BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 



ii?, 



rule it frequents dry upland woods, preferring those which include a mixture of 

 deciduous and evergreen trees, and which contain at least a few white pines or 

 hemlocks. In spring, however, we occasionally see it in our city gardens, and in 

 autumn it often occurs in the Maple Swamp or in other similarly dense, moist 

 covers. The male, by reason of his strikingly contrasted black, slaty blue, and 

 white coloring and his peculiar, drawling song, is one of the most conspicuous 

 of our Warblers, but the modest-garbed and rather shy or, at least, retiring 

 female attracts comparatively little attention. It is unusual in this neighbor- 

 hood to find the males and females together or indeed in company with other 

 birds of their own kind and sex, but both sexes associate more or less freely 

 with Warblers of other species. 



204. Dendroica coronata (Linn.). 

 Myrtle Warbler. Yellow-rumped Warbler. Yellowrump. 



Abundant transient visitor in spring and autumn ; a few birds usually pass the winter 

 in one locality. 



seasonal occurrence. 



April 3, 1889, one male seen, Arlington, W. Faxon. 



April 12 — May 20. 

 May 30, 1875, abundant, Cambridge, W. Brewster. 



August 21, 1897, one seen, Arlington, W. Faxon. 

 September I — November i. (Winter.) 

 November 26, 1889, flock of ten seen, Belmont, W. Faxon. 



The Yellowrump, as it is familiarly called, is one of the most abundant of 

 our Warblers at its seasons of migration. The bulk of the spring flight passes 

 through eastern Massachusetts between April 25 and May 15, while the return 

 movement in autumn takes place chiefly during October. In spring the birds 

 haunt woodland for the most part, preferring deciduous groves or thickets about 

 the edges of ponds and meadows, but also occurring very numerously among 

 second-growth oaks, and more sparingly in evergreen trees, especially white 

 pines and red cedars. My notes state that during the forenoon of April 25, 

 1868, I found "several thousand" Myrtle Warblers at Fresh Pond. It was 

 snowing heavily at the time, but on the north side of the pond, near the water's 

 edge, the snow melted as fast as it fell and the pebbly shores were bare. Here, 

 for a distance of perhaps a quarter of a mile, the surface of the ground was 



