BIRDS OF NEW YORK 447 



Oporornis agilis (Wilson) 

 Connecticut Warbler 



Plate 99 



Sylvia agilis Wilson. Amer. Orn. 1812. 5:64. pi. 39, fig. 4 

 Oporornis agilis A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p. 321. No. 678 



agilis, Lat., active, agile 



Description. Adult male: Upper parts olive green becoming ashy 

 on the sides and fore part of the head; throat and fore breast slaty gray; lower 

 breast, belly and under tail coverts deep yellow; a distinct white eye ring. 

 Female: Throat and upper breast brownish, palest on the throat; other- 

 wise similar to the male but duller throughout, showing no ashy or slaty 

 gray, but the white eye ring nearly as distinct as in the male. 



Length 5.50 inches ; extent 8.50-9 ; wing 2.75-3 '< tail 2 ! Dm 48 ; tarsus .80. 



Distribution. Breeds from Manitoba to central Minnesota and 

 northern Michigan; winters in South America. In spring, rare east of 

 the Alleghanies, but in fall common east of the Alleghanies and rare in 

 the Mississippi valley. In New York this species is only a transient 

 visitant. Although several reports of spring specimens seen have come to 

 me from western New York I have been unable to secure or find in col- 

 lections any spring specimen from the State. The dates of fall migration 

 range between August 26 and October 1 1 , the average date of arrival being 

 September 7 and the usual date of departure September 25 to October 5. 

 It is by no means rare during the fall migration, especially during the middle 

 and third week of September. 



Haunts and habits. As the Connecticut warbler is not found here 

 during the spring migration, its song is not heard within our boundaries. 

 During its stay with us it is found in thickets of winterberry, shad bush, 

 jewel weed and other dense growing herbs and shrubs of the ditches and 

 swamplands, usually keeping near the ground and under dense cover. 

 It is frequently seen on the bare margin of sluggish brooks or ditches 

 walking along like other birds of its genus, not hopping like the dendroica. 



Its call note is a quick, sharp, metallic " plink." Its song, as heard 

 in its summer home in the tamarack swamps of Manitoba, is described by 



