7G GEOTHLYPIS PHILADELPHIA, MOURNING WARBLER, 



In tbe East, it is the nearly unanimons testimony of observers tbat 

 the Mourning Warbler is rare. It is, moreover, a particularly sby and 

 retiring bird, courting the privacy of dense shrubbery, and quiet in its 

 ■ways; so that even were it common it might ordinarily elude observa- 

 tion. It seems also to migrate rapidly, as well as stealthily. Mr. May- 

 nard is one of the few naturalists fortunately enabled to use the word 

 "common" in speaking of this bird from his personal observations; he 

 found it so at Umbagog, where it was breeding, in June; and states 

 that Mr. C. W. Brewster took newly-fledged young at Franconia, "in 

 spring." "It frequents," he continues, "the bushes along fences, stone- 

 walls, and the edges of woods. The male may be seen in the early 

 morning perched on the top rail of a fence, or dead branch of a tree, 

 singing. The song is loud and clear, somewhat resembling that of the 

 Water Thrush." 



It is perhaps more abundant than anywhere else, in the breeding 

 season, along the Red River, between Dakota and Minnesota, but I 

 never saw it further west. It frequents the dense shrubbery along the 

 banks of the river, and is rather difficult to observe, the female especially. 

 But the male often mounts quite high in the trees overhead, singing, 

 during the mating season and while the female is incubating. The nest 

 must be very carefully concealed, for after repeated close search in places 

 where I knew there was a nest, I never succeeded in finding one. 



Mr. T. Martin Trippe has been equally successful in making the ac- 

 quaintance of this species, finding it breeding abundanth' in Minnesota. 

 "The .Mourning Warbler haunts the edges of the tamarack swamjis and 

 the damp thickets that adjoin them. I made frequent search tor the 

 nest, but was not fortunate enough to find it, though I repeatedly saw 

 the old birds feeding the young in the latter part of Jun^and early iu 

 July. They are similar iu their habits to the Maryland Yellow-throat, 

 but are not so exclusively devoted to thickeCs and underbrush, frequently 

 ascending to the tops of the tamaracks, for which they show a great 

 predilection." The author speaks of the "agreeable" song, and, like 

 the one just quoted, compares it to that of the Water Thrush. 



Both forms of this species occur in the Missouri region — one entering 

 Kansas from the East, the other reaching Laramie iu the opposite direc- 

 tion. [Macgillivray's Warbler appears to be more abundant than its east- 

 ern representative, and more generally diffused during the breeding 

 season. I found it to be a common though not abundant summer resi- 

 dent in the mountainous parts of Arizona, where it arrived late in April 

 and departed in September. My specimens were procured with some 

 difficulty, owing to the closeness of its coverts and its secretive habits, 

 which are just the same as those of Philadelphia. Dr. Cooper notes its 

 arrival in the Colorado Valley, at Mojave, at the same time, but very 

 pertinently observes they probably came there earlier, since he had found 

 them on the Columbia River by the third of May. He describes a nest 

 that he found at Puget's Sound, in June, as being built without attempt 

 at concealment, about a foot above the ground, in a small bush, and 

 formed wholly of dry grasses, rather loosely put together. The eggs, he 

 states, are white, speckled with reddish. 



Mr. Allen sends me a pleasant manuscript note: "The western race 

 of the ^Mourning Warbler (Qeothlypis Philadelphia var. ntacgillivrayi), or 

 Macgillivray's Warbler, is a common summer inhabitant of the mount- 

 ains of Colorado, from the base of the foot hills up to about 9,C00 feet. 

 On Bear and Turkey Creeks it was the most numerous representative 

 of the Sylvicolidm, keeping chiefly in the thick shrubbery bordering tbe 

 streams. Although its sweet notes were heard at frequent intervals, its 

 Digitized by Microsoft® 



