WARBLERS 295 



BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLER : Dendroica 

 caerulescens caendescens (Gmelin). 



State records. — The black-throated blue warbler occurs as 

 a rare migrant. Brown noticed only one at Coosada, April 26, 

 1878 ;t Saunders saw the bird at Hollins, April 19 and May 3, 

 1908;** and Miss Parkhurst reports it from Talladega. I 

 observed two (male and female) near Montgomery, May 7, 

 1911. These are the only records thus far obtained. 



General habits. — This warbler inhabits the "lower stories" 

 of the woods and has a decided preference for deep, moist tim- 

 ber where there is considerable underbrush. It is an unsus- 

 picious bird, easily observed and recognized by the squarish 

 white patch in the wing or by its drowsy, drawled song — "an 

 insect-like buzzing note repeated three or four times with a 

 rising inflection. It sounds a little like the breath sucked 

 through the teeth,"tt 



MYRTLE' WARBLER : Dendroica coronata coronata 

 (Linnaeus). 



State records. — The myrtle, or yellow-rumped, warbler is 

 one of the most abundant species of its family and is also the 

 hardiest. It winters in moderate numbers over most of the 

 State, and in the pine flats and palmetto hammocks of the 

 C!oast Belt is at that season extremely abundant, being indeed 

 the only really abundant bird of the region. At Orange 

 Beach, in January, 1912, and at Spanish Fort, in December, 

 1915, we found it in large numbers, not only in the woods and 

 clearings, but even on the marshes and sand dunes bordering 

 the Gulf. During a heavy fog, several individuals were no- 

 ticed feeding on the bare sand flats close to the surf, a situa- 

 tion usually frequented only by sandpipers. On Petit Bois 

 Island, in February, 1912, and November, 1915, the species 

 was extremely abundant. It was common at Bayou Labatre 

 in February, 1912, but conspicuously absent during February 

 and March at Jackson, Auburn, and other points in the in- 

 terior. It was likewise scarce at Ashford in November, 1916, 

 but was fairly common at Woodville and Florence in March, 



tBrown, N. C, Bull. Nutt. Ornith. Club, vol. 3, p. 173, 1878. 



••Saunders, A. A., The Auk, vol. 25, p. 422, 1908. 



tfPaddock, I. M., in Chapman, The Warblers of North America, p. 138, 1907. 



