C. If. Merriam Birds of Connecticut. 25 



Wm. Brewster, Esq., speaking of its habits in West Virginia, 

 remarks that they arrived there about May 1 st, " and for a few days 

 were silent, but soon became very noisy, especially when their 

 retreats were invaded. Their notes are so varied as almost to defy 

 description. What I took to be the song of the male was a series of 

 about eight very loud bell-like whistles, commencing quickly, and 

 becoming slower and more emphatic toward the end, then, after an 

 interval of a few seconds, would follow a scolding chatter, to be 

 immediately succeeded by a single very clear note, then the series of 

 whistles again, but all these notes were varied to an almost infinite 

 extent. All this time the bird would be dodging through the bushes 

 ahead, keeping always in the thickest places, and perhaps, after a 

 moment of silence, would suddenly strike up directly behind you. 

 In this way I have frequently pursued one for fifteen or twenty 

 minutes without so much as getting a glimpse at him. Several times, 

 however, when I came upon him suddenly, he would put on a very 

 innocent and injured air and vociferate his notes directly at me, as if 

 to dispel any possible suspicion, on my part, that he had been running, 

 or, to speak more literally, flying away."* 



55. Myiodioctes mitratUS (Gmelin) Audubon. Hooded Warbler. 



A summer resident, breeding in the Connecticut valley and along 

 our southern border. Although breeding abundantly at Saybrook, 

 Conn., according to Mr. J. N. Clark (recorded by H. A. Purdie),f I have, 

 as yet, seen but a single specimen from this vicinity. An adult female 

 was shot at Hamden (near New Haven) June 2, 1874, by Dr. F. W. 

 HalL It was evidently breeding. Still it was found here in June, 

 by Dr. Whelpley, as long ago as 1842.J Mr. Clark writes me from 

 Saybrook : "" The Hooded Warbler is very abundant here in dense 

 woods," breeding everywhere in suitable places, always in a low 

 Laurel (Kalmia) bush." Mr. E. I. Shores has taken it at Sufiield, 

 Conn., near the Massachusetts border, but in the Connecticut Valley. 



My friends, Messrs. John H. Sage of Portland, Conn., and Eugene 

 P. Bicknell of Riverdale, Westchester Co., N. Y., have recently 

 called my attention to an interesting state of plumage, in the female 

 of this species, which was alluded to by Wilson and Nuttall,|| but 



* Aun. Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y., vol. xi, pp. 137-8. June, 1875. 

 f Am. Nat., vol. vii, No. 11, p. 692. Nov., 1873. 

 $ Linsley's Catalogue of the Birds of Connecticut, p. 257. 1843. 

 American Ornithology, vol. ii, p. 136. 1831. 

 || Manual of Ornithology. Vol. i, p. 374. 1832. 

 TRANS. CONN. ACAD., VOL. IV. 4 JULY, 1877. 



