226 BULLETIN 2 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



It is peculiarly partial to these woodland conditions, and is common 

 wherever they occur, especially between the altitudes of 1,000 and 

 2,500 feet. Creeping yew is almost always common in woods where 

 these Warblers breed, and they sometimes, perhaps often, nest in a 

 clump of it." And AYilliam Brewster (1938) says that around Um- 

 bagog Lake, Maine, "the local population was chiefly concentrated 

 wherever there were extensive patches of yew {Taxus canadensis) y 

 I can find no evidence that this warbler is ever common in clear stands 

 of coniferous trees, but is often found in mixed woods where there is 

 a scattering of the evergreens, especially if there are small seedlings 

 of spruce, fir, or hemlock, in which they sometimes build their nests. 



Territory. — In favored regions, where the population is fairly dense, 

 as it often is, the males arrive ahead of the females and establish 

 their breeding and feeding territories, which they often have to de- 

 fend against intruding males of the same species. John Burroughs 

 (1895) describes such an encounter as follows: "Their battle-cry is a 

 low, peculiar chirp, not very fierce, but bantering and confident. They 

 quickly come to blows, but it is a very fantastic battle, and, as it would 

 seem, indulged in more to satisfy their sense of honor than to hurt 

 each other, for neither party gets the better of the other, and they 

 separate a few paces and sing, and squeak, and challenge each other 

 in a very happy frame of mind. The gauntlet is no sooner thrown 

 down than it is again taken up by one or the other, and in the course 

 of fifteen or twenty minues they have three or four encounters, sepa- 

 rating a little, then provoked to return again like two cocks, till finally 

 they withdrawn beyond hearing of each other, — both, no doubt, claim- 

 in the victory." 



Nesting. — I believe that John Burroughs (1895) was the first nat- 

 uralist to discover the nest of the "black-throated blue-backed war- 

 bler," as he called it, and he wrote an interesting account of his hunt 

 for it in "Locusts and Wild Honey." It was found in July, 1871, in 

 Delaware County, N. Y., and contained four young and one addled 

 egg. "The nest was built in the fork of a little hemlock, about fifteen 

 inches from the ground, and was a thick, firm structure, composed of 

 the finer material of the woods, with a lining of very delicate roots or 

 rootlets." The young birds were nearly fledged and were frightened 

 from the nest. "This brought the parent birds on the scene in an 

 agony of alarm. Their distress was pitiful. They threw themselves 

 on the ground at our very feet, and fluttered, and cried, and trailed 

 themselves before us, to draw us away from the place, or distract our 

 attention from the helpless young." 



Mrs. Harding showed me some half dozen nests of this warbler in 

 the locality near her camp at Asquam Lake, N. H. All were in low 

 bushes of mountain-laurel (Kalmia latifolia) from 12 to 18 inches 



