l6 BULLETIN No. 34. 



The Flight Song of the Kentucky Warbler.— The 

 followin^T letter entitled "A WooJlanJ Mystery " was clipped 

 from a Chester County, (Pennsylvania) newspaper last fall: 



"Editor News : — For three Summers a little bird that sin)j;s 

 on the wing has concealed its identity from me. 



Its favorite time seems to be just at twilight, when it will 

 swing out from the side of the wood which is close by our door, 

 and after a short semi-circular flight, accompanied by a brief 

 song, will dive among the trees and remain perfectly quiet. 



1 have heard it early in the morning and again by 3 p. m., 

 but it sings chiefly at about dark, and this, with its manner of 

 doing so, makes it very difficult to indentify. 



Only a small percentage of our birds sing in flight, among 

 theni the Ovenbird, and as we have a number of these near, 

 and I was not familiar with their air song, I was inclined to put 

 tile responsibility on them, but 1 thought 1 once caught a gleam 

 of yellow as the singer slid among the trees, and twice 1 fancied 

 tile air soi\g began and changed into the common song of the 

 Kentucky Warbler. 



At last, and probably nearly the last time it sang this sea- 

 son, as it closes its programme about the middle of July, 1 got 

 a sufficiently near and clear view to satisfy me that it was the 

 Kentucky. 



The bird is not very common here, or rather, it seems to 

 be quite rare for a series of years and then more plentiful for a 

 while. It is about the size of our Vireos, with bright yellow 

 breast and black markings on the sides of its head, in fact it 

 looks very much like an enlarged copy of the Maryland Yel- 

 low throat. 



it has nested and raised its }-oung near us for several years, 

 and a part of the time its common day song, sounding like 

 pretty, pretty, pretty, is, perhaps, the most noticeable and con- 

 stant one to be heard. But so shy is it with its air song that it 

 has taken me three seast)ns to make sure of it. 



Edward Swayne. 



Food and gravel. — \n collecting a series of skins of 

 the Song Sparrow, 1 was struck with the large amount of gravel 



