76 BULLETIN 203, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



cola, in March and April. The few records available seem to indi- 

 cate that the main migration route is along the eastern coasts of Central 

 xVmerica (Dr. Skutch tells me that he sees it both spring and fall in 

 Costa Kica), Mexico, and Texas to the Mississippi Valley, whence it 

 spreads out to reach its wide breeding range. Some birds may reach 

 Florida via Cuba, and we have some evidence that it migrates across 

 the Gulf of Mexico. It is common on the coast of Texas in spring. 



Gerald Thayer wrote to Dr. Chapman (1907) that about Monad- 

 nock, N. H., the Tennessee warbler is "very rare, and seemingly 

 irregular. It haunts blossoming apple trees, big elms, and roadside 

 copses of mixed deciduous second growth." 



At Buckeye Lake, Ohio, according to Milton B. Trautman (1940), 

 "the daily and seasonal numbers of no warbler species fluctuated as 

 greatly as did those of the Tennessee Warbler. During some spring 

 migrations it was decidedly uncommon, and never more than 5 indi- 

 viduals were recorded in a day nor more than 35 for the spring. Dur- 

 ing other years as many as 250 individuals (May 16, 1929) were 

 observed in a day, and more than 800 were noted during the migration. 



* * * The birds in spring chiefly inhabited the upper half of the 

 taller trees of both upland and lowland wooded areas and also the 

 upper parts of rows or groups of tall trees along the lake shore, 

 streams, and about farmhouses." 



It must have been a very common migrant in Minnesota at one time, 

 f or Dr. Koberts (1936) writes: 



Formerly, when all Warblers were more abundant than now, the little Tennes- 

 see flooded the tree-tops for a week or ten days in such numbers as to equal, 

 if not excel, all other species put together, excepting only the Myrtle. Insignifi- 

 cant in size and inconspicuous in garb, it made up for these shortcomings by 

 numbers and incessant vocal effort, indilferent performer though it is. It is 

 still one of the commonest species. It keeps well up among the topmost branches 

 and moves restlessly about in search of food, singing meanwhile with little 

 apparent effort and announcing its passage from one tree-top to another by a 

 succession of sharp little yeap-yeaps that are almost as characteristic to the 

 trained ear as the song itself. 



A. D. Henderson, of Belvedere, Alberta, tells me that the Tennessee 

 warbler is probably the most numerous of the warblers which spend 

 the summer in the territory around Belvedere and in the Fort 

 Assiniboine District. It breeds mainly in poplar woods, but I have 

 also found nests in dry muskeg." 



Nesting. — Prior to the beginning of the present century very little 

 authentic information on the nesting habits of the Tennessee warbler 

 was available. Professor Cooke (1904) records two sets of eggs taken 

 by one of the parties of the Biological Survey in 1901 at Fort Smith, 

 Mackenzie, of which he says : "These eggs are among the first abso- 

 lutely authentic specimens known to science." And Dr. Chapman 



