114 BIRDS IX THEIR RELATIONS TO MAN. 



Mississippi River, where it is a regular migrant, breeding as 

 far south as the northern counties of Illinois and the central 

 portion of New England. The nest is placed on the ground. 

 The only food records that we have show that two Wisconsin 

 specimens had eaten four small green caterpillars and some 

 other insects not identifiable, and that one Nebraska fledgling 

 had devoured twenty-one locusts and several other insects, 

 while the adult birds have frequently been seen feeding on 

 locusts. 



The TENNESSEE WARBLER is a very interesting migratory 

 species that passes regularly and abundantly through the Mis- 

 sissippi Valley States during its spring and autumn migrations. 

 It also occurs sparingly west to the Rocky Mountains and east 

 to the Atlantic Ocean. It breeds in the far North and winters, 

 in part at least, in South America. It searches diligently for 

 the insect mites that infest the foliage of trees, seeming to 

 have a special fondness for aphides, forty-two of which have 

 been taken from the stomachs of three of these birds. Among 

 the other food elements of thirty-two specimens there were 

 found two small Hymenoptera, thirteen caterpillars, fifteen 

 two-winged flies, thirteen beetles, thirty-five small bugs, and 

 eleven insects' eggs. Four-fifths of the food of one bird shot 

 in an orchard infested by canker-worms consisted of these 

 pests. Tennessee warblers have also been seen feeding on 

 small grasshoppers. 



This, however, is one of the very few warblers against 

 which a charge has been brought by the fruit-growers. In 

 some sections it is known as the "grape-sucker," because it 

 punctures ripe grapes with its little beak, presumably to get at 

 the juice. Testimony on this point appears to be conclusive, 

 and considerable injury occasionally results. There can be 

 no doubt, however, that in the aggregate the bird does vastly 

 more good than harm. 



The YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER, or MYRTLE-BIRD, is an ex- 

 ceedingly hardy little creature, often enduring the rigors of a 



