WESTERN PALM WARBLER 441 



fields, usually near or on the ground, walking in a graceful, gliding 

 manner, like an Anthiis or Seiurus, the body tilting and the tail os- 

 cillating at each step. For this reason it is sometimes, and not in- 

 appropriately called Wag-tail Warbler." 



Nesting. — The main breeding grounds of the western palm warbler 

 are in central Canada, where only a few nests have been found. Prob- 

 ably the first recorded nest is the one mentioned by Ridgway (1889) 

 in this brief statement : "Mr. Kennicott found a nest at Fort Resolu- 

 tion, in Arctic America. It was on the ground, on a hunnnock, at 

 the foot of a small spruce tree in a swamp. When discovered (June 

 18), it contained five young." 



In more recent years nests have been found in Alberta. A. D. 

 Henderson writes to me : "The western palm warbler is a scarce breeder 

 in the muskegs in the vicinity of Belvedere. Richard C. Harlow took 

 a nest and five eggs in the moss of a muskeg on June 12, 1923. I was 

 with Dick Harlow and Dick Ranch on June 11, 1924, in a muskeg 

 when Ranch flushed a western palm warbler from a nest and five 

 eggs. On June 16, 1924, Harlow took a nest and five eggs near the 

 place he took the nest in 1923." Harlow tells me that his nest of June 

 11, 1924, was taken 12 miles west of Belvedere in a dry muskeg among 

 scattered spruces and tamaracks. It was very well concealed at the 

 base of a spruce seedling under a clump of dry grass growing near 

 the top of a large hummock of sphagnum moss. The female flushed 

 at about 2 feet, and the five eggs were three-quarters incubated. The 

 nest was constructed of plant fibres, fine dry grass, and fine bark 

 shreds, and was lined with feathers of the gray ruffed grouse. 



Dr. L. H. Walkinshaw (MS.) reports a nest found at Fawcett, 

 Alberta, "built a short distance from a bordering brushy area, in the 

 sphagnum moss of the muskeg country, sunken into the moss at the 

 base of a small dwarf birch." And a set of five eggs in the Doe 

 Museum in Florida, was taken by T. E. Randall at Grassland, Alberta, 

 on May 23, 1933, from a nest "a few inches from the ground in a tiny 

 spruce." 



Dr. T. S. Roberts (1936) mentions six cases of actual, or probable, 

 nesting of the western palm warbler in northern Minnesota, and shows 

 a photograph of a nest in Aitkin County. And Zirrer's notes show 

 conclusively that the species breeds in northern Wisconsin. 



Eggs. — The palm warbler lays 4 or 5 eggs; apparently 5 eggs are 

 fully as common as 4. The eggs are ovate, sometimes tending toward 

 short-ovate or elongate-ovate. They are only slightly glossy. The 

 ground color is white or creamy white, and they are spotted, speckled 

 or blotched with "chestnut," "bay," "auburn," or "Brussels brown," 

 with undertones of "brownish drab" or "light Quaker drab." They 

 vary from eggs delicately sprinkled to those marked with large 



