Near Wareham, Mass.
1900.
June 12-14
(No 8)
(Dendroica discolor) many fold since my previous visit in
I have never seen them so numerous elsewhere. From morning to
night whenever we went their songs were almost constantly
ringing in our ears and often three or four males were
heard singing at once. Their favorite haunts were the more
open woods where the larger trees have been thinned by forest fires
and the ground is densely covered by young sprout growths
(almost exclusively of oaks) from two to five or six feet in height
and the extensive tracts of bear oak which border the woods
and roadsides or extend over hundreds of acres on the
open, moss-clad, barren hills but we also heard them in
many places when the ground was heavily shaded by old,
densely-growing trees. Throughout this region, according to
Mr. Bangs, the nest is invariably placed in an oak sapling
only a few feet above the ground.
  The typical song here is peculiar; the first three notes are all
on the same key and given slowly in a drawling tone; they
are immediately followed by four shorter, more rapidly-uttered
notes each of which is on a higher key than the one preceding it.
A few males, however, sang as do our Belmont birds.
  16. Seiurus auricapillus. - Common & very generally distributed
but less numerous, I should say, than in the region near
Boston & Concord.
  17. Geothlypis trichas. - Very common along water courses &
in bushy swamps.
  18. Setophaga ruticilla. - Not common or, at least, only
very locally so being confined to a few heavily
shaded swamps.
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