EASTERN MYRTLE WARBLER 253 



and dropping together, moving always as though actuated by a true 

 group spirit. During three days on that plantation, I met 23 kinds of 

 winter visitants from the North ; yet the myrtle warbler appeared to 

 be the most abundant of them all : certainly, I saw far more of them 

 than of any other migratory bird ; yet this was in part because they 

 foraged in more exposed places. Of all the warblers I found here, 

 this was the only species that moved in flocks ; for most of the wood 

 warblers that winter in the Central American lowlands are strict 

 individualists. It is also significant that of all the 23 species of win- 

 tering birds, this, the most abundant in December, was the only one 

 then common that I had not recorded from February to June of the 

 same year, when I passed 4 months studying the birds on that same 

 plantation. 



"Although it has been recorded from Central American localities 

 as early as October and as late as April, the myrtle warbler is certainly 

 most abundant as a winter visitant from November to March. All 

 my own records from points in Guatemala, Honduras, and Costa Rica 

 fall within these 5 months. It arrives later and departs earlier than 

 warblers less tolerant of cold. 



"The myrtle warbler winters in a variety of situations. At Puerto 

 Castilla, on the northern coast of Honduras, I found these warblers 

 abundant at the end of January, 1931. Here they foraged upon the 

 law^ns between the cottages, hopping rather than walking like water- 

 thrushes, and when alarmed flew up to rest upon the broad fronds of 

 the coconut palms that lined the sandy beach. At the other extreme, I 

 have found them in mountain pastures, rarely as high as 8,500 feet 

 above sea level. In the highlands, this bird is likely to be confused 

 with the Audubon warbler, from the mountains of western United 

 States, in similar dull winter attire. But the Audubon warbler, even 

 at this season, wears five patches of yellow — on the crown, throat, both 

 sides and rump — while the myrtle warbler shows only four, lacking 

 that on the throat. The presence or absence of yellow on the throat 

 is a distinguishing feature. 



"At the end of December, 1937, I found myrtle warblers abundant 

 in the vicinity of Buenos Aires de Osa, a hamlet in the lower Terraba 

 Valley of Costa Rica, of interest to the bird-watcher because, although 

 lying in a region covered by the heaviest lowland forest, it is sur- 

 rounded by extensive open savannas which support a rather different 

 bird-life. Here fork-tailed flycatchers were also abundant, roosting 

 by night in some orange trees behind the padre's house, by day spread- 

 ing in small flocks over the savannas, where they perched in the low 

 bushes, only a few feet above the ground, and darted down to snatch 

 up the insects they descried. It was surprising to find the myrtle 

 warblers associating intimately with the flycatchers; just as, in the 



