EASTERN MYRTLE WARBLER 241 



Milton P. Skinner (1928) says that, in the North Carolina sand- 

 hills, "early in March the movement becomes conspicuous, and great 

 numbers of these warblers are then seen constantly moving through 

 the forests and across the fields in steady streams, flitting about a few 

 minutes, and then passing on to the northeast. These movements are 

 near the ground, or among the tree trunks, but at other times the birds 

 are above the tallest trees. The general direction is from the south- 

 west to the northeast, with fifty to a hundred warblers passing over 

 a field each hour of every day for at least two weeks." 



At Buckeye Lake, Ohio, according to Milton B. Trautman (1940) — 



No warbler species migrated tlirough the area in such consistently large num- 

 bers as did the Myrtle Warbler, and none had a more prolonged spring or fall 

 migration. The first spring transients, mostly brilliant colored males, were gen- 

 erally seen between April 12 and 20. Thereafter the number of individuals in- 

 creased rapidly, and from May 1 to May 5 between 100 and 200 birds, mostly 

 males, could generally be daily noted. A marked decrease usually followed this 

 migration wave. Between May 10 and 18, during the period of maximum num- 

 bers for most warbler species, there was a second large wave and then 150 to 

 500, mostly females and young males, were observed daily. A drastic decline in 

 numbers took place shortly after May 18, and by May 23 few or none remained. 



The migration is about the same in Massachusetts. The birds come in 

 waves, the adult males preceding the females. We usually see the 

 first arrivals about the middle of April, drifting through the leafless 

 treetops in the tall deciduous woods where we look for hawks' nests ; 

 in their brilliant new plumage with gleaming yellow patches they are 

 easily recognized as myrtle warblers, even in the tops of the 60-foot 

 trees. Mr. Forbush (1929) gives this picture of the later waves : 



In the latter days of April or very early in May when the south wind blows, 

 when houstonias and violets begin to bloom on sunny southern slopes, when the 

 wild cherry and apples trees and some of the birches, sumacs and the shrubbery 

 in sheltered sunny nooks begin to put out a misty greenery of tiny leaflets, then 

 we may look for the Myrtle Warblers, the males lovely in their nuptial dress of 

 blue-gray, black, white and lemon-yellow. Then they may be found fluttering 

 about in sheltered bushy bogs, catching the early insects that dance in the sun- 

 shine along the water-side. All through early May they move northward, or 

 westward toward the mountains, migrating by day or night indifferently as the 

 case may be. 



Soon most of them have passed beyond our borders and reached their 

 summer homes in the coniferous forests of the Canadian Zone, the first 

 of the family to come, close on the heels of retreating winter and while 

 frost and snow still linger in the northern woods. 



Courtship. — The courtship of the myrtle warbler must be a very 

 pretty performance. Two brief accounts of it have been published : 

 "As summer approaches the males begin their courtship of the females, 

 following them about and displaying their beauties by fluffing out the 

 feathers of their sides, raising their wings and erecting the feathers 



