EASTERN MYRTLE WARBLER 251 



or during those golden October days when woods are ablaze with the 

 gorgeous autumn colors. As we stroll along the sunny side of the 

 woods on some bright morning after a frosty night, the air is full of 

 pleasing bird music. The robins, now wild woodland birds, are 

 twittering or uttering their wild autumn calls as they drift through 

 the trees ; the white-throated and the song sparrows, from the brushy 

 thickets below, give forth their faint, sweet notes like soft echoes of 

 their springtime songs ; and the myrtle warblers mingle their distinc- 

 tive call-notes with these other voices as they glean for aphids on the 

 birches. In the open grassy fields and weed patches, too, we find 

 many myrtle warblers associated with the scattered flocks of juncos 

 and field and chipping sparrows, feeding on the ground. And later 

 in the fall, we find them in the bayberry patches near the seacoast, or 

 even on the salt marshes or among the sand dunes with the Ipswich 

 and savanna sparrows. 



Southward along the Atlantic coast the flight is heavy ; Dr. Stone 

 (1937) says that, at Cape May, N. J., "on October 13, 1913, Julian 

 Potter encountered a great flight of Myrtle Warblers which he esti- 

 mated at 3,000. * * * October 31, 1920, was a characteristic 

 Myrtle Warbler day. All day long they were present in abundance. 

 The air seemed full of them wherever one went. Thousands were 

 flittering here and there in the dense growth of rusty Indian grass 

 {Andropogon) , in the bayberry thickets, in pine woods and in dune 

 thickets." 



From their breeding grounds in the northern interior these warblers 

 continue to drift southward during October, not in compact flocks 

 but straggling in a continuous stream, some alighting while others 

 are moving on. In Ohio, according to Trautman (1940), "the num- 

 bers continued to increase rapidly until approximately October 5. 

 Between October 5 and 20 the species was more numerous over the 

 entire land area than it was at any other season, and thousands were 

 daily present. It was particularly abundant on Cranberry Island, 

 where it fed upon insects, cranberries, poison sumac, and other berries. 

 On several occasions an estimated number between 1000 and 1200 

 individuals was seen within an hour on this island. After October 

 20 there was a rather gradual decline in numbers. By November 1, 

 comparatively few remained, and in some years the birds had dis- 

 appeared." 



Winter. — The myrtle warbler winters abundantly throughout the 

 southern half of the United States east of the Great Plains, commonly 

 as far north as southeastern Kansas, southern Illinois, southern 

 Indiana and northern New Jersey, and less commonly or rarely and 

 irregularly farther north. It is the only one of the wood warblers 



