252 BULLETIN 2 03, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



that is hardy enough to brave the rigors of our northern winters 

 amid ice and snow and sometimes zero temperatures. 



Robert Ridgway (1889) writing of its winter habits in southern 

 Illinois, says : 



It may often be seen in midwinter, when the ground is covered with snow, 

 in the door-yards along with Snowbirds {Junco hyemalis), Tree Sparrows, and 

 other familiar species, gleaning bread crumbs from the door-steps, or hunting 

 for spiders or other insect tidbits in the nooks of the garden fence or the 

 crevices in the bark of trees ; and at evening, flying in considerable companies, 

 to the sheltering branches of the thickest tree tops (preferably evergreens), 

 where they pass the night. Not infrequently, however, they roost in odd nooks 

 and crannies about the buildings, or even in holes in the straw- or hay-stacks, 

 in the barn-yard. A favorite food of this species are the berries of the Poison- 

 vine (Rhus toxicodendron), and during the early pax't of winter large num- 

 bers of them may be seen wherever vines of this si)ecies are abundant. 



What few myrtle warblers remain in southern Massachusetts are 

 usually to be found in situations similar to those frequented in late 

 fall, especially near the coast where there is a good supply of bay- 

 berries and other berries. When this supply is exhausted they move 

 elsewhere, though they can subsist to some extent on the seeds of the 

 pitch pine, on grass seed, and on various weed seeds. In New Jersey, 

 they are found in similar situations. Farther south they are abundant 

 inland as well as on the coast, living in all kinds of environments — 

 old fields, cultivated lands, thickets, brushy borders of the woodlands, 

 and in woods of scrub oaks and pine. They are common to abundant 

 on both coasts of Florida and in the interior and often come into the 

 orange groves, to feed on the fallen oranges. A. H. Howell (1932) 

 says: "Not infrequently they may be found in numbers on the Gulf 

 beaches, or in reeds in the salt marshes of the coast or in the Ever- 

 glades. They are partial to the borders of streams or sloughs, and 

 sometimes venture out on the floating vegetation in rivers or lakes." 



The following is contributed by Dr. Alexander F. Skutch: "In 

 December, 1932, it was vividly brought home to me how widely the 

 myrtle warblers are spread over the earth during the winter months, 

 and in what varied climates they dwell. On the ninth, a clear, cold, 

 winter day, I met a small party of these yellow-rumped birds in a 

 barren field at the edge of a woods in Maryland. On the twenty- 

 fourth, I watched them fly above the tatters of melting snow in New 

 Jersey, within view of the skyscrapers of New York. That afternoon 

 I embarked upon a ship, and a week later arrived upon a banana plan- 

 tation in Guatemala, where the air was balmy and the landscape 

 vividly green, where snow and bleak winds seemed to belong to another 

 world. Yet here, too, were myrtle warblers, hundreds of them, feed- 

 ing in the open pastures and along the roadways, wherever the vege- 

 tation was not too dense, then rising up in compact flocks, wheeling 



