322 BIRDS OP ALABAMA 



October 19 (1908). Nests with fresh eggs were found at 

 Florence, May 10 (1893), and at Autaugaville, May 28 

 (1909) ; and a nest with young at Teasley Mill (Montgomery 

 County), May 15 (1914). 



General habits. — The hooded warbler is a lover of cane- 

 brakes and swampy thickets in the river bottoms and is found, 

 also, in moist mountain woods. It dwells for the most part 

 near the ground, and as it flits through the shrubbery, dis- 

 playing the white outer tail feathers, it is a conspicuous and 

 very attractive object. It is an expert flycatcher and takes a 

 large part of its insect prey upon the wing. The alarm note 

 is a characteristic sharp cheep, and the song is a loud, whistled, 

 strongly accented ditty, subject to considerable variation. 

 Allison renders the shorter song as, se-whit, se-wheer, and the 

 longer one as, Whee-whee-whee-a-wheer.* The nest is placed 

 in a small bush or a bunch of cane stalks, usually 2 or 3 feet 

 above the ground; it is compactly woven of strips of bark, 

 plant down, etc., and is lined with fine grasses or dry weed- 

 stems and rootlets. 



Food habits. — The bird is said to feed chiefly on beetles, 

 larvae, plant lice, and spiders. Five stomachs examined from 

 Alabama contained remains of bugs, beetles, caterpillars, 

 Hymenoptera, and spiders. 



WILSON WARBLER : Wilsonia pusilla pusilla (Wilson) . 



State records. — The Wilson warbler occurs in the Gulf 

 States only as a very rare migrant. It is believed to migrate 

 northward by a long flight across the Gulf of Mexico, not 

 usually alighting until it reaches the southern end of the AUe- 

 ghenies.f It has been reported from Shellmound, Mississippi, 

 and Rising Fawn, Georgia, and there is one record from Ala- 

 bama — a bird seen by Saunders, at HoUins, May 2, 1908.$ 



General habits. — In migration this warbler is most often 

 found in low copses bordering woodland streams. It is a 

 rather active species, catching some of its food on the wing 

 like a flycatcher, and has the habit of twitching its tail spas- 

 modically up and dov/n. 



"Allison, A., in Chapman, The Warblers of Nortli America, p. 273, 1997. 

 tCooke, W. W., Biol. Surv. Bull. 18, pp. 127-128, 1904. 

 jSaunders, A. A., The Auk, vol. 25, p. 423, 1908. 



