KIRTLAND'S WARBLER 427 



Ants seem to be a serious enemy of the nestlings. The parents, 

 especially the female, pay much attention to guarding the young 

 against ants and can be seen frequently picking the ants from the 

 nestlings' bodies. If parent birds are kept away from a nest for more 

 than a few minutes when the temperature is fairly high and the 

 ants active, the biting ants cause the young to squirm and jump about 

 violently. Ants collected from a Kirtland's nest near Clear Lake, 

 Montmorency County, June 27, 1935, were identified by Frederick 

 M. Gaige as Crematog aster Uneolata. Kirtland's warblers seem to 

 be very free of external parasites. It is rare to find even Mallophaga 

 on them. 



Fall. — Soon after the postnuptial molt begins, the males cease to 

 sing, and this, as well as the inactivity of both adults and young during 

 the molt, makes them extremely difficult to find. Few observers have 

 ever seen a Kirtland's warbler later than July. Verne Dockham be- 

 lieves that after July they largely leave the jack-pine habitat; he has 

 several times seen them in August, always near the ground, in the 

 adjoining hardwood. The only known Michigan specimens taken later 

 than September 1 are several in the Max M. Peet collection found in 

 jack-pine near Luzerne September 5 to 9, 191G, and one male found 

 September 28, 1919, in jack-pine seven miles south of Houghton Lake 

 village. Kirtland's warbler has never been recorded in Michigan in 

 the fall south of the jack-pine plains. 



Winter. — Charles B. Cory (1879), who discovered the winter home 

 of Kirtland's warbler when he collected a female on Andros Island 

 in the Bahamas on January 9, 1879, reported that its actions resembled 

 those of the myrtle warbler and that it seemed to prefer the thick brush. 

 Its stomach contained insects. However, most of our knowledge of 

 the winter habits of this species is derived from C. J. Maynard's 

 account (1896) of his experience with it in the Bahamas in 1884: 



Kirtland's Warblers are shy birds of solitary habits, for never in any case did 

 I find two together. They inhabit the low scrub, preferring that which is only 

 three or four feet high, but retire at night to roost in the higher, more dense 

 shrubbery near the spots which they frequent during the day. Those taken were, 

 with one or two exceptions, found in an exceedingly limited area, within a mile 

 or two of the city, and always in old fields grown up to low shrubbery. I have 

 never heard Kirtland's Warbler sing, the only note that they uttered was a harsh 

 chirp, with which they greeted me when alarmed at my approach. When one 

 was not secured at first sight, it generally retreated into the bushes and silently 

 disappeared. The thick and tangled character of the scrub rendered any quiet 

 or swift pursuit impossible, thus a retreating bird was never seen again that day, 

 and a number seen escaped in this way. 



As with many shy birds, however, these warblers presented strange exceptions 

 to the usual rule ; twice at least as I was making my way through the thickets in 



