BLACK AND WHITE WARBLER 5 



Lawrence E. Hicks (1945). Another aberrant warbler has been de- 

 scribed by Stanley G. Jewett (1944), who examined four specimens 

 which show a curious intermingling of the plumage characters of 

 the hermit and Townsend warblers. 



[Author's Note: Since the above was written, Kenneth C. Parkes 

 (1951) has published a study of the genetics of the golden-winged- 

 blue-winged warbler complex, to which the reader is referred. ] 



MNIOTILTA VARIA (Linnaeus) 



BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER 



HABITS 



CONTBIBUTED BT WiNSOB MabBETT TyLEB 



Plates 1-3 



The black-and-white warbler is one of the earliest spring warblers 

 to reach its breeding-ground in the Transition Zone. Most of the 

 other members of this family arrive in or pass through the region in 

 mid-May or somewhat later, according to the season, when the oaks 

 are in bloom and the opening flowers attract swarms of insects. 



The black-and-white warbler, however, owing to its peculiar habit 

 of feeding on the trunks and the large limbs of the trees, does not have 

 to wait for the bounty supplied by the oaks but finds its special feed- 

 ing-ground well stocked with food long before the oaks blossom or 

 their leaves unfold. It comes with the yellow pahn warbler late in 

 April, when many of the trees are nearly bare, and not long after the 

 pine warbler. 



Mniotilta is a neat little bird, dressed in modest colors, at this season 

 singing its simple but sprightly song as it scrambles over the bark — 

 the black-and-white creeper, Alexander Wilson calls it. 



Milton B. Trautman (1940), speaking of the spring migration at 

 Buckeye Lake, Ohio, shows that the male birds are preponderant in 

 the earliest flights. He says : "The first spring arrivals, chiefly males, 

 Vv^ere noted between April 16 and 30, and between May 1 and 5, 2 to 15 

 birds, mostly males, could be daily noted. The peak of migration 

 usually lasted from May 6 to May 18, and then from 3 to 42 individuals, 

 consisting of a few old males and the remainder females and young 

 males, were daily observed. On May 18 or shortly thereafter a decided 

 lessening in numbers occurred, and by May 23 all except an occasional 

 straggler had left." 



Courtship. — Forbush (1929) gives this hint of courtship, which re- 

 sembles the activities of most warblers at this season: "When the 



981873—53 2 



