YELLOW PALM WARBLER 451 



of tree trunks and branches. Only the pine warbler, returning to 

 its home in the evergreen pitch pines, precedes it by a few days. 



Those who watch the arrival of the migrant birds carefully often 

 note that the migration of the yellow palm warbler coincides almost 

 exactly with that of the hermit thrush and the ruby-crowned kinglet. 

 Year after year these three birds appear on the same day, or there- 

 abouts. The birds are not closely related to one another but they 

 possess a trait in common : they do not depend for food on the insects 

 found solely in widely opened flowers and leaves. Both the thrush 

 and the kinglet are accustomed to the wintry conditions of the south- 

 ern States. In April the hermit feeds on the ground among the fallen 

 leaves; the kinglet must find most of its food in conifers or on the 

 bare branches of trees and shrubs and in their swelling buds ; and the 

 yellow palm warbler feeds to a large extent on the ground, often in 

 the recently burned-over patches of grassland common at this season. 

 Here it hops about in the black, parched grass, searching for insects 

 or seeds in the company of the robins, cowbirds, grackles, chipping 

 sparrows, savannah sparrows, and other birds which are attracted to 

 these areas. William Brewster ( 1906) says of the bird : 



Yellow Palm Warblers visit the Cambridge Region [Mass.] with unfailing 

 regularity in spring and autumn, although their numbers vary greatly from 

 year to year. Sometimes only a very few are reported, but in spring they 

 are usually common and o-ccasionally really abundant. On April 25, 1868, during 

 a brief but heavy snowstorm, I found them by hundreds at Fresh Pond where, 

 in company with an even greater number of Yellowrumps, they had congregated 

 on a narrow strip of bare, pebbly beach at the water's edge. It is of course 

 exceptional to see anything like so many together, but one may often meet 

 with fifteen or twenty in a single flock or forty or fifty in the course of a 

 morning walk. 



Nesting. — The yellow palm warbler breeds in portions of Ontario, 

 Quebec, southern Nova Scotia, southern New Brunswick, and in north- 

 ern Maine. It frequents the sphagnum bogs and open barrens of these 

 regions, building its nest on the ground or, more rarely, on low 

 branches of small spruce trees. Robie W. Tufts (MS.), in his notes 

 on 61 nests found in Nova Scotia, says : "The usual number of eggs 

 to a nest is 5. I have never found a full set with fewer than 4, nor 

 more than 5. May 20 would appear to be the average date for a com- 

 plete set of the first laying, but I have reason to believe that the birds 

 frequently, if not regularly, raise two broods. The nests are usually 

 built on the ground on open barrens, well concealed under the dried 

 brakes of the previous year's growth, although frequently they are 

 hidden away among the roots of spruce seedlings. About 1 nest in 

 20 is likely to be found from 1 to 4 feet above the ground close to 

 the trunk in a small spruce seedling." 



