498 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



does most of the incubating while the male sings lazily from 

 a perch not far away. 



The same nesting site is often occupied in successive seasons, 

 eggs being laid in the very same nest or another nest con- 

 structed in a situation close at hand. Sometimes two occupied 

 nests have been found in the very same tree, and generally a 

 few pair nest in the same vicinity. While three to seven eggs 

 are sometimes laid, four or five is more usually the clutch. 



The song of the male to my ear sounds much like " ze, ze, 

 ze, ti-ti " or sometimes " ki-ze, ki-ze, ki-ze, see-see." The alarm 

 calls are " chip " or " chick. Burns records a song as sound- 

 ing like "che-a-wee-a-wee-a-wee." (Warbler Songs, p. 22). 

 Minot notes a song or cry as being " chick-a-chick-chick " 

 (Land Birds p. 102). The male does not seem to take any 

 especial part in family aiFairs until the young appear when he 

 does his share toward feeding them. It is of course possible 

 that he does his share of the other duties but I have never 

 observed it. 



The food consists of the various insects which they glean 

 from the trees and foliage as well as occasionally a few caught 

 in the air. Their more general feeding habit is to hop from 

 twig to twig or sidle along a limb, peering into various 

 crannies and eating beetles, flies, grubs, larvae, moths, eggs of 

 insects and similar things. 



Genus DENDROICA Gray. 



Subgenus PERISSOGLOSSA Baird. 



650. Dendroica tigrina (Gmel.). Cape May Warbler. 



Plumage of adult male : crown black, sometimes slightly tipped with 

 greenish ; wings and tail black, edged with lighter ; the wings with a white 

 patch or band due to the white tippings of the wing coverts ; rump yellow 

 or yellowish ; outer tail feathers with white spots on inner webs near tip ; 

 the two outer primaries sometimes with subterminal white spots ; back olive 

 green streaked with smoke gray to blackish ; a large yellow patch on each 

 side of neck back of the chestnut ear coverts ; under parts yellow, streaked 



