316 BIRDS OF ALABAMA 



also found at Woodbine, M^ 19 and June 9; Greensboro, 

 June 4 ; Ardell, June 26 ; and at Erin, Clay County, June 27. 



General habits. — This warbler is a lover of moist, wooded 

 ravines among the hills and of swampy river-bottom woods. 

 Although keeping for the most part well concealed in the 

 underbrush it is not particularly shy. It is a dainty walker 

 and spends most of its time on the ground, often singing with- 

 out ascending to a higher perch. The song is a rich, melodious 

 warble, somewhat resemWing certain songs of the Carolina 

 wren, but less vigorous. Chapman watched one of the birds 

 for three hours, and says : "During this period, with the ex- 

 ception of five interruptions of less than forty-five seconds 

 each, he sang with the greatest regularly once every twelve 

 seconds. * * * i found him singing and when I departed he 

 showed no signs of ceasing."* The nest is a bulky structure 

 of dead leaves, grasses, grapevine bark, etc., placed on the 

 ground in the woods, usually at the base of a small bush or 

 in a clump of herbaceous plants. 



Food habits. — Audubon says that this warbler destroys 

 great numbers of spiders, "which it frequently obtains by 

 turning over the withered leaves on the ground."t Goss 

 states that it occasionally eats pokeberries or other small ber- 

 ries.J Two stomachs examined from Alabama contained re- 

 mains of bugs, beetles, caterpillars, ants, and other Hymenop- 

 tera. 



[CONNECTICUT WARBLER: Oporomis agilis (Wilson). 



The Connecticut warbler breeds in Manitoba, Minnesota, and Michi- 

 gan and migrates in autumn to South America. It is fairly common in 

 spring migration in the Mississippi Valley and should be found at that 

 season in Alabama. In autumn it migrates chiefly along the Atlantic 

 Coast. It has been observed several times in May at Chattanooga, 

 Tennessee, by Mrs, M. B. Mitchell.] 



[MOURNING WARBLER: Oporomis Philadelphia (Wilson). 



This warbler during the breeding season is an inhabitant of the North- 

 ern States from Minnesota to Maine, and of southern Canada. In win- 

 ter it passes south to Central and South America. It occurs commonly 



•Chapman, F. M., The Warblers of North America, p. 238, 190T. 

 tAudubon, J. J., Ornith. Biosr., voL I, p. 1S6, 1831. 

 jiGose, N. S., History of the Birds of Kansas, p. 579, 1391. 



