C. H. Merriam Birds of Connecticut. 1 3 



but as yet has failed to find the nest." Mr. Clark tells me he has 

 seen as many as five individuals in a single day. Mr. Thomas 

 Osborne, of New Haven, has a mounted specimen in his cabinet, pro- 

 cured May 17, 1875. Two or three others specimens were shot near 

 here in May, 1875, and Mr. George Bird Grinnell tells me that he 

 has known of the capture of several in this vicinity. 



So little is really known concerning the habits of this rare warbler , 

 that I take great pleasure in quoting the following interesting account 

 of it from the observations of my friend, Mr. William Brewster, of 

 Cambridge, " On the Birds of Ritchie County, West Virginia." Mr. 

 Brewster writes that it is " most partial to the retired thickets in the 

 woods, along water courses, and is seldom or never found in the high 

 open groves. They keep much on the ground, and walk about rather 

 slowly, searching for food among the dried leaves. In general 

 appearance they are quite unique, and I rarely failed to identify one 

 with an instant's glance, so very peculiar are all their attitudes and 

 motions. The tail is habitually carried at an elevation considerably 

 above the line of the back, which gives them quite a smart, jaunty, 

 air, and if the dorsal aspect be exposed, in a clear light, the peculiar 

 marking of the crown is quite conspicuous. Seen as they usually are, 

 however, dimly flitting ahead through the gloom and shadow of the 

 thickets, the impression received is that of a dark little bird which 

 vanishes unaccountably before your very eyes, leaving you quite 

 uncertain where to look for it next : indeed, I hardly know a more 

 difficult bird to procure, for the slightest noise sends it darting off 

 through the woods at once. Occasionally you will come upon one 

 winding around the trunk of some tree, exactly in the manner of 

 Mniotilta varia, running out along the branches with nimble motion, 

 peering alternately under the bark on either side, and anon returning 

 to the main stem, perhaps the next instant, to hop back to the ground 

 again. On such occasions they rarely ascend to the height of more 

 than eight or ten feet. The males are very quarrelsome, chasing one 

 another through the woods with loud, sharp, chirpings, careering 

 with almost inconceivable velocity up among the tops of the highest 

 oaks, or darting among the thickets with interminable doublings until 

 the pursuer, growing tired of the chase, alights on some low twig or 

 mossy log, and, in token of his victory, utters a warble so feeble that 

 you must be very near to catch it at all, a sound like that produced 

 by striking two pebbles very quickly and gently together, or the 

 song of Spizella socialis heard at a distance, and altogether a very 

 indifferent performance."* 



* Annals Lyceum Nat. Hist. N. Y., vol. xi, pp. 134-5. June, 1875. 



