BIRDS OF NEW YORK 379 



Several nests and broods of young were found in all these localities. Thus 

 it will be seen that although this warbler breeds almost throughout the 

 State, it belongs more characteristically to the Canadian fauna; and in 

 western New York, during 25 years of field experience, I have found only 

 a few breeding pairs in Erie, Monroe, Ontario, Genesee and Wayne counties 

 except about the margins of the larger swamps and along the ravines of 

 the lake region and the northern slopes of the higher hills. Nevertheless, 

 in eastern New York it is reckoned a common summer resident by the 

 observers on Long Island, especially in Suffolk county, and a common 

 summer resident by Chapman near New York, and by Fisher in the lower 

 Hudson valley. 



Migration. This is one of our earlier warblers, arriving in south- 

 eastern New York from the i8th to the 30th of April, and in western New 

 York from the 24th to the 30th of April, some years being recorded not 

 earlier than May 3. In northern New York the dates of arrival range 

 from April 30 to May 8. It is one of the common warblers in migration, 

 both in the eastern part of the State and throughout western New York, 

 often as many as 20 or 30 individuals of the species being seen about the 

 shade trees of our village streets and parks in a single morning. In August 

 and September the numbers of this species are considerably augmented 

 by migrants from the north and the last individuals are seen between 

 the 1st and the 14th of October, stragglers sometimes appearing as late 

 as the 24th of the month. 



Habits. The Black and white warbler, or Black and white creeper 

 as it is frequently called, is one of the most restless members of this rest- 

 less family. He is incessantly hopping about on the trunks and larger 

 branches of the trees or clinging for a moment to the twigs and branches 

 in search of plant lice and small insects and flitting to another tree and 

 continuing his search. In creeping over the trunks of trees he resembles 

 somewhat the Nuthatch in habits, but his progression is more jerky and 

 at each hop or hitch he almost invariably faces in a different direction, 

 whereas the Nuthatch keeps calmly ahead without looking first one way 



