MAGNOLIA WARBLER 207 



Harold S. Peters (1936) lists two lice, Degeeriella eiistigma (Kel- 

 logg) and Myrsidea incerta (Kellogg), as external parasites on this 

 warbler. 



Field marks. — The adult magnolia warbler of both sexes is so con- 

 spicuously marked that it should be easily recognized. The gray 

 crown, black back and cheeks, yellow breast and rump, the two broad 

 white wing bars and the large amount of white in the tail, midway 

 between the base and the tip, are all good field marks. The female 

 is only a little less brilliant than the male. The young bird in juvenal 

 plumage is quite different, but the position of the white in the tail 

 is distinctive. 



Fall. — ^When the young birds are well able to take care of them- 

 selves, they and their parents join the gathering throngs of warblers 

 and other small birds in preparation for the southward migration. 

 Brewster (1877) writes: 



In Eastern Massachusetts this species occurs as a fall migrant from Septem- 

 ber 21 to October 30, but it is never seen at this season in anything lilie the 

 numbers which pass through the same section in spring, and the bulk of the 

 migration must follow a more westerly route. Its haunts while with us in the 

 autumn are somewhat different from those which it affects during its northward 

 journey. We now find it most commonly on hillsides, among scrub-oaks and 

 scattered birches, and in company with such birds as the Yellow-Rump (Den- 

 droeca ooronata) and the Black-Poll {D. striata). A dull, listless troop they are, 

 comparatively sombre of plumage, totally devoid of song, and apparently intent 

 only upon the gratification of their appetites. 



Brewster was probably correct in assuming that the main trend of 

 the fall migration is more westerly. Milton B. Trautman (1940) says 

 of the fall migration of the magnolia warbler at Buckeye Lake, Ohio : 

 "A persistent search in mid- August always resulted in recording a few 

 early transients, and by the last of the month several were seen each 

 day. The numbers increased gradually through early September. 

 From September 10 to 25 the greatest daily numbers were attained, 

 and 50 to 125 birds a day were noted. The numbers were slightly 

 higher than they were in spring. The fall transients frequented the 

 same types of habitat as did the spring birds, except that more were 

 found in brushy fields' or pastures, especially those dotted or thicketed 

 with hawthorn and wild plum." 



Prof. W. W. Cooke (1904) writes: 



Over much of the southern part of the United States the magnolia warbler, 

 though rare in spring, is common in fall. * * * The general path of migra- 

 tion of the species seems to cross the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. It is bounded 

 approximately on the east by a line drawn from the north central part of Georgia 

 to eastern Yucatan, while few individuals seem to proceed farther west than the 

 coast line from eastern Texas to southern Vera Cruz. In common with some 

 twenty other species of birds the magnolia warbler seems to make its flight 

 between the United States and Yucatan without taking advantage of the pen- 



