PINE WARBLER 



203 



Louis, Mo., April 21, 1883, April 16, 1888, April 11, 1896; south- 

 western Iowa, average April 2y; Lanesboro, Minn., average May 2; 

 Aweme, Man., May 21, 1902. 



Fall Migration. — The last Pine Warbler seen at Aweme, Man., in 

 1902, was on September 2 ; the average of the last seen in southwestern 

 Maine, is September 25, and the latest October 4, 1896. The earliest 

 migrants reach Washington, D. C, the last week in August, and the 

 rear guard passes central Indiana and Washington between October 

 10 and 20. 



The Bird and its Haunts. — The pine barrens of Florida have no 

 more characteristic bird than this abundant Warbler. Even on frosty 

 m.ornings one may hear its trilled monotone rising distinctly above the 

 accompaniment of Palm Warbler chips. Bluebird whistles, and Nut- 

 hatch chatter. By Februar}' i they are singing in numbers and to 

 one who is much in the pines, their voice becomes as much an audible 

 expression of the mood of the trees as the sighing of the wind through 

 their branches. The bird ranges from the ground to the tree-tops, and 

 is at all times deliberate in movements, picking its way slowly along 

 the branches or even clinging to the trunk itself, its plumage generally 

 being more or less soiled with pitch. 



While the Pine Warbler has one of the most extended breeding 

 ranges among Warblers, it is never found nesting in other than pines, 

 and even during its migrations it is seen in other growths with com- 

 parative infrequency. At West Englewood, N. J., where there are 

 virtually no pines, I have seen it only twice. 



Gerald Thayer puts it very well when he says : "Never was a 

 bird more patly named than the Pine Warbler. Except when migrat- 

 ing, it sticks to pine woods as a cockle-bur sticks to a dog's tail. 

 There is even a sort of gummy sluggishness about its movements, as 

 it skulks among the pitchy branches, crawling along their stems, and 

 doing little of the agile twig-skipping, characteristic of its tribe. In 

 the breeding season, the Pine Warbler's 'beat' lies between the 

 middles and tops of big and medium-sized pine trees ; but during mi- 

 grations it is extended to scrubb}' deciduous copse-s and to apple 

 orchards. 



"A rather big, rather sluggish, rather dingy Warbler, its costume 

 is almost an epitome of inornate American Wood Warbler coloration. 

 Even less characteristically than the Yellow Warbler does this bird 

 belong to the breeding avifauna of Mt. Monadnock proper. But it is 

 fairly common no further away than Keene (ten miles), in river- 

 bordering groves of big white pines ; and one or two singing males 

 wander to Monadnock's northern base about mid-summer, or earlier, 



