KIRTLAND'S WARBLER 421 



gradually changing to light brown on chest, sides and flank ; each feather of the 

 chest and sides with a dark center, widening at the tip, giving a distinct striped 

 effect ; abdomen, pale buffy, tinged with yellow. 



Early in July the young begin to molt into the first winter plumage, 

 which is apparently similar in the two sexes and is much like the 

 winter plumage of the adult female, except that the young's breast is 

 heavily speckled. This molt does not affect the flight feathers, but 

 the body plumage is completely changed. Wayne (1904) reports col- 

 lecting an immature male in South Carolina with molt not yet en- 

 tirely completed on October 29. The prenuptial molt takes place 

 "late in February, and the new plumage is assumed by March 10" 

 Maynard (1896). However, Bonhote (1903) described a male taken 

 March 25 on Little Abaco, Bahamas, as "undergoing a thorough 

 moult of the head and throat." The prenuptial molt involves most 

 of the body plumage but is less complete in first-year birds than in 

 adults. First-year males in May and June show a mottled appearance 

 above, with fresh bluish feathers on the crown and sides of the head 

 and old grayish feathers on the nape and back. Males in their first 

 breeding season are usually distinguishable, even in the field, by the 

 paler yellow of the under parts and the presence of a speckled band 

 (sometimes very faint) across the breast. The type specimen is a 

 first-year male, and Baird (1852), with remarkable acumen, noted 

 that it was "not quite matured." Maynard (1896) described this dis- 

 tinctive first breeding plumage of Kirtland's warbler, but his de- 

 scription has been completely ignored, and the statement is generally 

 made that Dendroica chi^ysoparia (golden-cheeked warbler) is the 

 only Dendroica requiring two years to reach the adult plumage. 

 Adults have a complete postnuptial molt (which may begin as early 

 as July 4) . 



Food. — Kirtland's warblers feed mainly in the small jack-pines 

 among which they nest, but they also hunt insects in the little oak 

 trees among the pines, usually remaining 3 to 8 feet up, and often 

 flying out from a tree to catch an insect on the wing. Sometimes 

 they feed on the ground (especially in the dense pine thickets where 

 the ground is nearly bare) and sometimes in the tops of tall jack-pines, 

 fully 50 feet from the ground. However, one seen near the tops of 

 tall pines is usually a singing male and is perhaps not there primarily 

 in search of food. 



K A. Wood (1904) reported that the food of the Kirtland on its 

 nesting grounds "seemed to be span-worms, living upon jack pines, 

 and a small light-colored span-w^orm moth." He "saw the warblers 

 capture these moths during flight," and he shot a male Kirtland that 

 had a deer fly in its mouth. Leopold (1924) wrote: "The food con- 

 sists largely of centipedes, worms, and caterpillars. However, the 



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