612 BULLETIN 20 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



18 species of nesting birds, the most common of which are the red-eyed 

 vireo, wood thrush, redstart, ovenbird and scarlet tanager. In this 

 group the hooded warbler usually ranks third or fourth in abundance." 



The above accounts are fairly typical of the more northern habitats, 

 but near the southern limits of its breeding range the hooded warbler 

 seems to favor more swampy environment. Andrew Allison wrote to 

 Dr. Chapman (1907) that, in Mississippi, it inhabits "low, heavily 

 shaded woods, with thick undergrowth. Wliere convenient cover, 

 such as a brake of switch-cane, extends to the border of the woods, 

 the bird has no objection to an open, light, situation ; and along the 

 Gulf coast, where the only swampy situations are the narrow 'bay galls,' 

 the thickets of rose-bay {Illicium) and azalea afford suflScient seclusion 

 for a few. Damp woods such as are afforded by river and creek bot- 

 toms, however, are more favored." 



S. A. Grimes (1935) says of its haunts in northern Florida : "A good- 

 sized, poorly drained swamp, heavily forested with ash and maple, 

 with a dense undergrowth mainly of fetterbush, red titi, and the seed- 

 lings and sprouts of several species of lowland trees, and such vines 

 as Virginia creeper, smilax, and ivy, is evidently best suited to the 

 hooded warbler's requirements. In such places it is usually the most 

 abundant bird throughout the spring and summer, and it is not 

 exceptional to hear, from one point, as many as five or six males sing- 

 ing at one time. In the swamps most favored there is commonly a 

 breeding pair every fifty to one hundred yards in any direction. I 

 have found occupied nests only fifty yards apart." 



Spring. — Dr. Chapman (1907) says that the hooded warbler 

 "reaches the United States by a flight across the Gulf of Mexico, 

 avoiding the West Indies and (for the most part) southern Florida." 

 This statement is doubtless correct, for there seems to be only scatter- 

 ing records for Key West, the Tortugas and points on the west coast 

 of Florida. Howell (1932) calls it an "abundant migrant and a 

 common summer resident in northwestern Florida south to the lower 

 Suwannee River." Furthermore, M. A. Frazar (1881) reported 

 "large numbers" seen 30 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi, 

 flying north toward the river, suggesting that they may have come 

 straight across the Gulf from Yucatan. There seems to be a heavy 

 migration, also, along the coast of Texas. 



In northern Ohio, according to Dr. Williams (MS.), "the first 

 week in May usually sees the arrival of the first hooded warblers from 

 the south and within a few days thereafter the entire nesting popu- 

 lation is present. The males appear first, but the females are close 

 upon their heels. The males are in song from the moment of their 

 arrival, though their first songs are not so complete or well-developed 

 as they shortly become. Nesting territories are immediately occupied, 



