AUTUMN FOOD OF THE MYRTLE WARBLER 
I 21 
autumn largely upon the berries of the red cedar and myrtle. 
Aududon says, “This species feeds on insects, is an expert 
fly catcher, and a great devourer of caterpillars. During the 
winter, however, its principal food consists of berries of 
various kinds, especially those of the myrtle and pokeweed. 
They also feed on the seeds of various grasses.” Nuttall’s 
account is in the same tenor. Writing from Massachusetts 
he says of them, “ Passing parties continue with us in gardens 
and woods till almost the close of November, feeding now 
almost exclusively on the myrtle-wax berry Myricacerifera > 
as well as on those of the Virginia junipers.” 
FOOD VALUE OF BAYBERR1ES 
This bird is called the Myrtle Warbler because of its fond- 
ness for the berries of the bayberry or waxberry myrtle, a 
small bush common along the Atlantic coast. To determine 
the food value of these berries Professor F. W. Morse kindly 
made an analysis of them, which he reports as follows : 
“ The berries were extracted with hot alcohol and yielded 
1 8 per cent, of waxy matter. After this treatment there was 
left on the seeds a loose coating which could easily be rubbed 
off, leaving the smooth, hard seeds in about the state in which 
they are excreted by birds. This coating was removed by 
rubbing the seeds with a stiff brush over a fine- meshed sieve. 
Thus separated the coating formed 12.5 per cent, of the 
original seed. The waxy extract was greenish in color and 
contained 1.06 per cent, protein. The loose coating was 
brown in color and contained 13.2 per cent, protein. Sum- 
ming up, the total matter separated from the seeds amounted 
to 30.5 per cent of the whole, of which over one half was wax. 
The protein formed 5-7 P er cen t* of the total matter removed, 
or 1.75 per cent, of the original seed.” 
THE RESULTS IN DETAIL 
The following paragraphs give the results of a careful study 
of the food of the specimens examined : 
A young female warbler was seen feeding, September 13, about the 
branches of a pine tree that had died during the summer and still retained 
some of its yellowed foliage. During the ten minutes it was watched it 
