146 



MYRTLE WARBLER 



deeper tone than most of our Warbler notes ; it is less used in flight, but 

 is probably the most familiar bird-voice with us in winter; it is some- 

 what difficult to render, being rather variable; perhaps the syllable 

 psit is the best rendering. The song is not often heard before the 

 end of February, never in the fall and early winter, and is ordinarily 

 not very frequent, even in March and April. It is uttered from a rest, 

 and is of rather an erratic character — not unlike that of the Sycamore 

 Warbler, but brighter and more varied, though not longer." {Allison, 

 MS.) 



"The Myrtle is a full-voiced Warbler. It chips like almost all 

 the rest, but it also loudly tcheps, as probably no other New England 

 Warbler does. Its common summer song about Monadnock is a loud 

 and silvery 'sleigh-bell' trill, — a vivid, sprightly utterance, — often 

 more or less broken up into separate notes, particularly in its dimi- 

 nuendo termination. If it were a little fuller, and more evenly sus- 

 tained, it would be hard to tell from kindred variations of the Junco's 

 song, its commonest companion and accompaniment among the rocks 

 and spruce-trees of Monadnock. Sometimes, especially in spring, this 

 Warbler sings quite differently; a deliberate phrase of three or four 

 or five well-separated syllables, having the usual tone and volume, but 

 lacking, sometimes only in part, the jingling tremulo. Of this song 

 there are at least two main forms, both of which vary a good deal, 

 and also intergrade with the summer jingle." {Thayer, MS.) 



Miss Paddock presents four renderings of the Myrtle Warbler's 

 song. 



S*'^ 



^m 



9-9— 4h-^ 



^^ 



f^rrrr^ ^ 



M=^ 



Nesting 6"i7^.— Generally about four feet up in small coniferous 

 trees, but sometimes as high as twenty feet. (Maynard.) 



Nest.— The Myrtle Warbler builds a loosely made, bulky nest of 

 rather large twigs of conifers, dried grass stems, lichens, weed-stalks, 



