16 



FAMILY JIKIOTILTIDAE. 



Fig. 2^ 



the Agave, known as the sisal-hemp. While the other spe- 

 cies of Warblers were doubtless attracted to these flowers 

 by the numerous insects with which they were surrounded, 

 and which the birds were constantly springing into air to 

 catch, it is evident that the Cape May Warblers were eating 

 the sweet juices of the flowers and are true Honey eaters, as 

 the peculiar structure of their tongue would seem to indi- 

 cate. (See Fig. 7, A, page 4 ). 



Both the Creepers and Cape May W^arblers are experts 

 in obtaining honey from flowers, for both are endowed with 

 the powTr of clinging in all kinds of attitudes to the stems 

 of the plants in order to reach into the flowers, 



I have seen the Creepers cut holes in the base of the 

 corallas of such flowers as have tubes too long for them to 

 reach the base with their bills, and it is quite probable 



that the Cape May Warblers do 

 the same thing. 



The Cape May Warbler is a 

 nervous, active bird, seldom re- 

 maining long in one spot, and 

 when a large number of them 

 are feeding on the flowers of a 



large plantation of sisal-hemp, 

 they are so constantly changing 

 from one plant to another, or fly- 

 ing out into the neighboring 

 scrub that the air is so constantly 

 full of these birds darting back and 

 forth, that they resemble a swarm, 

 of bees. 



Breeding Habits. In my Birds of Eastern North 

 America, I have stated that, judging from my experience 

 with the Cape May Warblers at Eroll, New Hampshire, 

 in the summer of 187 1, I thought the nests must be placed 

 well up in the evergreen trees which the birds were fre- 

 quenting, and while this might have been the case, then at 

 that time no nests were actually found to prove this theory. 



Outer tail feathers of "Warblers; A, 

 Black and 'WTiite Creeper : B. Cape 

 May; C, Black and Yellow; D, Prairie. 



