310 BIRDS OF ALABAMA 



on an ascending chromatic scale, uttered rather rapidly, sug- 

 gesting the syllables, zee-zee-zee-zee-zee-zee. The nest is 

 placed in a bush or sapling, from 2 to 5 feet above the ground ; 

 oak, hickory, dogwood, sweet gum, elm, or other deciduous 

 trees are most often selected, but in some localities pines or 

 cedars seem to be preferred. 



Food habits. — Six stomachs of the prairie warbler from Ala- 

 bama contained finely ground remains of beetles, bugs, and 

 Hymenoptera, probably wasps or bees. The bird is known to 

 feed also on ants, caterpillars, and spiders. 



OVEN-BIRD: Seiuriis aurocapillits aurocapillits (Linnaeus). 



State records. — The oven-bird occurs as a rather uncommon 

 migrant, chiefly in autumn, and as a summer resident in the 

 hills and mountains of the northern counties (fig. 23). It 

 breeds commonly on Sand Mountain and on Monte Sano, near 

 Huntsville ; also in the wooded hills about Florence, and rarely 

 at Anniston, where I took a singing male, June 7, 1913. 



In spring migration the oven-bird occurs rarely in the 

 northern part of the State, but has never been taken at that 

 season south of Montgomery County. It arrived on Sand 

 Mountain (near Carpenter) , where it breeds, April 16, 1911 ; 

 April 8, 1912, April 17, 1914, and April 18, 1917. Single birds 

 were taken at Barachias, April 24, 1912, and May 1, 1913, and 

 5 were noted between Jasper and Ardell, May 1 to 5, 1914. 

 In fall the bird has been noted at Leighton between August 10 

 and October 16 ; at Greensboro, between August 21 and Octo- 

 ber 19; and at Castleberry, October 13 (1908). A nest with 

 five eggs was found at Florence, May 7, 1912. 



General habits. — This warbler, formerlv known as the 

 golden-crowned thrush, is terrestrial in habit, and a dweller in 

 rich, deciduous woodland, almost always in dry hilly regions 

 and never in wet bottom lands. It is a dainty walker and re- 

 sembles in appearance and habits the true thrushes. Its song, 

 a vigorous and characteristic utterance, is rendered from a 

 fallen log or a low limb of a tree. Burroughs has translated it 

 as teach-er, teach-er, teach-er, teaeh-er, and has dubbed the 

 bird the "teacher bird," but the accent is usually placed on the 



