EASTERN YELLOW WARBLER 177 



note: 'This morning, which for a change was bright and calm, I 

 heard a yellow warbler singing in the low fig trees near the house. 

 Upon going out to look, I found that there were two yellow warblers 

 in the trees. One was trying to drive the other away ; but the pursued 

 always circled around and returned. I watched them for a long 

 time; but this indecisive action continued without any change in 

 the situation. In the intervals of the pursuit, the warblers (or at 

 least one of them) would sing, but in a low and imperfect fashion, 

 far inferior to the yellow warbler's summer song.' Again, on 

 October 31 : 'After the Wilson warbler, the most abundant winter 

 visitor is the yellow warbler. The bird who on October 1 drove its 

 competitor out of the fig trees beside the house still retains these trees 

 and the surrounding Inga trees as its domain.' 



"The yellow warbler sings far less while in Central America than 

 many other wintering species. Exceptionally, one will be found 

 singing profusely. In early October, 1934, I came upon such a bird 

 among the coffee groves of a great plantation on the lower Pacific 

 slope of Guatemala. His behavior was so far out of the ordinary 

 that I am tempted to copy in full the notes I made upon it at the 

 time : October 5 — On the afternoon of my arrival at 'Dolores,' I went 

 out for a walk through the coffee groves. From among the 'chalum' 

 {Inga) trees which shaded the coffee bushes, I heard a bird's song 

 which seemed to belong to a warbler; but I did not recognize it as 

 the utterance of any species I knew. After searching for a time among 

 the tree-tops, I spotted the singer, and was surprised to find him a 

 yellow warbler. He was apparently a young bird, for he lacked the 

 chestnut splashes along the sides which distinguish the mature males. 

 He repeated over and over again his little song of four or five notes, 

 which was so unlike the familiar song of the yellow warbler in the 

 eastern United States that I did not at first recognize it ; but once I had 

 identified the singer, I realized that I was listening to a shortened and 

 modified form of the typical song. 



"As I stood watching and listening to this eccentric warbler, the 

 rain clouds which had been gathering darkly in the west began to 

 surrender their pent-up waters; and the sudden shower approached 

 across the plantation with the roar of a myriad fat drops striking 

 against the large leaves of the Ingas and the far larger ones of the 

 bananas which shaded the plantation. I took refuge from the rain 

 beneath the broad expanse of a banana leaf, which completely shielded 

 me from the beating downpour. Soon the heavy shower exhausted 

 itself ; and I emerged from beneath my green roof. The warbler, who 

 had taken shelter from the shower somewhere in the foliage above me, 

 resumed his cheerful singing. 



