504 
ECONOMIC RELATIONS OF OUR BIRDS. 
methods of obtaining food it copies to some extent. It even drojDS onto the 
underside of horizontal limbs to secure some insect which may have retreated 
thither for safety. Besides high open woods, it affects groves and tamarack 
swamps. In May, 1874, one of these birds came into the school-room at Berlin, 
They pass us northward about the middle of May, and return between the 1st 
and 20th of September. I have taken the males in tamarack swamps as early 
as August 7th. 
Food: Of nine specimens examined, four had eaten nine small beetles; five, 
nineteen caterpillars; one, ants; and one, small winged insect. In the stomachs 
of three examined collectively, were found four caterpillars, four ants, one dip¬ 
terous insect .09 of an inch long, one medium sized heteropterous insect, four 
large crane-flies, and one ichneumon-fly (?) Another bird had in its stomach 
one heteropterous insect (TingisJ, nine small caterpillars, two leaf-beetles, and 
two large crane-flies. One specimen had eaten beetles and small diptera (Forbes). 
Small insects and berries (De Kay). 
39, Dendrceca striata (Forst.), Bd. BLACK-POLL AVARBLER. Group I. 
Class a. 
The extremely close resemblance between this species and the next in their 
autumnal attires, renders it very difficult to state, with certainty, which is the 
more abundant during the fall migration. It is my opinion that the Bay-bi‘easted 
Warbler far outnumbers this one. It is a migrant, and most of them pass south 
during the latter half of September. Woods, swampy groves and orchards are 
its usual haunts in the fall. 
Food: Of four specimens examined one had eaten a caterpillar, and one three 
beetles. Other insects, estimated at thirteen, were observed. 
Canker-worm (Brewer). Insects caught upon the wing (Coues). Winged 
insects (Wilson). Canker-worm (Maynard). 
40. Dendrceca castanea (Wils.), Bd. BAY-BREASTED AVARBLER; 
AUTUMNAL AVARBLER. Group I. Class b. 
This abundant migrant passes north between the 10th and 25th of May, and 
returns again, greatly reinforced, between the 1st and 20th of September, At 
these times it is most abundant in groves of small oaks and in high, open woods 
adjacent to fields, but orchards, the borders of damj) thickets, and clumps of 
willows in low meadows are also visited by it. It is an active and skillful insect- 
hunter, and obtains its food along the branches of trees, among the foliage and 
upon the wing. It is not, however, as habitually a fly-catcher as many others 
of its genus. 
Food: Of nineteen specimens examined, three had eaten seven ants; flve, six 
caterpillars—one of them hair}^ and 1.5 inches long; one, a moth; three, six 
diptera; seven, fifteen beetles, among which were two lady-birds fChilocorus 
bivulneruhisJ, and two squash beetles fDiabrotica vittataj; one, six leaf-hoppers 
fCicadellinaJ; and one, a small dragon-fly. The whole number of insects con¬ 
tained in the nineteen stomachs was eighty-seven, of which eighty were adult 
forms. 
In the stomachs of two birds were found one caterpillar (geometer), flve flies, 
one ichneumon-fly, one winged ant, one small beetle and one small chrysalid. 
Larvae of insects (Wilson). Canker-worm and other insects (De Kay). Small 
insects, many of which are taken upon the wing. It also searches for insects 
among the blossoms of the cotton plant (Audubon). 
