112 BULLETIN 203, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



half or two tones. They are from 1% to 2 seconds in length. The 

 quality is rather musical, and some individuals have almost as sweet 

 a tone as the yellow warbler. In my experience field students often 

 confuse the songs of these two species. 



"The nesting song may be heard commonly on the breeding grounds. 

 I have several records from the Adirondacks. This song is in three 

 or four parts, each part of three or four notes, and a little lower in 

 pitch than the preceeding part. Two-note phrases are not commonly 

 heard in the nesting song." 



Francis H. Allen's rendering of the song is not very different from 

 the first one of Mr. Saunders', though he noted some variation, and 

 mentions in his notes an aberrant song, which "doubled the common 

 song, which in this case had a first part consisting of only a single 

 phrase, thus; chip-ee- {trill) c/w^-ee- (trill)." 



Field marks. — The gray head, white eye ring, olive-green back, 

 bright yellow under parts, and the absence of wing bars, with no white 

 in the tail, are the distinguishing marks of the eastern Nashville 

 warbler. The Connecticut warbler has a white eye ring but it has a 

 gray throat, whereas the Nashville is bright yellow from chin to abdo- 

 men. The chestnut crown patch is not very conspicuous in the male 

 and is less so, or entirely lacking, in the female ; the female is duller 

 yellow below and browner above than the male. 



Enemies. — Like other ground-nesting birds, this warber has the 

 usual four-footed enemies to contend with, but its nest is quite well 

 hidden. Perhaps its worst bird enemy is the cowbird, although Fried- 

 mann (1934) listed it as an uncommon victim of this parasite and had 

 only six records of it, the nests containing from one to two eggs of the 

 cowbird. 



Fall. — As soon as the molting season is over and the young birds are 

 freshly clad in their winter dress the migration begins in Massachu- 

 setts. This takes place in August, and the last stragglers may be seen 

 passing through in early October. 



In Ohio, according to Mr. Trautman (1940), the first migrants are 

 seen about the first of September, the peak of the migration coming 

 during the latter half of that month when from 10 to 100 could be 

 found in a day, and after the 10th of October only an occasional bird 

 remains. He writes: "As with many other transient warblers the 

 southward migration of the Nashville Warbler covered a greater 

 period of time than did the spring movement, which usually lasted 

 less than 30 days, whereas the fall movement generally extended more 

 than 45 days. * * * In spring the species frequented the upper 

 half of large trees and was more numerous in tall trees of woodlands 

 than it was in smaller groups or rows of tall trees. In fall the species 

 tended to inhabit the middle section of large trees, and it also resorted 

 to the taller bushes and saplings, especially the larger hawthorn trees." 



