BIRDS OF NEW YORK 407 



May. In the vicinity of New York Cit}^ it passes northward between the 

 loth and 20th of May. During the migration season it is evident that 

 the males precede the females, as is the case with many birds. Sometimes 

 a flock of 20 or 30 males is seen during the third week of April and during 

 the second and third weeks of May almost nothing but females are found. 

 In the fall the southward migration is sometimes noted as early as the 

 1 6th of August, but usually in central New York between the 20th and 

 28th of September; in the vicinity of New York City, from the ist to the 

 7th of October, whereas the departure of the greater number for the south 

 occurs between the 25th of October and the nth of November. 



Haunts and habits. The Myrtle warbler is found in the spring 

 mostly in deciduous woods, often feeding in the tops of oaks, chestnuts 

 and maples, but in the fall it is commoner in the thick growths of bushes 

 along the edges of swamps and cedar thickets and feeds largely on the 

 berries of the wax myrtle which have given it its common name. The 

 remainder of the year its food consists almost entirely of insects, during 

 the early part of the season, especially of cocoons, larvae and eggs which 

 it seeks about the buds and branches of trees. In the summer it frequents 

 the coniferous forests of the Canadian zone of the Catskills and Adirondacks, 

 being the most abundant warbler breeding on the higher slopes of the 

 mountains, as far up as the stunted spruces on the summits of Skylight, 

 Haystack, Marcy and Whiteface, associating there with the Blackpolled 

 warbler and the Junco. 



The common call note heard in the spring is a characteristic " tchip." 

 Another is noted by Allison, which he writes " sweet " with rising inflection. 

 The song is not heard in its full volume till late in the migration season 

 or on the breeding ground, but begins in the southern states in March. 

 According to Thayer it has " a loud and silvery sleighbell trill," " a vivid 

 spritely utterance." Sometimes he utters a deliberate phrase of 3 or 4 

 well-separated syllables having the usual tone and volume but lacking 

 sometimes only in part, the jingling tremolo. 



The nest of the Myrtle warbler is usually placed in a low coniferous 



