328 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



200. Compsothlypis americana usneae Brewst. 



Northern Parula Warbler. Usnea Warbler. Blue Yellow-backed Warbler. 



Blue Yellow-back. 



Transient visitor, very common in spring, not uncommon in early autumn. 



SEASONAL occurrence. 



April 26, 1865, one taken, Cambridge, D. C. French. 



May I — 28. 

 June 7, 1892, one male' taken, Waltliam, C. F. Batchelder. 



August 27, 1884, one ini. male"-' taken. Maple Swamp, W. Brewster. 



September 10 — 30. 

 November 19, 1881, one-' taken, Cambridge, J. H. Noble. 



The Usnea Warbler, or Blue Yellow-back, as we used to call it, breeds spar- 

 ingly in Concord and Wayland and I have taken its nest in the Middlesex Fells, 

 but, as far as I am aware, it has been found within the Cambridge Region only at 

 its seasons of migration. In May, when it is always common and sometimes really 

 abundant, it often appears in our city or its suburbs. It also haunts apple 

 orchards to some e.xtent, especially when the trees are in blossom. It is seen 

 most frequently and numerously, however, in deciduous woods, where it spends 

 much of its time in the treetops, preferring those of the larger oaks and maples. 

 During the return migration, which begins late in August and continues through 

 September or even into October, the birds are ordinarily less common — or at 

 least less conspicuous — than in spring and they are also more strictly confined 

 to woodland. In autumn I have met with them oftenest in the Maple Swamp, 

 and among gray birches in Arlington and Belmont, usually in company with 

 Black-poll Warblers. 



The nest above referred to was found on June 24, 1 867, in a hemlock grow- 

 ing on a wooded slope near the southwestern extremity of Spot Pond. It is so 

 unlike the usual nest of the Usnea Warbler that I published a description'* of 

 it several years ago. As this appeared in a journal which is probably not 

 accessible to many of the readers of the present Memoir, I will repeat its 



iNo. 5641, collection of C. F. Batchelder. 



^ No. 9495, collection of William Brewster. 



^ J. H. Noble, Quarterly Journal of the Boston Zoological Society, I, iSSi, 9. 



■■ W. Brewster, Ornithologist and Oologist, XIII, 1888, 46-47. 



