Relation of Summer Birds to Western Adirondack Forest 451 



composed almost entirely of sugar maple, we found three of the 

 four nests which rewarded our efforts." One of the nests was 

 placed two feet from the ground in the upright fork of a little 

 maple bush. Another nest was in the upright fork of a little maple 

 nine inches from the ground. Tihe third was only a foot from the 

 ground. The nests were made of strips of rotten wood, held 

 together and lined with fine black roots and a few strips of bark. 



To me the usual song of this warbler sounds quite like the syllables 

 me gee h-e-e, with the second syllable accented and the third some- 

 what lengthened or drawled. It may have other musical expressions, 

 but this one song is definite and characteristic, and the one oftenest 

 heard, as monotonous as the repetitions of the Red-eyed Vireo. 



* Yellow Warbler; Summer Warbler. Dendroica cestiva 



cestiva (Gmel.) 



Length 5.1. Everywhere yellow, greenish on the mantle; breast in- 

 conspicuously streaked with fawn-color. 



I did not see this warbler at Cranberry Lake, nor is it often seen 

 in the forested parts of the mountains owing, in my opinion, to the 

 absence of extensive willow growth in the plateau region. Swamps 

 of Salix, or places where the willow grows in clusters in river 

 valleys, are the situations that attract the Summer Yellowbirds. 



* Northern Parula Warbler. Compsothlypis americana 



pusilla (Wils.) 



Length 4.7. Upper parts grayish blue; patch of yellow in the middle 

 of the back; lower parts yellow, brownish on the breast and white near 

 the tail ; white wing-bars. 



The Northern Parula Warbler is very closely associated with " the 

 bearded pines and the hemlocks " wherever they are draped with 

 tufts of the pale green Usnea. Very little of this lichen is found in the 

 Cranberry Lake district; hence the Parula was not present. It 

 should be found in Adirondack swamps wherever the Usnea occurs. 



Nashville Warbler. Vermivora ruficapilla ruficapilla (Wils.) 

 Length 4.7. Head ashy; upper surface, light brown; lower, yellow. 



Open bushy tracts in dry locations are probably the first choice of 

 the Nashville Warbler, preferably with a trace of human surround- 

 ings, such as an abandoned mill site, neglected to grow up to berry 

 bushes, pasture grasses, and sapling clumps. Any small tract of this 

 character will invite this warbler, but it avoids the forest. It makes 

 its nest on the ground. 



Black and White Warbler. Mniotilta varia (Linn.) 

 Length 5.3. Striped, black and white. 



The Black and White Warbler lives in broken woodlands chiefly 



where the deciduous elements are pronounced, and probably occurs 



most frequently in medium-sized timber. Its habit of feeding is 



much like that of the Brown Creeper, for it travels up and down a 



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