196 BULLETIN 2 03, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



warblers, are best combined daintiness of attire with pleasing combi- 

 nations and contrasts of often brilliant colors. Particularly are these 

 qualities apparent when this warbler is seen amongst the dark green 

 firs and spruces of its summer home, where its brilliant array of colors 

 are displayed to advantage as it flits about, sometimes within a few 

 feet of us. 



Spring. — From their winter quarters in Mexico and Central Amer- 

 ica, some magnolia warblers migrate straight across the Gulf of 

 Mexico to the Gulf coast between Louisiana and western Florida; 

 they seem to be accidental in Cuba and very rare anywhere in Florida. 

 Another migration, probably of some importance, occurs along the 

 coast of Texas from the mouth of the Rio Grande to Louisiana; I 

 saw a few magnolia warblers in the great migration wave noted on 

 an island in Galveston Bay on May 4, 1923. Professor Cooke (1904) 

 remarks : "The dates of arrival of the magnolia warbler in spring fur- 

 nish the best evidence yet available in support of the theory that birds 

 migrating across the Gulf of Mexico do not always alight as soon as 

 they reach the shore. The species is a common spring migrant from 

 the Mississippi River to the Atlantic, between latitudes 37° and 39°. 

 South of this district it becomes less and less common, except in the 

 mountains, until in the Gulf States it is rare." It is significant that 

 the earliest date of arrival at Atlanta, Ga., is the same as at the 

 lower Rio Grande in Texas, April 20. 



William Brewster (1877) writes: 



The Black-and-Yellow Warbler arrives in Massachusetts from the South 

 about the 15th of May. During the next two or three weeks they are abundant 

 everywhere in congenial localities. Willow thickets near streams, ponds, and 

 other damp places, suit them best, but it is also not unusual to find many in 

 the upland woods, especially where young pines or other evergreens grow 

 thickly. Their food at this season is exclusively insects, the larger part con- 

 sisting of the numerous species of Diptera. The males sing freely, especially on 

 warm bright mornings. They associate indifferently with all the migrating 

 warblers, but not unfrequently I have found large flocks composed entirely of 

 members of their own species, and in this way have seen at least fifty indi- 

 viduals collected in one small tract of woodland. By the first of June all excep- 

 ing a few stragglers have left. 



On its migration as well as on its breeding grounds the magnolia 

 warbler seems to avoid the taller treetops and to prefer the lower levels 

 in the forests and in the thickets along the borders of woodlands ; it is 

 sometimes seen in garden shrubbery and in orchards, where it adds a 

 brilliant touch of color to the blossoming fruit trees. "Wlien it reaches 

 its breeding haunts it prefers low hemlock thickets, or more especially, 

 where these can be found, the dense thickets of small spruces or bal- 

 sam firs that spring up thickly in old clearings, or grow profusely 

 along the more open woodland paths ; the density of the forest depths 

 seems to be avoided in favor of the more open spaces. 



