£be Warbler 15 



Quails they fearlessly run around my caladiums where they pick up some 

 particles of lime. I usually see them in pairs. Nests are found as late as 

 Sept. 15, being usually built in. thorny orange trees, but I have them also 

 found in silver shrubs {Eloeagnus), cypresses and dense bamboos. 



During the month of September we hear the tinkling metallic call-note 

 of the Bobolinks, here called Rice-birds, flying over the place in small com- 

 panies. They are at times very common in the moist flat woods, but they 

 are often also seen and heard in the orange groves, where they feed upon 

 the beggar-weed seed. 



Warblers are in some years exceedingly abundant in the garden from 

 late in July to November, in fact throughout all winter months. The first 

 ones appearing in magnolias and other evergreens are the tiny Bachman's 

 Warblers which were quite abundant this last fall. They are followed by 

 Parula, Worm-eating, Cerulean and Yellow-throated Warblers in August. 

 By the middle of September we may be able to observe a few Blackburnian 

 and many Prairie Warblers. The Cape May and Black-throated Green as 

 well as the Black-poll Warblers, the Oven-bird and the Hooded Warbler, 

 the Maryland Yellow-throat, the Redstart and a few others are more or less 

 common by the end of September and early in October. At this time the 

 beautiful yellow elder (Tecotna starts) opens its numerous umbels of yellow 

 flower-urns. The Antigonon leptopus, Camellia Sasanqua, Cosmos sulphur eus 

 "Klondike", Crinum amabile. C. augustum and C giganteum, the silver shrubs 

 such as Ehmgnus reflexa, E macrophylla and E. pungens and many other plants 

 are fairly swarming with insects. Roses are now in all their glory. 

 The Warblers therefore feel perfectly happy, finding their table well 

 supplied with all kinds of dainty morsels. By the middle of October 

 large numbers of Black-throated Blue and Palm Warblers make their 

 appearance, and finally the last of all, the Myrtle Warblers appear in 

 swarms, being particularly abundant in my garden, where they find an al- 

 most unlimited supply of wax myrtle berries, their main food throughout 

 the late fall and winter. The first appear just before a cold norther late in 

 October, the bulk not arriving before the second week in November. The 

 Warblers are more abundant this year than they ever were before, and they 

 usually tarry longer in their fall migration than they do in spring. 



Vireos have never been very abundant during migration. They are 

 never conspicuous and are rarely seen, scarcely ever uttering their call-notes. 

 The White-eyed Vireo is, however, an exception. I heard its notes very 

 frequently in the third week of September until the first days of October. 

 The Red-eyed Vireo is tolerably common during the breeding season near 

 Lake Apopka, frequenting the tall trees of the hammock woods. 



At times the garden swarms with Blue-gray Gnatcatchers. The birds 

 usually catch flying insects while on the wing, hunting particularly among 



