CERULEAN WARBLER 173 



About Branchport, N. Y., Verdi Burtch reports the Cerulean as 

 locally abundant in mixed growths of oak and maple with a few birch 

 and hickory. The female, which, as usual, incubates unaided, is a 

 very close sitter seldom leaving the nest before one is near to her. On 

 one occasion, in spite of his best efforts to prevent her, a bird returned 

 to the nest three or four times while he was examining its contents. 



Song. — Brewster 1 compares the song to that of the Parula War- 

 bler but remarks "that of the latter bird has, however, at least two 

 regular variations; in one, beginning low down, he rolls his guttural 

 little trill quickly and evenly up the scale, ending, apparently, only 

 when he can get no higher; in the other, the commencement of this 

 trill is broken or divided into syllables, like zee, see, zee, ze-ee-ee-eep. 

 This latter variation is the one used by D. carulea, and I could 

 detect little or no difference in the songs of dozens of individuals. At 

 best it is a modest little strain. * * * In addition to the song, 

 they utter the almost universal Dendroicine lisp, and also, the char- 

 acteristic tchep of D. coronata, which I had previously supposed en- 

 tirely peculiar to that bird." 



"Six different writers agree in their descriptions of this bird's 

 song. It consists of two distinct parts, the first of several definite 

 single syllables with a comma pause between each two, followed by a 

 trilled syllable of about double the length of the first part. There is 

 thus a marked resemblance to Parula's song. The syllables tse, tse, 

 tse, tse, te-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e, serve to recall it to mind. The song rolls up 

 the scale quietly and evenly. The effect is less delicate thanParula's 

 song, yet not more wiry. A larger song from a larger bird. 



"My notes indicate that this Warbler sings from his arrival in the 

 first week in May until the third week in May, and again during the 

 last of June and first week of July. I have never heard it sing during 

 the fall migrations and find no record of a song period then." {Jones.) 



"The Cerulean is an incessant singer. It nests here and several 

 pairs are always here through June. The song is sweet, but rather 

 husky, and has a soft, wheeling, whirring, rolling quality to it. The 

 common song is of four notes all on one key, the last ones a quick, 

 upward, chromatic run, ending in a soft burr-r-r. May 24, 1905, I 

 heard a very unusual song. The form was like the Redstart's shree- 

 shree-shree, but the voice was the soft one of the Cerulean. He sang 

 many times and never gave the upward run." (Farwell, MS.) 



Nesting Site. — Smith 6 records the site near St Louis as from 

 forty to seventy-five feet up in sycamores, saddled on a limb well out 

 from the trunk. In southeastern Indiana, Butler 3 found the nests 



