HOODED WARBLER 619 



green above becomes grayer and wear brings into prominence a slight 

 grayish collar bordering the black 'hood.' " The adult winter plum- 

 age is "acquired by a complete post-nuptial moult the last of June 

 and in July. In some cases scarcely distinguishable from the first 

 winter but usually the yellow edgings are absent or very obscure. 

 The black occupies the whole chin up to its apex and the yellow 

 below is richer." The adult nuptial plumage is acquired by wear 

 as in the young bird. 

 Of the female Dwight says : 



The plumages and moults correspond to those of the male, from which indis- 

 tinguishable until the first winter plumage is assumed. This lacks the black of 

 the male and is uniform olive-green above and lemon-yellow below, occasionally 

 one or two black feathers being assumed on the crown. The first nuptial plumage 

 acquired by wear is, of course, plain olive-green and yellow. The adult winter 

 plumage assumed by a complete moult shows a variable amount of black about 

 the head and throat. How much of the black is due to individual vigor and how 

 much to successive postnuptial moults is a question not easily answerable. We 

 know that some females in the breeding season are almost indistinguishable from 

 males, and there are all sorts of intermediates from these mature birds down 

 to those of the worn first winter dress, which are guiltless of black. 



The fact that very old, or very vigorous, females sometimes assume 

 a plumage that is scarcely distinguishable from that of the male casts 

 some doubt on the statements made by some observers that both sexes 

 incubate the eggs. Apparently, most, if not all, fully adult females 

 have more or less black in the crown and throat. In this connection 

 the reader is referred to remarks by Ridgway (1889) and to descrip- 

 tions of the adult female by Ridgway (1902) and by Chapman (1907), 

 all of which refer to this subject. For a detailed description of the 

 immature plumages and molts, the reader is referred to an interesting 

 paper by William Palmer (1894). 



Food. — Forbush (1929) says: "Little is known of the food of this 

 bird. Grasshoppers, locusts, caterpillars and plant-lice are taken by 

 it, and it takes many small insects upon the wing, but what they are 

 we know not." A. H. Howell (1932) states that "examination of the 

 stomachs of 6 specimens from Florida showed the food to consist of 

 flies, ants, wasps, beetles, bugs, moths and their larvae, caddis flies, 

 round-worms, and spiders." 



Most of the food of the hooded warbler is obtained on or near the 

 ground in the forest undergrowth where it lives, but it subsists largely 

 on insects caught in the air. It is an expert fly-catcher, an activity for 

 which its bill and bristles are well developed, and it may often be seen 

 darting up into the air for a passing insect, or, if not successful on the 

 first dash, following the insect in its erratic flight until it is captured, 

 much after the manner of the true flycatchers. 



Behcuvior. — Mr. Rathbun writes to me : "The hooded warbler does 

 not spend its life far above the ground. Rarely have I found it over 



