CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER 



189 



The Bird and its Haunts. — The regret occasioned by the decrease 

 ill the numbers ol" wood-inhabiting birds following the destruction of 

 the forests in which they lived, is in a measure tempered by a knowl- 

 edge of the fact that their places will be filled by other species The 

 Chestnut-sided Warbler, for example, considered by Wilson and Audu- 

 bon to be a rare species, is now abundant, and we may believe that 

 this change in numbers is due largely to the development of those 

 scrub and second growths in which the bird delights. 



In my own experience, covering the past twenty-five years, at 

 Englewood, N. J., I have seen this Warbler become established as an 

 increasingly common summer resident, and at East Orange, in the 

 same state, Dugmore^ writes "What has been most noticeable about 

 the bird-life of this particular locality is the rapid and steady increase 

 of the Chestnut-sided Warbler." In the summer of 1897, he adds, he 

 did not observe a single specimen but in 1900 they had become com- 

 paratively common. 



About Cambridge, Mass., Brewster^ quoting Dr. Samuel Cabot, 

 says that this species was very rare in eastern Massachusetts prior 

 to 1835, but that it gradually and steadily increased in numbers after 

 that date. Brewster adds "they nest chiefly on the edges of upland 

 woods, in neglected fields and pastures, along the courses of brooks, 

 and on country roadsides. In general terms they may be said to 

 occupy most of the country which the Yellow Warblers avoid, but in 

 a few localities the two species breed together in the same thickets. 

 Both birds, as a rule, shun evergreen trees, although the Chestnut- 

 sided Warbler occasionally frequents white pine woods in late sum- 

 m.er, especially when it is consorting in 'mixed flocks' with such pine- 

 loving species as the Chickadee and the Black-throated Green Warbler." 



Gerald Thayer writes that the Chestnut-sided is "an abundant 

 roadside and brush-land Warbler throughout the Monadnock region, 

 but on the mountain itself is not common above 2,000 feet, or there- 



