NORTHERN PARULA WARBLER 145 



Enemies. — Dr. Friedmann (1929) writes; "This bird is practically 

 free from that greatest enemy of most of the warblers, the Cowbird. 

 Occasionally, however, parasitic eggs are found in the dainty pensile 

 nests of the Parula Warbler. Stone found a nest on May 26, 1892, 

 at Cape May Point, New Jersey, containing three eggs of the Warbler 

 and one of the Cowbird. * * * Five other records have come to 

 my notice, from Long Island, New York, Pennsylvania and Connecti- 

 cut, and the bird is listed as a victim of the Cowbird by several writers, 

 as Bendire, Davie, and Chapman." Mrs. Nice (1931) records two 

 more cases in Oklahoma. 



Harold S. Peters (1936) records two lice, Myrsidea incerta 

 (Kellogg) and Ricinius sp., as external parasites on this species. 



Field marks. — The parula is one of our smallest warblers. The 

 adult male is well marked, with its blue upper parts, the yellow back 

 being inconspicuous, two conspicuous white wing bands, black lores, 

 yellow breast and chestnut or blackish throat band. The female is 

 duller in all colors, more greenish above and has little or no throat 

 band. Young birds are even less conspicuously marked, as noted in 

 the description of plumages. 



Fall. — As soon as the young are strong on the wing the family 

 parties desert their breeding grounds, and after the molting season 

 is finished they resort to the deciduous woods and join the migrating 

 hosts of warblers and other small birds drifting southward through 

 the treetops or along the roadside shade trees. The fall migration 

 is apparently a reversal of the springtime routes, as they travel to 

 tlieir winter haunts in Mexico and the West Indies. Professor Cooke 

 (1904) says that this warbler "passes through Florida in countless 

 thousands, being second only to the black-throated blue warbler in 

 the frequency with which it strikes the lighthouses. * * * By 

 the middle of September the great flights begin and continue in full 

 force for a month." 



DTSTRlBUnON 



Range. — Southern Canada to Nicaragua and the West Indies. 



Breeding range. — The Parula warbler breeds north to southern 

 Manitoba (Shoal Lake and Caddy Lake) ; central Ontario (Off Lake. 

 Kossport, and Lake Abitibi) ; and southern Quebec (Lake Timiskam- 

 ing, Blue Sea Lake, Gaspe Peninsula, and Anticosti Island). East 

 to Anticosti Island (Fox Bay) ; Prince Edward Island (Tignish) ; 

 Nova Scotia (Halifax and Yarmouth) ; and the Atlantic coast south 

 to central Florida (Deer Park, Lake Gentry, and St. Lucie). South 

 to central Florida (St. Lucie, Bull Creek Swamp, and Tarpon 

 Springs) and the Gulf coast to south-central Texas (Houston and 

 San Antonio). West to central Texas (San Antonio and Kerrville) ; 

 eastern Oklahoma (Caddo, Eed Oak, and Copan) ; eastern Kansas 



