BLACK-POLLED WARBLER. 



OS-, 



Fig. 89. Head of young 

 female Black-pijlled Warbler 

 in autumn, showing inclination 

 to assume a superciliary stripe. 



ou their happy way, anu,l l.ursti.ig l.u Is a:u] the spicy iVagrancu' of a c.mtimious spri.M-- 

 The Black-polled Warblers breed quite comi.K.nly i,i the nejubhorliood of Ea.^tport 



Maine, and I found thcni abundant on the Migdalin 

 Islands during the breeding season. The nest is nsuallv 

 placed on the limb of a fir, close to the trunk. Tlie egus 

 are laid during the latter part of June, and by the first 

 of August the young are fully tledged ; a little later the 

 old birds moult ; then, as tiie season becomes cooler, com- 

 mence the soutliern Hight. 



It isdimcult to believe tli.it the little green bird.s, which 

 eometiooping in by tliou.'sand.s, are tlie same whicli pas.sed 

 us in the bright springtime ; then t!ie ]mw lisping songs of 

 t!ie males were con.stantly heard; now they tiit silently 

 iuid hurriedly through the changing foliage which tcio 

 shortly precedes the season of desolation. 

 Wliile sailing down the coast of Andros Island, ?> ihanias, a litile south of Deep Creek, 

 Aprd, 27 1884, we began to observe tiocks ofwari)lers, consisting of from two <,r three 

 individuals to a hundred or more. Some Hocks fiew very near tlie watei-, not over six 

 feet above it, and none over twenty feet from the surface." The birds were comiiig from 

 a south-easterly direction and the tiocks connnued to increase in number as the day ad- 

 vanced, the first having been seen about eight o'clock. The night before we had showers, 

 accompanied by thunder and lightning and on the morning of which I speak, the wind 

 was light but from the north. Towards noon it increased' in violence and blew a still- 

 breeze by two o'clock in tlie afternoon. A little later in the day we drew around the 

 south shore of Andros and Luided on a small Key. We found this little spot of lai:d, 

 which consisted of about two acres, fairly covered with warblers which were constant I v 

 arriving and deiJarting. Of all the thousands which we saw, by far the greater number 

 were Black-polls. On the next day tlie flight continiied, the birds being'iis almndant as 

 on the previous day, and the quantities of Black-polls seen were so immense that th(>ir num- 

 bers were far past estimation. The wind this day was also nortiierly, but was not !)low- 

 ing quite as fresh as on the previous afternoou. Thus closed the twentv-si.\th of April. 

 Ou the twenty-seventh and eighth the flight continued, but with somewhtit abated numbers. 

 On the twenty-ninth but few were seen, and on the thirtieth none whatever passed; the 

 flight was over. 



Both sexes were seen from the first, but througli(nit the males predominated. Du- 

 ring the first two days when the birds had to fly against (juitea stiff wind. man\- must have 

 perished from sheer exhaustion. We picked up two dead floating on t!;e water, and 

 found two or three lying dead on barivn patches of the Key, where they evidentlv died 

 upon landing. The stomachs of these were empty and it is probable that the Ijiids'coiild 

 not prociu-e much, if any food upon these nearly desolate keys. Nor could they do much 

 better on the main island, for the season had been particula"rl.>- dr\-, and in.sects weie not 



