IVlarjone R'Jth Ross, 



MAGNOLIA WARBLER 125 



new world, and doubted whether human eyes had ever beheld the 

 like before. * * * i can recall with sufficient distinctness for 

 identification but a single bird of them all, — a fine adult male Black 

 and Yellow Warbler [as this species was then called], which at the 

 time I considered the handsomest and which I still think cannot be 

 surpassed in beauty by any New England representative of the 

 family." 



Later, in the same paper this author states that as a spring mi- 

 grant in eastern Massachusettts the Magnolia Warbler is abundant, 

 frequenting "willow thickets near streams, ponds, and other damp 

 places. * * * It is also not unusual to find many in the upland 

 woods, especially where young pines or other evergreens grow 

 thickly." In the autumn, he adds, it is less common and its haunts 

 are then "somewhat different from those which it affects during its 

 northward journey. W? now find it most commonly on hillsides, 

 among scrub-oaks and scattered birches and in company with such 

 birds as the Yellow-rump (Dendroica coronatd) and the Blackpoll 

 {D. striata)." 



About Monadnock, Gerald Thayer writes: "This most beautiful 

 Warbler is a common summer bird between 2,800 and 1,000 feet, 

 wherever there are second growth spruce woods, and especially such 

 woods combined with bits of upland pasture. 'Spruce Warbler' would 

 be an appropriate name for it in this region — quite as appropriate 

 as 'Birch Warbler' for the Nashville. These two birds may often 

 be found almost together on the same pasture-border ; but the Magnolia 

 keeps to the spruces (and other conifers) at least as strictly as the 

 Nashville keeps to the birches (and other broad-leaf trees). 



"The feeding-range or 'beat' of this Warbler in its chosen sum- 

 mer woodlands about Monadnock, lies between the tip-tops of second 

 growth spruce trees and their lowest branches. Although not shy, 

 it is apt to stick rather closely to the inner recesses of spruce clumps, 

 less often showing itself on the outermost twigs than do the Black- 

 bumian and Black-throated Green. In its movements it is fidgety and 

 quick, and it often partly spreads its broadly and centrally white-banded 

 tail, distinctive of the species in all plumages," {Thayer, MS.) 



Song. — "The Magnolia belongs among the full-voiced Warblers, 

 and is a versatile singer, having at least two main songs, both subject to 

 much and notable variation. The typical form of the commoner 

 song is peculiar and easily remembered : Weeto meeto weeetee-eet, — or 

 Witchi, witchi, witchi tit, — the first four notes deliberate and even and 

 comparatively low in tone, the last three hurrie;,d and higher pitched, 



