NORTHERN BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER 293 



Still farther south, on Mount Mitchell, in western North Carolina, 

 Thomas D. Burleigh (1941) found it to be "a plentiful breeding bird 

 in the thick fir and spruce woods at the top of the mountain, appearing 

 in April when the ground is frequently still covered with snow and 

 lingering in the fall until early October." 



Spring. — From its winter home in Mexico and Central America, 

 the black-throated green warbler, starting early in March, migrates 

 northward through eastern Texas and up the Mississippi Valley, 

 mainly in the forested areas. I noted it in the great wave of warblers 

 migrating along the Texas coastal islands early in May. The fact 

 that it is so rare in southern Florida, and still rarer in Cuba, sug- 

 gests that many individuals must make the perilous flight from 

 Yucatan across the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf States. From 

 Louisiana it takes a more northeasterly route, mainly along the 

 Alleghenies, to New England and beyond. It is one of the earlier 

 warblers to arrive in Massachusetts, often during the last week in 

 April. The birds come along in waves, the first wave consisting 

 mainly of males and later waves containing the females in larger 

 numbers. The passage of individuals seems to be fairly rapid, but 

 the species may be present for nearly a month at any point along 

 its migration route. While migrating it may be seen, like other 

 warblers, almost anywhere — in the tops of woodland trees, in road- 

 side trees and shrubbery, in gardens and in parks, before it settles 

 down in its favorite breeding haunts. There must be a very heavy 

 migration through Ohio, for Milton B. Trautman (1940) says that 

 in the "larger flight 50 to 125 were daily recorded, and it was evident 

 that there were several thousands present." 



Nesting. — Although the black-throated green warbler is one of our 

 commonest breeding warblers, I have never found its nest in my home 

 territory, though I have spent many hours hunting for it in its favorite 

 pine woods. Wliile hunting through a somewhat open tract of pitch 

 pines on Martha's Vineyard, Mass., on June 8, 1919, with Frank C. 

 Willard, we found a nest with four fresh eggs 8 feet from the ground 

 in a small pine; it was saddled on an upward-slanting limb and 

 partially supported by a whorl of three small branches. It was a 

 pretty nest, made of grasses, seaweed, and strips of inner bark, and 

 was lined with fine gTasses, cowhair, horsehair, and a few white 

 feathers. The male was incubating and was very tame, coming within 

 a few feet of us; he also returned and sat on the empty nest after 

 Mr. Willard had removed the eggs. 



On June 4, 1910, Herbert K. Job showed me a nest near New Haven, 

 Conn., in mixed deciduous woods; it was about 11 feet from the 

 ground, built against the trunk of a large chestnut sprout and sup- 

 ported by a small dead branch and two live twigs ; the leaves on this 



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