202 BULLETIN 203, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



them frequently for the first few days. Both sexes feed the young, 

 but after a day or two only the male is likely to be in attendance. 

 Young in this stage are easily located by the incessant hunger calls. 

 These calls consist of three or four high-pitched notes, tsee tsee tu~ 

 tsee tsee tsee tu — tsee tsee, etc. I cannot distinguish the call made by 

 young of this species from those made under similar circumstances 

 by the young of the black-throated green and blackburnian warblers." 



I have also received from Mrs. Doris Huestis Speirs and from Mrs. 

 Louise de Kiriline Lawrence very full reports on their observations 

 at two nests of magnolia warblers in Ontario. Many of their ob- 

 servations were similar to those mentioned; however, the following 

 should be noted here : Mrs. Lawrence found the incubation period to 

 be about 11 days, incubation and brooding being by the female only. 

 The young were fed by both parents by regurgitation for the first 3 

 days, and after that on solid food, mostly caterpillars ; in 49 minutes, 

 the male fed them 7 times and the female 5 times. During 514 hours, 

 the male ate or carried away the fecal sacks 15 times. The young 

 left the nest on the ninth day after hatching, and were fed by their 

 parents up to the twenty-fifth day after leaving the nest; after that 

 they were seen feeding themselves. Mrs. Speirs kept an accurate rec- 

 ord of the brooding periods, which were from 8 to 45 minutes in 

 length, but seldom less than 20 minutes, the female leaving the nest 

 for periods of from 3 to 15 minutes. At times she closed her eyes and 

 seemed to doze; occasionally she rose and turned the eggs with her 

 feet or bill. The presence of birds of other species approaching or 

 flying over did not seem to disturb her but the movements of a red 

 squirrel in the vicinity kept her alert. The story of this nest ended 

 in tragedy; some predator destroyed all but one of the young, the 

 female finally disappeared and eventually there was nothing in the 

 nest but an unhatched egg. A sharp-shinned hawk had been seen 

 flying over. 



Plumages. — Dr. Dwight (1900) calls the natal down "sepia-brown," 

 and describes the juvenal plumage as "above, dark sepia-brown, soon 

 fading, usually paler on the crown and obscurely streaked with clove- 

 brown. Wings and tail dull black, chiefly edged with ashy or plumbe- 

 ous gray, the secondaries, tertiaries and wing coverts with drab, two 

 wing bands pale buff ; the rectrices white on inner web of basal half. 

 Below, pale sulphur-yellow, dusky or grayish on the throat, and 

 streaked or mottled except on the abdomen and crissum with deep 

 olive-brown. Lores and orbital region ashy brown." 



The amount of yellow on the under parts is quite variable, the 

 youngest nestlings showing very little or none at all. The sexes are 

 practically alike in the juvenal plumage, but become recognizable 

 during the first fall. 



