HOODED WARBLER 611 



I know of another place in Rhode Island where a few pairs breed in 

 a fine old, mature mixed forest, watered by tiny streams, that protects 

 in its shady ravines and hollows a similar undergrowth ; in this same 

 cool forest retreat, we find the Canada warbler breeding near the 

 southern limit of its summer range, save at the higher elevations of 

 the AUeghenies. 



Samuel F. Rathbun writes to me: "When my home was in west- 

 central New York, about thirty miles from Lake Ontario, a friend 

 and I made a camping stay of ten weeks in July and August, on the 

 end of a projection of the mainland which was bounded on two sides 

 by enclosed bays. This extension of land, about three-quarters of a 

 mile long and in places a quarter of a mile wide, was heavily clothed 

 with a forest of hardwood trees of the highest type, beech, hard maple, 

 basswood, hickory, and here and there a little hemlock. Inside the 

 forest were many open spaces, large and small, thickets of all sizes, 

 some dense and some sparse, and many vistas where the wind and 

 sunshine had free play. We soon found that the hooded warbler 

 showed a predilection for this type of forest, for about fifteen pairs 

 of birds used it as a summer home. During our stay we were never 

 out of hearing or sight of a hooded warbler." 



In the central Allegheny Mountain region, according to Maurice 

 Brooks (1940), "these birds show a preference for areas of deciduous 

 timber, light or heavy. They occur in southern mixed hardwoods, 

 oak-hickory, northern hardwoods, and in 'chestnut sprout' areas. On 

 Cheat Mountain they nest at 3,500 feet, and in Giles Co., Va., they breed 

 at 4,000 feet." 



Dr. Arthur B. Williams, of Cleveland, Ohio, has very kindly sent me 

 some extensive notes on the habits of the hooded warbler, based on 15 

 years of observation in the Cleveland region, where the species is evi- 

 dently abundant and is increasing in numbers and expanding its 

 range. "In the Cleveland region the hooded warbler may be found 

 during the breeding season in most mature beech-maple woodlands, 

 seeming to prefer those which border on the river valleys where there 

 is an abundance of moisture. It nests not only in the ravines and 

 gulches in such woodlands, but also throughout the more level and 

 open stretches of woodland where there is an understory of small 

 beech and maple seedling trees. Characteristics of this forest are 

 reduction of light, reduction of wind movement to a minimum, reduc- 

 tion of evaporation rate by 55 percent as compared with adjoining 

 open field, and a high relative humidity of from 80 to 90 percent 

 during the breeding season. 



"In the forest community I studied most thoroughly, an average of 

 14 pairs of hooded warblers nest in an area of approximately 65 

 acres. In this community the warbler takes its place in a group of 



