IC^. Brewster on Bachiiian's Warbler. [April 



of ten or fifteen acres there must have been nearly one thousand 

 VVarlilers, of which probably five per cent were Bachnian's. It 

 was coniparativelv easy to identify them, for the trees althouj^jh 

 large and spreading were not excessively high, and with more 

 tinie I could have taken thrice as many specimens as were actuallv 

 olitained. 



On the morning just mentioned I heard several males singing, 

 and shot one in the act, after watching him awhile. He was 

 perched on a dead twig in the very top of a tall sweet gnm, with 

 his breast turned toward the sun. At each repetition of the song 

 he threw up his head and I could see the throat swell and 

 tlie wings quiver imder the strong effort, but during the whole 

 time that I was looking at him there was no other movement, 

 save an occasional turning of the head. The song is vmlike that 

 of any other species of Helminthophila with which I am ac- 

 quainted and most resembles the song of the Parula Warbler. It 

 is of the same length and of nearly the same quality or tone, but 

 less guttural and without the upward run at the end, all of its six or 

 eight notes being given in the same key and with equal emphasis. 

 Despite these differences it would be possible to mistake the per- 

 formance, especially at a distance, for that of a Parula singing 

 listlessly. The voice, although neither loud nor musical, is pen- 

 etrating and seems to carry as far as most Warblers'. Besides 

 the song the only note which we certainly identified was a low 

 hissing zee-e-cep., very like that of the Black-and-white Creeper. 



Both Dr. Bachman and Mr. Atkins have characterized Bach- 

 man's Warbler as an active, animated bird, and the former saw 

 it "■mounting on wing and seizing insects in the air in the man- 

 ner of a Flycatcher." * This again is curiously at variance with 

 our experience which I find described in my notes in the follow- 

 ing words, written at the close of the trip and fully approved by 

 Mr. Chapman when the subject was fresh in our minds : 



"The habits and movements of Bachman's Warbler are in 

 some respects peculiar and characteristic. It does not flit from 

 twig to twig nor launch out after flying insects in the manner of 

 most Warblers, and many of its motions are quite as deliberate 

 as those of a Vireo. Alighting near the end of a branch it creeps 

 or sidles outward along a twig, and bending forward until the 

 head points nearly straight down, inserts the bill among the ter- 



*See foot-note on page 150. 



