150 BULLETIN 2 03, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



obtained are males, and I remember of seeing none in pairs. They were seen 

 usually in little groups of tbree or four. They are by no means shy, but 

 frequenting, as they do, the woods, cannot be readily seen. 



He visited the locality again the following year and says in his 

 report (1879) : 



It is truly a bird of the forest, and delights to be in the upper branches of the 

 tallest trees. The song of the male is almost continuous as it flies about, and is 

 so clear that it can be heard at a long distance and readily distinguished from all 

 other birds. By its notes we could locate the bird, and this accounts for our secur- 

 ing so many more males than females. Were it not for its song, I doubt if we 

 would have taken many, owing to their diminutive size and habit of frequenting 

 the tops of the forest-trees. As it was, by only taking such as came in our way, 

 we shot over twenty specimens, and could have taken any number more had we 

 set out for them alone. In feeding habits I could see nothing different from our 

 familiar Blue Yellow-back, P. americana. 



Dr. Merrill (1878) says of its haunts: "Arrives about the third 

 week in March, and passes the summer among thick woods and near 

 t(he edges of lagoons where there is Spanish moss." We found 

 Sennett's warbler fairly common around Brownsville, especially on 

 the edges of the resacas, partially dry old river beds where the trees, 

 mostly small mesquites, are more or less draped with Usnea and sug- 

 gest the places where we would look for parula warblers in the north. 



In appearance and behavior they were strikingly reminiscent of our 

 northern friends. Sutton and Pettingill (1942) found this warbler 

 up to 2,000 feet elevation in southwestern Tamaulipas, in full song on 

 March 14, and a pair copulating on March 20. 



Nesting. — Dr. Merrill sent to Mr. Sennett (1878) the following 

 description of a nest he found near Brownsville after Mr. Sennett 

 left: "My nest of Par-ula was taken July 5th, about five miles from 

 here. It was placed in a small thin bunch of hanging moss, about 

 ten feet from the ground, in a thicket; was simply hollowed out of 

 the moss, of which it was entirely composed, with the exception of 

 three or four horsehairs; entrance on side; contained three young 

 about half fledged. Parents very bold, but thinking they were 

 americana I did not shoot them." 



The next year, his Mexican guide brought him a nest and a broken 

 eggj which Mr. Sennett (1879) describes as follows : 



The nest is exceedingly interesting and beautiful. It is made in a gray 

 mistletoe-like orchid, an air-plant very common on the Rio Grande, which estab- 

 lishes itself on the small branches of trees, and varies in size up to eight or ten 

 inches in diameter. This one is six inches long by four and one-half inches wide, 

 quite firm in texture, and was fastened some ten feet from the ground, to the 

 end of a drooping branch of a brazil-tree in open woodland. The nest is con- 

 structed very simply, being formed by parting the gray leaves of the orchid and 

 digging into its centre from the side, a cavity some two inches in diameter being 

 made, with an opening of one and one-quarter inches. The bottom and sides are 

 lined pretty well up with short cotton wood fibres, forming a fine matting for 



