GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER. 187 
Mr. R. Ridgway found it breeding along the southern edge of Calhoun Prairie, Richland 
Co., Ill. I cannot find any authoritative record as to its most northern breeding place, 
but I think it migrates not farther north than southern Canada. Since my boyhood 
this beautiful bird is one of my favorites. I always found it in the localities described. 
I never saw it during the breeding season in open woods or on high ground. After 
the young were able to shift for themselves they frequently entered, in company with 
the old birds, the orchards and ornamental shrubberies, leaving late in August or 
early in September for the South. 
The males arrive first from their winter quarters in Cuba, Costa Rica, Guatemala, 
and even from Bogota, usually singly, frequently in company of other Warblers, the 
females following five to six days later. I have never heard a note during their stay in 
south-eastern Texas, save a sharp wiry call-note sounding like tseep. Only in their 
breeding grounds the full original song may be heard. Their notes are not very loud, 
but sweet and thrilling, resembling much the joyous lay of the Maryland Yellow-throat. 
While the bird hops around in the branches of low shrubs in quest of food, it sings 
almost incessantly, particularly on the bright balmy days of June. Its food, consisting 
almost entirely of small inseéts infesting the leaves and blossoms of shrubs and trees, 
is collected from the bark, the leaves, and flowers. I have never noticed it catching 
flying insects, and it very rarely searches the ground for food. We may usually see it 
near old moss-covered logs, where ferns, huckle-berries, black currants, terrestrial orchids 
cover the rich soil. Male and female are always close together, but it is exceedingly 
difficult to find the nest in this dense vegetation. I have observed the birds many a 
season closely, searched almost every inch of the ground where they hopped around in 
distress, but only accidentally I discovered several nests. They were found 1875 and 
1876, in Sheboygan Co., Wis., in swamps on the ground. One was placed under the 
fronds of a fern, another near an old moss-covered log, and a third one under a dense 
huckle-berry bush. All resembled closely the nests of the Maryland Yellow-throat. 
Externally they were composed of strips of bark and grasses, lined with finer grasses 
and pine-needles. They rested on a thick layer of old dry leaves. One nest contained 
five, the other two four eggs each, of a white ground-color, speckled more or less thickly 
with reddish-brown, chiefly at the larger end. As the old birds were observed almost 
daily until the young were able to leave the nest, there can be no question as to their 
correct identification. When breeding the birds were rather shy and retired, but as 
soon as the nests contained young, they always hopped around in great excitement 
when I approached their hidden domiciles. 
Nests found by other ornithologists in eastern Massachusetts were built in the 
same manner. The late Dr. Gerhardt found this Warbler breeding in Whitfield Co., Ga. 
NAMES: GoLpEN-WINGED WaRBLER, Blue Golden-winged Warbler; Golden-winged Swamp Warbler. —Gold- 
fliigelsinger (German).—Fauvette chrysoptére (Vieill.); Figuier aux ailes dorées (Buff.). 
SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Motacilla chrysoptera Linn. (1766). Sylvia chrysoptera Lath. (1810), Wils., Nutt., 
Aud. Helinaia chrysoptera Aud. (1839). Helmintophaga chrysoptera Cab. (1850). HELMINTO- 
PHILA CHRYSOPTERA Ripew. (1882). 
DESCRIPTION: ‘Above, slaty-blue; below, whitish, frequently tinged with yellow; crown of head and two 
bars on the wing, rich yellow; side of head, whitish, with a broad bar of black from bill through eye; 
