Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored 



ward into Central America; a few often remaining at the 

 northern United States all the winter. 



Migrations— k'^xW. October. November. Also, but more rarely, 

 a winter resident. 



The first of the warblers to arrive in the spring and the last 

 to leave us in the autumn, some even remaining throughout the 

 northern winter, the myrtle warbler, next to the summer yellow- 

 bird, is the most familiar of its multitudinous kin. Though we 

 become acquainted with it chiefly in the migrations, it impresses 

 us by its numbers rather than by any gorgeousness of attire. The 

 four yellow spots on crown, lower back, and sides are its distin- 

 guishing marks; and in the autumn these marks have dwindled 

 to only one, that on the lower back or rump. The great diffi- 

 culty experienced in identifying any warbler is in its restless habit 

 of flitting about. 



For a few days in early May we are forcibly reminded of the 

 Florida peninsula, which fairly teems with these birds ; they 

 become almost superabundant, a distraction during the precious 

 days when the rarer species are quietly slipping by, not to return 

 again for a year, perhaps longer, for some warblers are notoriously 

 irregular in their routes north and south, and never return by the 

 way they travelled in the spring. 



But if we look sharply into every group of myrtle warblers, 

 we are quite likely to discover some of their dainty, fragile cous- 

 ins that gladly seek the escort of birds so fearless as they. By 

 the last of May all the warblers are gone from the neighborhood 

 except the constant little summer yellowbird and redstart. 



In autumn, when the myrtle warblers return after a busy 

 enough summer passed in Canadian nurseries, they chiefly haunt 

 those regions where juniper and bay-berries abound. These latter 

 (Myrica cerifera), or the myrtle wax-berries, as they are some- 

 times called, and which are the bird's favorite food, have given it 

 their name. Wherever the supply of these berries is sufficient to 

 last through the winter, there it may be found foraging in the 

 scrubby bushes. Sometimes driven by cold and hunger from 

 the fields, this hardiest member of a family that properly belongs 

 to the tropics, seeks shelter and food close to the outbuildings 

 on the farm. 



93 



