306 MYRTLE WARBLER. 
suckle! which drapes in dark green festoons piazzas and verandas. Even in the thick 
masses of English ivy, which cover the walls of churches and houses, many find pro- 
tection during the inclement season of the year. In the orange groves and the incom- 
parable semi-tropical gardens of Florida these birds, in company with Palm Warblers, 
winter in great numbers. Every hammock seems to swarm with them from November 
to March. In the romantic region of southern Louisiana, described so classically in 
Longfellow’s “Evangeline,” I observed them in great numbers during the month of 
February. There they seemed to prefer the dense thickets of evergreen wax-myrtles 
(hence the name Myrtle Warbler or Myrtle Bird). These shrubs grow vigorously 
in the South Atlantic and Gulf Region, and the berries which the bushes yield in 
abundance are coated with a waxy substance; they form not a small part of their 
food in winter.—In south-western Missouri the first arrivals were noticed about April 
10, but the bulk did not appear before the last days of the same month. According 
to Mr. W. W. Cooke, this species winters over an immense area. While it is abun- 
dant in southern Texas, and great numbers pass on through Mexico on their way to 
Central America, as far even as Panama, still it is the hardiest of our Warblers, and 
unnumbered thousands regularly pass the winter in the lower half of the Mississippi 
valley. With plenty of poison ivy and wax-myrtle berries it seems not to care how ‘the 
mercury stands. In the coast region of Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, etc., it also 
winters in more or less abundance. In Wisconsin I noticed the Myrtle Warblers in the 
last days of April. There they usually remain in full force for two to three weeks, 
when they suddenly disappear. 
They reappear during the bright and glowing days of Indian summer late in Sep- 
tember, loitering in undiminished numbers all through October. While migrating in 
spring they are found usually amongst the ornamental shrubbery of gardens, in 
orchards, in hedgerows, on the edges of swamps, and on the borders of woods. Moving 
about in small flocks, they are always eagerly on the lookout for inseéts, which they 
capture from the leaves and blossoms as well as from the air, where they dart about. 
with great dexterity. Especially in fall they may. be generally distinguished at a distance 
by their habit of being much in the air, and taking comparatively long circling flights. If 
the weather be fair, which is usually the case when the orchard trees flower, we often 
may hear the song, which is loud, clear, and sprightly, bearing much resemblance to the 
lay of others of the family, especially that of the Maryland Yellow-throat. 
The Myrtle Warbler breeds from northern Wisconsin, Minnesota, and New 
England northward, being especially common from our northern border to high 
Arctic regions. Its favorite haunts during the breeding season are thickets of spruces, 
hemlocks, and white pines. It is now a true forest bird, spending much of its time in 
the higher branches of trees, but building its nest low down in some thicket of spruces, 
hemlocks, etc., usually four to five feet, sometimes eight to ten feet from the ground. 
Mr. McFarlane found nests on the Anderson River, British America, and Mr. H. B. Baily 
discovered several at Upton, Me. There the bird was traced to its home in old clear- 
ings in the forest, where the second growth had begun to obliterate the work of axe 
and plough. Among such thickets of young spruces nests of this Warbler could gener- 
1 Lonicera Halliana and L. Japonica, 
