The Worm-eating Warbler 



By FRANK L. BURNS. Berwyn. Pa, 



The Worm-eating Warbler is here a common summer resident. First 

 arrivals: May 3-14. Common: May 7-22. Departs: August 29 — Septem- 

 ber 5. 



Son^. — I can distinguish no difference between the notes of this species 

 and the Chipping Sparrow; the first may be a trifle weaker perhaps. The 

 series of notes may be uttered while perched, or creeping about the lower 

 branches of the trees, sapling tops, bashes or fallen brush, or while on the 

 ground. With slightly drooping tail and wings, puffing out of body plu- 

 mage, throwing its head back until the beak is perpendicular, it trills with 

 swelling throat an unvarying Che-e-e-e-e-e-e, which does not sound half so 

 monotonous in the woods as does the Chippy's lay in the open. The first 

 song period is from the time of arrival until June 24 to July 5, but during 

 the last two weeks, when housekeeping is a thing of the past and the hot 

 days have come, it is seldom heard except in the early morning, beginning 

 about four o'clock, and in the cool of the evening. The second song period 

 is very brief and follows the molt. I have no dates. 



Courtship is brief if, indeed, the birds are not mated upon arrival. 



Haunts. — The bird is extremely local, inhabiting the wooded hill slopes. 

 I do not remember having ever met with it in the open or in the small groves 

 of the bottom-lands. It is at home in the second -growth timber of the hills, 

 and is very deliberate in its movements, seeming never in a hurry and yet 

 never idle. Stepping out with dainty tread and bobbing head, it is a really 

 graceful little walker on ground or tree. 



Nesting-site. — The nesting-site is seldom in the denser undergrowth, but 

 preferably the more open woods, and the nest is usually at the foot of a 

 small stub, laurel sprout, or spray of wild huckleberry, against which there 

 has been a lodgment or drift of dead leaves; and, as the bird always removes 

 the leaves from the exact site, sometimes scratching out a slight hollow in 

 the mold, the finished nest, sunk to the rim and protected by the leaf drift 

 above and on the sides, has the appearance of being placed in a miniature 

 cave. The bird exhibits a remarkable love for its chosen nesting haunts, 

 building the second and third nest within a radius of a few hundred feet 

 when disturbed, and returning year after year to the same place 

 if successful in raising a brood. I have not observed a single pair building 

 on the exact site of former years, but on several occasions within a few 

 feet of it. While the female takes the leading part, the male is always pres- 

 ent and seems busy, a by no means silent partner in the selection of site and 

 construction of nest. 



Composition of Nest. — Dead chestnut, beech and oak leaves, sometimes, 

 also, a few dogwood, cherry or maple leaves, almost always well rotted and 



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