C. H. Merriam — Binls of ('<mnectirut. '2'> 



Win. Brewster, Esq., speaking of its Iwibits in West \'irgini:i, 

 remarks that they arrived there about May 1st, "mikI lor ;i tlw ilays 

 were silent, hut soon became very noisy, especially when tlicii- 

 retreats were invaded. Their notes are so varied as almost to del'v 

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

 about eight very loud bell-like whistles, commencing ([uickly, and 

 becoming sloAver and more emphatic toward the end, then, aft ti 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 buslies 

 ahead, keeping always in the thickest places, and jHTh:i]is, ai'tci- a 

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

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

 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 (tt 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. Tfooded Warbler. 



A summer resident, breeding in the Connecticut valley and along 

 our southern border. Although breeding abundantly at Sayl»rook, 

 Conn., according to Mr. J. N. Clark (recorded by II. 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, 18V4, by Dr. F. W. 

 Hall. It was evidently breeding. Still it was fomid here in June, 

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

 Saybrook : " The Hooded Warbler is very al)undant here in dense 

 woods, breeding everywhere in suitable places, ahvays in a low 

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

 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 femaU' 

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



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

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

 X Lin.«iley's Catalogue of the Birds of Connecticut, p. 257. 1843. 

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

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

 Trans. Conn. Acad., Vol. IV. 4 -Tvly, 1877. 



