BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 3881 
tail black above; the former with a conspicuous white patch 
formed by the bases of all the primaries except the first; inner 
webs of the secondaries and tertials with similar patches to 
wards the base, and along the inner margin; all the tail feath- 
ers except the innermost, with a white-patch on the inner web 
near the end 
Length, 5.50; wing, 2.60; tail, 2.25. 
Habitat, eastern North America to the Pisses, 
DENDROICA CORONATA (1.).  (655.) 
MYRTLE WARBLER. 
During their migrations, either in spring or autumn, this is 
by far the most numerous species of its family, arriving in the 
southern sections of the State as early as the 5th of April, and 
reaching Minneapolis and vicinity by the 15th. At first seen 
often only in comparatively small parties, they soon increase 
until they seem to be in loose hordes, in search of insects of 
all kinds found on the trees, or in the air, for no genuine fly- 
catcher can exceed them in taking insects on the wing. 
Their movements are more dignified than those of the other 
warblers, exhibiting little of the nervous manners character- 
istic of the family, while tireless in their industry. They pass 
us entirely by the middle of May, breeding still further to the 
north. 
Mr. Washburn found the young birds at Thief river, one of 
the tributaries of Red Lake river in Polk county, in August, 
and Mr. Lewis reports the young common in Itasca and St. 
Louis counties earlier in the season, from which there can be 
no further doubt of its local nidification. The autumnal migra- 
tion has fairly begun from the 15th to the 20th of September, 
but itis not terminated until the first of November. Their 
lines of movement, both before and after their breeding, are 
somewhat restricted, and follow the course of the larger 
streams and lakes bordered with timber. In the springs of my 
earliest residence here, I was somewhat of a duck hunter, and 
visited the principal localities in the vicinity of my residence 
very frequently, where such game abounded. I think I met 
with the present species several years the very day they first 
came, and one of these was on the 3lst of March, and another 
the 2d day of April. On these occasions I was very much in- 
terested to observe their feeding. They were not at all shy, 
but would prosecute their explorations of every limb, branch, 
twig, and dead leaf of the very tree under and behind which I 
