BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER 339 



says of its status on Mount Mitchell in western North Carolina : "Al- 

 though not known to breed above an altitude of approximately 5,000 

 feet, this species is fairly plentiful during the late summer in the fir 

 and spruce woods at the top of the mountain, appearing regularly in 

 July and lingering through September." 



Spring. — The Blackburnian warbler is apparently rare in spring 

 in the Atlantic States south of North Carolina ; its migration range 

 extends westward to the plains of eastern Texas, eastern Kansas, and 

 eastern Nebraska, but it is rare west of the forested regions of the 

 Mississippi Valley. Professor Cooke (1904) says that the average 

 rate of migration "from the mouth of the Mississippi to its source, 

 \Nhere it breeds, appears to be scarcely 25 miles per day," Forbush 

 (1929) writes: 



It is generally regarded as rare in migration in Massachusetts, though probably 

 untold numbers pass over the state every year, but only a few stop here. It is 

 not when the birds are migrating that we see them, but when they stop to rest, 

 * * * I can recall but two instances in my lifetime when myriads of Black- 

 burnian Warblers stopped here, though other similar flights probably have come 

 when I was not there to see. At sunrise one morning in early May, many years 

 ago, when the tiny green leaves were just breaking forth on the tall trees of the 

 woods near Worcestei', Blackburnians were everywhere in the tree-tops. They 

 swarmed in the woods for miles. Years later, in Amesbury, on another May 

 morning, the night flight, having met a cold wave from the north with a light 

 frost, had come down to earth and the birds were busily looking for food ; many 

 Blackburnians and many other warblers were in the low shrubbery, in the grass, 

 and even on plowed fields in every direction all through the village and about 

 the farms. The sudden cold had stopped them. A few hours later as the day 

 grew warmer they disappeared and were not seen again. 



Brewster (1906) says : "We see the beautiful Blackburnian oftenest 

 during the later part of May, in extensive tracts of upland woods, 

 where it spends much of its time in the tops of the larger trees, show- 

 ing a decided preference for hemlocks and white pines. In Cambridge 

 I have repeatedly observed it in our garden and the immediate neigh- 

 borhood, usually in tall elms or in blossoming apple trees." 



Nesting. — So far as I can learn, the nest of the Blackburnian warb- 

 ler is almost always placed in a coniferous tree at heights ranging 

 from 5 feet to over 80 feet above the ground ; nests have been reported 

 many times in hemlocks, which seems to be a favorite tree, but also 

 in spruces, firs, tamaracks, pines and even a cedar. Ora W. Knight 

 (1908) says: "I have found them breeding in colonies as a rule, that 

 is to say, in a rather dense, mossy carpeted tract of evergreen woods 

 near the pond at Pittsfield [Maine], covering perhaps a square mile, 

 there were about ten pairs of these birds to be found, and in a tract 

 of similar woods about half this size at Bangor there are often six 

 or eight pair nesting. In other words, in suitable localities they tend 

 to congregate in loosely scattered assemblies, while in less suitable 



