454 BULLETIN 2 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



A complete postnuptial molt in August produces the adult winter 

 plumage, which "differs little from the first winter dress, but of richer 

 brown above with darker wing edgings, the chestnut more abundant 

 on the crown and the streakings below more conspicuous." Adults 

 have a partial prenuptial molt in the spring, as in the young birds. 



Of the females he says : "The sexes are very similar in all plumages, 

 females usually a little browner and with less yellow. In first winter 

 plumage with very little or no chestnut on the crown and later prac- 

 tically indistinguisliable, but undergoing the same moults as the male, 

 the prenuptial more limited."] 



Food. — Ora W. Knight (1904), who studied the bird on its breed- 

 ing grounds, says : "The food of this species consists largely of insects 

 and among the contents of stomachs of birds taken in spring and 

 summer have been found small beetles, gnats, mosquitoes, flies and 

 the general run of small insects found on the trunks of trees or flying 

 in the air in localities which the Warblers frequent. In late summer 

 and fall some small amount of vegetable matter is also eaten, chiefly 

 unidentifiable plant seeds." To this list Forbush (1929) adds may- 

 flies, leaf beetles, ants, plant lice, and grasshoppers, and remarks: 

 "On Cape Cod it apparently eats bayberries in winter, like the Myrtle 

 Warbler." 



Francis H. Allen (MS.) speaks of "two birds on the upper beach at 

 Ipswich, Mass., among the beach grass, feeding on flies, which they 

 often caught on the wing. They would squat against the bank with 

 tail resting on the ground and look about for insects and then make a 

 sudden run or leap into the air after one." 



I have seen the birds hover beside a branch and pick off insects 

 from it. 



Behavior. — The yellow palm warbler is an inconspicuous little bird, 

 almost insignificant ; it flashes no bright color, like the redstart ; it has 

 no loud, striking song, like the yellow warbler. Indeed, few people 

 ever see the yellow palm except those who are familiar with this tiny, 

 pale yellow, chestnut-capped, tail-wagging, quiet bird — those who are 

 on the watch for it as it passes unobtrusively up and down the Atlantic 

 seaboard. 



Nevertheless, it is a common bird early in spring in New England 

 and the southern States, one of the first warblers to arrive from the 

 south. We may see it, often in groups of half a dozen together,, flitting 

 among the shrubbery bordering the country roadsides, along stone 

 walls, or feeding on the ground out in open fields, singing its faint 

 song, and wagging its tail up and down wherever it goes. Delicate and 

 fragile as the bird seems, it is journeying to a wild country to spend 



