50 
BY Tilt: WAYSIDE 
THE PALM WARBLER 
By A. C. Burrill, Entomologist’s Office, Madison, Wis. 
Most bird students enjoy not only 
adding a new species to the list of 
those they can identify, but take even 
greater joy in recognizing . an old 
friend in a new garb. Such an expe¬ 
rience came to me the past year with 
reference to the palm warbler, the yel¬ 
low variety with which I became ac¬ 
quainted May 10, 1900, at North Brook¬ 
field, Massachusetts. It was a balmy, 
spring day, the wind whispered its en¬ 
chantments in the arborvitae hedge, 
bringing forth blossoms throughout 
the countryside, when I caught sight 
of a little yellow bird in the larch tree 
whose bright red blossom cones were 
just coming into evidence. As the 
bird dipped its head, 1 caught a chest¬ 
nut flash and I rubbed my eyes to 
make sure it. was not one of the red 
blossom cones nearby. Then I remem¬ 
bered him, the yellow red-poll or palm 
warbler of the eastern states, due in 
the vicinity of Cambridge between 
April 15 and May 5, according to 
Chapman. This bright specimen of 
the eastern variety must have stayed 
a week over timeon purpose to ac¬ 
quaint himself with me for in twc 
vears of bird records previous to 1900, 
taken in the hill country of central 
Massachusetts, Worcester County, I 
had been unable to make friends with 
him. From now on, I had to keep in 
mind that the yellow warbler is bright 
yellow below, streaked with rufous; 
that the yellow palm warbler is yellow 
below, the sides of the breast streaked 
will rufous and that the crown of the 
latter is chestnut, while the crown of 
the former yellow bird is a brighter 
greenish-yel ow. Looking up from be¬ 
neath a large tree, these fine points 
were not always satisfactory for a 
quick determination, but 1 soon saw 
hat the curious little wag of his tail 
makes the redpoll almost unique 
among the smaller warblers. 
Over ten years after this identifica¬ 
tion, 1 was busy every morning from 
before sun-up until breakfast time 
studying the spring migration along 
the Milwaukee River region near Won¬ 
derland, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. On 
April 27, 1911, 1 saw a chipper little 
bird darting about the ground in the 
river woods; and, catching sight of his 
chestnut crown and back only, I jotted 
down as a chipping sparrow, for the 
bird was suggestively like a chippy, 
with a single “chip’’ note. The next 
second it flashed on me that that tail, 
always bobbing up and down, was not 
sparrowlike; and before 1 could exam¬ 
ine the bird more closely he darted 
away from view. The next day, which 
was rainy, 1 again came upon two or 
three of them and heard one of them 
sing from the ground, a simple trill 
like a chipping sparrow. I had not 
heard the chipping sparrow sing on the 
ground, and was sure this bird must be 
different. Soon I distinguished in the 
shady woods the brownish, olive-green 
reflection of the back, brighter towards 
the tail, which indicated the Western 
variety of the redpoll warbler. When 
I saw the whitish yellow color below, j 
I felt sure of my find,—with it, the jov 
of recognizing the cousin of my eastern 
friend. 
How busy the little fellow was, pick- 
