296 BIRDS OF ALABAMA 



and at Barachias in December, 1915. Brown recorded it very 

 numerous at Coosada from January to the middle of April.* 



Migrants from the North reach the State early in October. 

 Dean noted the first arrivals at Anniston, October 8 (1916). 

 McCormack noted the first at Leighton about October 10 

 (1889), and Dr. Avery saw many at Greensboro, October 20^ 

 (1890). Northward migration begins in March and con- 

 tinues until late in April or early in May. The last birds were 

 seen at Oakchia, April 24 (1912) ; Sand Mountain, April 29 

 (1911) ; Jasper, April 29 (1914) ; Leighton, April 30 (1912) ; 

 and Woodbine, May 2 (1908) (Saunders). 



General habits. — During its sojourn in the South this war- 

 bler lives in thickets, hedges, and the lower parts of brushy 

 woodland, while on the coast it frequents also the sand dunes 

 and the brushy borders of the marshes. It is an unsuspicious 

 bird, often feeding in dooryards or even about porches, and 

 is easily recognized by its yellow rump patch and its charac- 

 teristic tchip which is frequently uttered as it flits leisurely 

 from one i)erch to another. Its song, which is occasionally 

 heard during spring migration, is a simple and rather charac- 

 terless warble, Thayer describes it as "a loud and silvery 

 sleigh-bell trill." 



Food habits. — ^This warbler gets its common name from its 

 habit of feeding on the berries of the wax myrtle. These, 

 with berries of the red cedar, furnish in some localities a large 

 part of its winter food. Weed and Dearborn, who made a 

 special study of the autumn food of this warbler, found that 

 it ate bayberries, caddisflies, various insect larvae, beetles, 

 plant lice and their eggs, house flies and other diptera, and a 

 very few hymenopterous flies.t Forbush says of this bird: 



As spring approaches the Myrtle Warbler feeds less on ber- 

 ries and seed but eagerly hunts the early flies, moths and gnats 

 that appear on warm days in sheltered swamps and along water 

 courses. It now becomes of g^eat service to orchard and wood- 

 land, for large flights of these birds move slowly northward 

 through the State [Massachusetts], feeding very largely on the 

 tree pests that develop with the opening foliage.^ 



•Brown, N. C, Bull. Nutt. Ornith. Club, vol. 8, p. 173, 1878. 



tWeed and Dearborn, New Hampshire Col. Agr. Exp. Sta., Tech. Bull. No. 3, Nor. 

 1901. 



JForbush, E. H., Useful Birds and Their Protection, pp. 202-203, 1907. 



