh as stating that the earliest date near 

 Asheville is March 28, 1935, and that "at no time were any seen on the 

 mountainsides." 



In Virginia one finds this warbler appearing in the Tidewater area 

 "as early as March 20th," according to H. H. Bailey (1913). May T. 

 Cooke (1929) states that it usually comes to the Washington region 

 around April 15, the earliest record being March 30. Its summer 

 status there is characterized as "local"; moist woodlands along the 

 Potomac River are its favorite spots. Further inland, Ruskin H. 

 Freer (MS.) says that he has seen it but twice at Lynchburg, on April 

 11, 1933, and September 30, 1930. Lynchburg, in the foothills of the 

 Blue Ridge, is probably a western limit. 



Professor E. A. Smyth never saw it in Montgomery County and J. J. 

 Murray (MS.) has not recorded it about Lexington in Rockbridge 

 County (MS.), localities in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. 

 According to Dr. Murray "the bird is unknown west of the Blue Ridge 

 in Virginia. It is a migrant in the foothills and upper Piedmont on 

 the eastern side of the Blue Ridge. From Washington south through 

 central Virginia it is an uncommon summer resident in the eastern 

 third of the State, becoming more common as the coast is approached, 

 but even in the tidewater region and on the Eastern Shore it is abun- 

 dant only locally." 



My experience with this warbler in Virginia is limited to the south- 

 ern portion of the Eastern Shore. There, in the area about Eastville, 

 Cheriton, and Cape Charles during June and half of July 1940, I 

 found it fairly numerous in the woodlands but discovered no nests. 

 This locality appears to be the extreme northern limit of the Spanish 

 moss for only a few bedraggled clumps were noted in the woods near 

 Eastville on the Chesapeake Bay side of the peninsula. This moss 

 ceases to be prevalent as one comes to the bay on the Norfolk side 

 and the dejected evidences of the growth across that body of water 

 suggest that it may have had its origin in windblown shreds that 

 gained and maintain a precarious foothold. 



Nesting — It is in its domestic habits that dominica exhibits its 

 unalterable affinity for Tillandsia usneoides where the ranges coincide. 

 The nest is rarely placed anywhere except in a clump of it, and the 

 tree concerned is usually an oak, as this species offers more foothold 

 for the Spanish moss than others and, as a consequence, is more 



