8o BACHMAN'S WARBLER 



Eleven years passed after the re-discovery of this Warbler before 

 its nest was found when, as related beyond, the well-directed 

 researches of Otto Widmann^ established the species as breeding com- 

 monly in the St. Francis River region of Missouri and Arkansas. 

 As with most Warblers the character of the haunts of Bachman's 

 Warbler during migration depends upon the nature of the country 

 through which it is passing. At Key West, where the forest is low 

 and with undergrowth, Atkins^ found it "alike in trees, low bushes, 

 and shrubbery, sometimes on, or quite near the ground," but it seemed 

 "to prefer the heavy and more thickly grown woods to trees or 

 bushes more in the open." But on the banks of the Suwanee, where 

 the trees were exceptionally high and with little or no undergrowth, 

 the bird was rarely found below the upper branches, usually of 

 cypress trees, where it was associated with other migrating Warblers. 

 Very different are the bird's breeding haunts in the wet, forested 

 bottom-lands of the St. Francis River region, as described by Wid- 

 mann^, with their "blackberry brambles among a medley of half- 

 decayed and lately felled tree-tops, lying in pools of water." 



Atkins^, writing of southbound migrants at Key West, speaks of 

 them as "active and constantly in motion," but Mr. Brewster'' and I 

 found the many individuals which we saw in March, on the Suwanee, 

 to be rather deliberate in their movements, resembling, in this respect, 

 the Blue-winged Warbler. At times they hung back downward, 

 titmouse-like, as they explored the under surface of a leaf, or, again, 

 they penetrated a bunch of hanging leaves. 



Widmann^, writing of the species on its breeding ground, says 

 it may be "easily overlooked, even in a region where it is common. 

 Its small size, its protective coloration, and its quiet ways, combine 

 to make it next to invisible among the heavy foliage of its habitat. 

 * * * Even if in song it takes minutes to find the bird, though he 

 is generally seated on a dry, or thinly-leafed branch at a height of 

 twenty to forty feet from the ground. The reason why it is so 

 difficult to locate him is his habit of pouring out his song into 

 different directions, now to the right, then to the left, even turning 

 entirely around on his perch. When he leaves he is liable to fly quite 

 a distance, far enough to get lost out of sight for the moment, and in 

 the wildness of his home, it takes several minutes to follow him over 

 fallen trees, and around impenetrable thickets or pools of water." 

 Wayne^2 writes : "Bachman's Warbler is a high-ranging bird, like 

 the Yellow-throated Warbler, and generally sings from the top of 

 a sweet gum or cypress. It appears to have regular singing stations 



