The Myrtle Warbler [Dendrocia coronata) 

 By Henry W. Henshaw 



Length, 5^ inches. The similarly colored Audubon's warbler has a yellow 

 throat instead of a white one. • 



Range, breeds throughout most of the forested area of Canada and south 

 to Minnesota, Michigan, New York and Massachusetts ; winters in the southern 

 two-thirds of the United States and south to Panama. 



Habits and economic status: This member of our beautiful wood warbler 

 family, a family peculiar to America, has the characteristic voice, coloration, and 

 habits of its kind. Trim of form and graceful of motion, when seeking food it 

 combines the methods of the wrens, creepers, and flycatchers. It breeds only in 

 the northern parts of the eastern United States, but in migration it occurs in 

 every patch of woodland and is so numerous that it is familiar to every observer. 

 Its place is taken in the West by Audubon's warbler. More than three-fourths 

 of the food of the myrtle warbler consists of insects, practically all of them harm- 

 ful. It is made up of small beetles, including some weevils, with many ants and 

 wasps. This bird is so small and nimble that it successfully attacks insects too 

 minute to be prey for larger birds. Scales and plant lice form a very considerable 

 part of its diet. Flies are the largest item of food ; in fact only a few flycatchers 

 and swallows eat as many flies as this bird. The vegetable food (22 per cent) is 

 made up of fruit and the seeds of poison oak or ivy also the seeds of pine and of 

 the bayberry. 



When the vanguard of the warbler host arrives in later April, the bird man 

 knows it is time to overhaul the daily schedule, to decline with thanks all evening 

 engagements, and to hie him forth in the gray of the morning to welcome his 

 winged friends. The wind is still asleep, the dew is full-bodied and lusty, and 

 sounds of traffic have not yet begun to burden the air. It is at such a time the 

 birds confess their inmost secrets of love and longing, and sing purest praises to 

 the great All-Father. As the signals of dawn are hoisted the chorus swells and 

 the rising sun is greeted with a burst of vocal splendor. Upon his appearance 

 the winged voyageurs of the night descend and mingle their lispings and trillings 

 with the full tide of song. 



The myrtles are usually the first of the warblers to arrive in the spring, as 

 they are the last to depart in the fall. For a week they are abundant, and their 

 sturdy chip becomes easily familiar of warbler notes. Other enterprising warblers 

 not a few accept their promise of safe conduct, but one scrutinizes a dozen of 

 the myrtles to find one of another species. During the first ten days of May 

 the order of abundance is reversed, and the last dilatory matron has disappeared 

 or every lazy black-poll comes. 



Myrtle is a handsome fellow, but he is too sensible to put on airs. Trees, 

 bushes or fence rails are alike to him, and he is not above alighting on the 

 ground to secure a fat grub. Now and then a pleasant song is heard, a dainty, 



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