350 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



218. Geothlypis agilis (Wits.). 

 Connecticut Warbler. 



Transient visitor in autumn, sometimes abundant locally. 



SEASONAL OCCURRENCE. 



September 7, 1871, three seen, one taken, Maple Swamp, W. Brewster. 



September 10 — 30. 

 October 9, 1892, one ad. male seen, Arlington, W. Faxon. 

 October 9, 1893, one seen, Arlington, W. Faxon. 



The local history of the Connecticut Warbler is peculiarly interesting. The 

 species was first detected in the Cambridge Region by Mr. H. W. Henshaw, 

 who on September 8,^ 1S70, shot a single bird in the Maple Swamp. On the 

 following day he took seven specimens in the same place and on the loth three 

 more. I was absent from Cambridge at the time but, returning on the night of 

 the loth, I devoted the remainder of the month to searching for Connecticut 

 Warblers in company with Mr. Henshaw. It was, perhaps, the most fascinating 

 field pursuit in which I have ever engaged, for the birds, although numerous 

 enough, were singularly retiring and elusive, while their habits, of which almost 

 nothing had been previously known, proved to be most interesting. Moreover 

 their skins were then represented in but few collections, a fact which appeared 

 to us to justify the taking of as many specimens as possible. Together we 

 secured upwards of sixty that one season. We killed a still larger number in 

 September, 1871, when the birds seemed to be even more abundant than they 

 had been the first year, although this may have been merely because we had 

 learned just where and how to look for them. Throughout this second autumn 

 the Maple Swamp continued to be their chief place of resort. We also found 

 them regularly and rather commonly in the Pine Swamp and sparingly in several 

 of the neighboring swampy covers, while a few scattered individuals were met 

 with in thickets of gray birches near Rock Meadow. 



Although the number of Connecticut Warblers which we collected during 

 these two seasons appears large, it is really trifling in comparison with that of 

 the birds which escaped us. Nor did our inroads cause the slightest perceptible 



1 Dr. Brewer states (History of North American Birds, I, 1874, 292) that this specimen was tal<en 

 on the 7 th, but according to an entry in my diary, and to some other notes which I made about the 

 same time, the 8th is the correct date. 



