WESTERN PALM WARBLER 443 



and found that it varied from 46 to 60 per minute. He writes : "He 

 spent at least four hours on our piazza, and in that time must have 

 gathered in about 9,500 insects." This warbler spends much time 

 feeding on the ground, where it probably picks up some spiders and 

 seeds. 



Behavior. — The most characteristic trait of the palm warbler is its 

 habit of almost constantly wagging its tail up and down, like a pipit, 

 even while flitting about in the low trees. Strangely enough, Kirt- 

 land's warbler, the only other species of the genus Dendroica that 

 habitually nests on ground, has the same habit. The palm warbler 

 spends much of its time on the ground, where it has been said to walk 

 with a gliding motion, but to me it seems to hop or run, though its little 

 feet move so rapidly that it is not easy to see just which it does. 

 W. B. Barrows (1912) writes of its behavior in Michigan : 



Although entirely unlike the Yellow-rumped Warl)ler in appearance, the two 

 species have many points in common, and the present bird is equally fond 

 of the ground, where it alights constantly for food, hopping about in search 

 of seeds and insects, very much like a sparrow. It is usually found in flocks 

 sometimes as many as fifty together, though more often in small squads of 

 six to ten. It frequents the edges of fields, the borders of woods and the sides 

 of hedges and roads, but is often seen frequently in open fields, particularly 

 in the wetter parts of cattle pastures, where it perches on weed-stalks or on 

 the ground, and when alarmed flies to the nearest fence, where it sits, wagging 

 its tail up and down in a manner entirely unlike that of any other warbler. 



Zirrer says in his notes : "For weeks after the young are able to 

 fly, the family still roosts every night in the evergreens near where 

 the nest was situated. They quit feeding and retire comparatively 

 early, nearly an hour or so before dark. Any attempt to follow them 

 there causes them to become highly nervous, to fly around and above 

 a person's head and to chirp excitedly and loudly, until one leaves them 

 alone and moves away." 



Voice. — Several w^riters have likened the song of the palm warbler 

 to that of the chipping sparrow or junco. Prof. Lynds Jones (1900) 

 recognizes the resemblance, but remarks: "The trill remains as a 

 prominent feature, but the note is no longer a true chip. Better tsee 

 tsee tsee tsee., with a distinct swell. Each syllable should be given a 

 half double utterance except at the middle of the swell, where the 

 greater effort seems to completely coalesce the half double quality into 

 one distinct syllable. There is a little similarity to the song of Myrtle 

 Warbler, but lacking the liquid quality of that species." Dr. Leonard 

 W. Wing (1933) gives a good description of the songs of this warbler : 



On its breeding grounds, the palm warbler was heard to have two distinct 

 songs and an ordinary warbler chip. The first song, which appears to be song 

 of the mated or nesting bird, is delivered from a favorite perch, generally the 

 tallest pine in the bird's territory. It is given with the body erect, the head 

 thrown back and the tail pointing straight down. I have written the song as 



