218 YELLOW PALM WARBLER 



perhaps midway between them and the weak-voiced, for its tones, 

 though clear and sweet, are by no means loud. It has at least two 

 main songs, both varying a good deal. Both are chiefly trills, one 

 slower and fuller-toned, the other much quicker and 'thinner.' To both, 

 but most often and most fully to the louder song, separate, twittered 

 notes are sometimes added, at the beginning and end, or sometimes 

 at the beginning or the end alone. The trill in all its variations has a 

 delicate softness of tone, and a hint of brokenness and hesitancy in 

 delivery, which clearly separates it from all (?) other trill-songs of 

 New England birds. The migrant Yellow Palm's commonest call is 

 a rather weak tsip, small and fine, but with a touch of softness, a 

 recognizable though scantily peculiar little note. But the bird makes 

 other, more subdued and ambiguous lisps" (Thayer, MS.) 



Nesting Site. — Knight 2 records nests found near Bangor, Maine, 

 in the following situations : at the base of a small spruce imbedded in 

 sphagnum moss or a tuft of grass; at the foot of a small fir bush; 

 between two small bushes, and four inches from the ground in a small 

 spruce bush. 



Nest. — The same author describes the nest as ''composed of fine 

 dry sedges and grasses, lined with a very few feathers and one or two 

 horse-hairs. Its external diameter was three inches and its internal 

 diameter at the top two inches. Its depth outside was two and a half 

 inches and the depth inside one inch." 



Eggs. — 4 or 5. Knight 1 describes a set of 5 as of "a buffy white 

 color, spotted with brown and lilac. The spots are thicker toward 

 . the larger end, and tend to form an irregular wreath." Size ; .63X.50, 

 .64X.50, .65x48, .62x48, .65x49. (Figs. 82,83.) 



Nesting Dates. — Bangor, Me., May 30, nest with newly hatched 

 young — June 26, two eggs, incubated about four days. (Knight). 



Biographical References 



(1) O. W. Knight, The Nest and Eggs of the Yellow Palm Warbler, (in 

 Maine), Nidologist, II, 1895, 140; (2) Contributions to the Life History of 

 the Yellow Palm Warbler, Journ. Me. Orn. Soc., VI, 1904, 36. (3) Wm. 

 Brewster, Birds of the Cambridge Region, 345. 



Genus SEIURUS Swainson 



The three members of this genus are, comparatively speaking, 

 large birds with rather slender, straight, notched, rounded bills (more 

 compressed in 5". aurotapillus) and heavily streaked underparts. Rictal 

 bristles are barely evident. The wing is long, averaging an inch or 

 more longer than the tail ; the three outer primaries are longest and of 



