KENTUCKY WARBLER. 249 
hang down from the branches in gorgeous abundance. The most remarkable plant to 
the novice is the strangely interwoven and twisted supple Jack’. This extremely pliable 
vine can be seen here in all possible shapes. In one spot numerous smooth green 
stems sprout up from one rooted knob, growing up vertically, and, after obtaining 
considerable height, begin to intertwine with each other, or reach out for the nearest 
tree and twist themselves tightly around its trunk and branches; in another place, two, 
three, or more of these stems are twisted together into one cord- or cable-like mass, 
directly after sprouting from the ground, or they are wound so tightly around a tree 
that they grow into its bark, finally killing it. The wild grape, especially the delicious 
scuppernong or muscadine, flourishes here abundantly, while honey-suckle, poison ivy, 
Carolina jasmine, Cherokee roses, and trailing thorny black-berry bushes form a dense 
jungle near the edge of these woods. Here it is, where birds most congregate. Such 
thickets are the paradise of beautiful Cardinals, Blue Grosbeaks, Nonpareils, Carolina 
Wrens, White-eyed Vireos, Chats, and Mockingbirds. Although this idyllic existence is 
frequently disturbed by furious tree-climbing snakes and the water mocassin, it never- 
theless seems to the birds an ideal life of happiness. In the openings and such localities 
where the palmetto, the yucca, and rank weeds grow, but always near the water and 
the woodlands just described, abounds a bird, which I here found for the first time, the 
pretty little KEnrucKY WARBLER. 
This bird, which, in its habits as well as in its appearance, reminds the observer 
of its near relative the Maryland Yellow-throat, is very common in south-eastern Texas. 
Its favorite haunts are among the broom grass, the spider lilies’, the palmettos, yuccas, 
and dense dew-berry bushes. It is more robust than its congener, the Maryland Yellow- 
throat, and not quite so lively and quick in its movements. The song is stronger, sweeter, 
and more prolonged than that of the Maryland Yellow-throat. In the early morning 
hours and again late in the afternoon it sings almost incessantly, and often as many 
as four or five males may be heard in close proximity. I noticed its arrival in south- 
eastern Texas about April 20, and at Freistatt, Lawrence County, Mo., it was common 
by May 3. Inthe last named locality, which we might term the Ozark region, it 
frequents the borders of woods, where snow-berry*® and hazel bushes, persimmons and 
rank herbs grow. Near St. Louis, in southern Illinois, and Indiana it is also a very 
common bird. I have never seen the Kentucky Warbler in Wisconsin or in northern 
Illinois, but it is said to occur there occasionally. In his excellent work, ‘The Ornitho- 
logy of Illinois,” Prof. R. Ridgway gives the following interesting account: 
“The beautiful Kentucky Warbler is one of the most abundant of birds in the rich 
woods of southern Illinois. As far north as Wabash, Lawrence, and Richland counties, 
it is even more abundant than the Golden-crowned Thrush, though the two usually 
inhabit different locations, the latter preferring, as a rule, the dryer upland woods, 
while the present species is most abundant in the rich woods of the bottom-lands. In 
its manners it is almost a counterpart of the Golden-crowned Thrush, but is alto- 
gether a more conspicuous bird, both on account of its brilliant plumage and the fact 
that it is more active, the males being, during the breeding season, very pugnacious, 
and continually chasing one another about the woods. It lives altogether near the 
1 Berchemia volubilis. 2 Hymenocallis galvestonensis and H. rotatum. 3 Symphoricarpus glomeratus. 
32 
