BACHMAN'S WARBLER 71 



sweet gum or cypress. It appears to have regular singing stations 

 during the breeding season, and upon leaving a tree it flies a long 

 distance before alighting. On this account it is impossible to follow 

 the bird through the dark forest, and it can only be detected by its 

 song. I have occasionally seen the males in low gall-berry bushes 

 within six or eight inches of the ground, but their usual resorts are 

 among the topmost branches of the tallest forest trees." 



Brewster (1891) had similar experience with migrating birds in 

 Florida : 



Nearly or quite all that has been hitherto written about this Warbler would 

 lead one to infer that its favorite haunts are dense thickets, undergrowth, or 

 low trees, and that it seldom ventures to any considerable height above the 

 ground. Our experience, however, was directly contrary to this. * * * The 

 bird, moreover, not only frequented the tops of the tallest trees, but at all times 

 of the day and under every condition of weather kept at a greater average 

 height than any other Warbler excepting Dendroica dominica. In its marked 

 preference for cypresses it also resembled the species just named, but unlike it 

 was never seen in pines. * * * 



At the time of our visit the Suwanee bottoms were alive with small birds 

 many of which were doubtless migrants. They banded together in mixed flocks 

 often of large size and motley composition. * * * Such a gathering was 

 nearly certain to contain from one or two to five or six Bachman's Warblers. 



These with the Parulas were most likely to be feeding in the upper branches 

 of some gigantic cypress, at least one hundred feet above the earth, where they 

 looked scarcely larger than bumble bees. * * • 



The habits and movements of Bachman's Warbler are in some respects pe- 

 culiar and characteristic. It does not flit from twig to twig nor launch out 

 after flying insects in the manner of most Warblers, and many of its motions 

 are quite as deliberate as those of a Vireo. Alighting near the end of a branch 

 it creeps or sidles outward along a twig, and bending forward until the head 

 points nearly straight down, inserts the bill among the terminal leaflets with a 

 peculiar, slow, listless motion, keeping it there a second or two, and repeating 

 the leisurely thrust many times in succession without changing its foothold. 

 The action is like that of several other members of the genus — notably H. pinus 

 and H. chrysoptera — under similar conditions, and suggests the sucking in of 

 liquid food, perhaps honey or dew. Not infrequently a bird would hang back 

 downwards beneath a twig and feed from the under sides of the leaves in the 

 manner of a Titmouse, * * * 



Many of the hackberry trees along the banks of this stream contained com- 

 pact bunches — nearly as large as a child's head — of dead leaves blackened by 

 exposure to wind and weather. These bunches probably sheltered insects or 

 their larvae, for they attracted several species of birds, especially the Bachman's 

 Warblers which would work at them minutes at a time with loud rustling, 

 sometimes burrowing in nearly out of sight and sending the loosened leaves 

 floating down to the ground. Upon exhausting the supply of food or becoming 

 tired of the spot — whether one of the leaf bunches or the extremity of a cypress 

 branch — the bird almost invariably started on a long flight, often going hundreds 

 of yards through the woods or crossing the river, instead of merely passing to 

 the next branch or tree as almost any other Warbler would have done under 

 similar circumstances. This habit seemed to us characteristic of the species. 



