284 BIRDS OF NORTH CAROLINA 



it on September 15 and 17, 1894. The only place from which it has been reported 

 as common is Morganton, where Wayne reported it to be migrating in numbers 

 from April 22 to May 15, 1909. 



FIG. 228. CAPE MAY WARBLER. 



An adult male was secured at Raleigh on November 1, 1911, and an immature 

 bird was sent to Sherman from Cleelum, near Asheville, accompanied by a letter, 

 dated September 25, 1911, from which the following extracts are taken: 



I had a fine lot of grapes, but the birds have destroyed the most of them before we could gather 

 them. The birds destroyed at least $75 worth for me, and messed them up so badly they were 

 not worth gathering. It is a small bird, evidently of the warbler family, dull yellowish gray 

 above, a lighter yellowish gray below, with breast streaked with both colors. It has a beak like a 

 needle. It does not eat the grapes, but simply pricks holes in them and lets them ferment for 

 the bees to get drunk on next day. I have seen many berries with two holes punched into them 

 about 1-16 inch apart as though it had not even closed its beak in pricking them. Could it suck 

 the juice of the grape without closing its beak? Please tell me how to stop these birds next 

 season. I have turned things over to them this year. There are thousands of them, evidently 

 migrating, but they will not bunch so that one can shoot them, and they will not scare off any 

 more than bees. They are too small to shoot singly. They do not seem to eat any grain or meal, 

 only destroy grapes and eat a few moths. I will try to get a few and send one with this letter. 



E. V. HARBECK, M.D. 



Mr. Frank L. Burns, of Berwyn, Pa., writing in The Auk of April, 1915, describes 

 in detail the great amount of damage done to the grape crop in that region in Sep- 

 tember, 1913 and 1914, by Cape May Warblers. Speaking of this damage in his 

 immediate neighborhood, he says: "So far as I am able to learn, all unbagged 

 grapes were ruined; the loss must have been many tons, worth several hundred 

 dollars." 



285. Dendroica sestiva sestiva (Gmel.). YELLOW WARBLER: SUMMER YEL- 

 LOW-BIRD. 



Description: Ad. male. Upperparts bright greenish yellow, brighter on the crown; wings 

 edged with yellow; tail fuscous, the inner vanes of the feathers yellow; underparts bright yellow, 

 streaked with rufous. Ad. female. Upperparts uniform yellowish olive-green; tail as in the 

 male; wings fuscous, edged with yellow; underparts bright yellow, slightly, if at all, streaked with 

 rufous on the breast and sides. Im. male. Similar to the female. Im. female. Upperparts 

 light olive-green; tail fuscous, the inner margins of the inner vanes of the tail-feathers yellow; 

 underparts uniform dusky yellowish. L., 5.10; W., 2.40; T., 1.89; B. from N., .33. 



Remarks. In any plumage this bird may be known by the yellow on the inner vanes of the 

 tail-feathers. (Chap., Birds of E. N. A.) 



Range. Eastern North America, east of the Rocky Mountains, wintering in Mexico, Central 

 and South America. 



Range in North Carolina. Summer visitor in the central and western districts, but apparently 

 only a transient in the east. 



