BULLETIN 



OF THE 



NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



VOL. VIII. April, 1883. No. 2. 



THE VERNAL MIGRATION OF WARBLERS ON WOLF 

 RIVER, ONTAGAMIC COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 



BY F. L. GRUNDTVIG. 



Near the village of Shiocton, the Shioc River joins the Wolf, 

 after running parallel with it for about a mile. Between, and 

 immediately bordering these streams, is a tract of lowland, the 

 most of which is annually overflowed during the spring freshets, 

 the water at times rising to a height of over nine feet above the 

 ordinary level. This lowland appears like an oasis in a desert, 

 covered, as it is, with a rich, vigorous growth of hardwood tim- 

 ber, and bordered on both sides by waste swamps extending in 

 each direction for many miles. The timber covering this tract 

 consists principally of soft maple intermingled with many ash, 

 elm, oak and willow trees. 



The Warblers, upon their first arrival, preferred the willows 

 and smaller trees to the higher ones ; but upon the leafing out of 

 the maples and until the close of the season, the entire strip 

 of hardwood timber lying between the two streams afforded them 

 a congenial resort. After first resting in a row of old willows, 

 the vast throngs of these birds would enter this piece of timber, 

 at the junction of these streams, working leisurely northward 

 until thoroughly dispersed among the higher tree-tops. Only a 

 few^ went east of the Shioc, whereas many crossed the Wolf, 

 working- westward through a low growth of shrubs and bushes 



