TENNESSEE WARBLER 85 



ahead of tlie main flights, was observed in this case. On the above-mentioned 

 date they were suddenly found to be present in numbers, and from then on were 

 common in every lowland or foothill locality visited. In point of relative abun- 

 dance this was by far the most common warbler (resident or migratory) through- 

 out the coastal plain and in the foothills, but it was greatly outnumbered by 

 Dendroica virens above 3,000 feet. 



The manner of occurrence was usually as small flocks of six or eight or even 

 twenty or more birds. These combined with several other species to make up 

 larger flocks which worked ceaselessly through the crown foliage of low, semi- 

 open woodland. However, many were found even in the tall, dense swamp 

 forests along the coast and also in the oak woods on Mt. Cacaguatique. 



Winter. — Dr. A. F. Skutch has contributed the following account : 

 "The Tennessee warbler winters in Central America in vast numbers. 

 Coming later than many other members of the family, the first individ- 

 uals appear in mid-September; but the species is not abundant or 

 widely distributed until October. During the year I passed on the 

 Sierra de Tecpan in west-central Guatemala a single Tennessee warbler 

 appeared in the garden of the house, at 8,500 feet, on November 7 and 

 despite frosty nights lingered into December. On November 19, 1935, 

 I saw one on the Volcan Irazu in Costa Rica at 9,200 feet — the highest 

 point at which I have a record of the species. At the other extreme I 

 found a few of these adaptable birds among the low trees on the arid 

 coast of El Salvador in February and among the royal palms at Puerto 

 Limon, on the humid coast of Costa Rica, in March. But Tennessee 

 warblers are most abundant as winter residents at intermediate alti- 

 tudes, chiefly between 2,000 and 6,000 feet above sea-level. From 3,000 

 to 5,000 feet they often seem to be the most abundant of all birds dur- 

 ing the period of their sojourn. They travel in straggling flocks and 

 form the nucleus of many of the mixed companies of small, arboreal 

 birds. At times 'myriads' is the only term that seems apt to describe 

 their multitudes. 



"I think 'coffee warbler' would be a name far more appropriate than 

 Tennessee warbler for this plainly attired little bird ; it was merely a 

 matter of chance that Alexander Wilson happened to discover the 

 species in Tennessee rather than at some other point on its long route 

 from Canada to Central America ; but the warblers themselves mani- 

 fest a distinct partiality to the coffee plantations. The open groves 

 formed by the shade trees, whose crowns rarely touch each other, yet 

 are never far apart, seem to afford just the degree of woodland density 

 that they prefer. It matters not whether these trees are Grevilleas 

 from Australia with finely divided foliage, or Ingas with large, coarse, 

 compound leaves, or remnants of the original forest — a mixture of 

 many kinds of trees with many types of foliage : from Guatemala to 

 Costa Rica the Tennessee warblers swarm in the coffee plantations 

 during the months of the northern winter and are often the most 

 numerous birds of any species among the shade trees. Possibly they 



981873—53 7 



