BY THE WAYSIDE 
51 
nig up the small Nile green midges and 
tiny black Chironomids that swarmed 
close to the ground that April morn¬ 
ing. It would not be surprising if this 
proved a main item of the bird’s sum¬ 
mer food in the far Northern valleys of 
Canada where it breeds. There, ac¬ 
cording to Professor Johannsen, nearly 
one third of the known North Ameri¬ 
can species of Chironomid midges have 
been found. With reference to the 
date first seen, let me note, that two 
vears before Professor Mitchell an- 
t/ 
noiuiced in his lectures to teachers at 
the Milwaukee Normal School, the 
same species arrived April 27th, 1909. 
According to Mr. Mitchell’s published 
records in the “Arbor and Bird Day 
Annual of Wisconsin,” this bird ap¬ 
peared as early as April 25, 1908, and 
the same date 1910. Although a manu¬ 
script list belonging to Director H. L. 
Ward of the Milwaukee Public Mu¬ 
seum compiled from all available lists 
reaching back twenty years or more 
earlier, mentions April 12th and 22nd 
as the earliest dates. The majority of 
Professor Mitchell’s records run from 
May 3rd to the 12th, even one on May 
23rd, and Cooke’s Biological Survey 
Bulletin 18 on the warblers, gives 
(page 94) the average date of arrival 
in southern Wisconsin as April 30. 
Then they go on to the breeding 
grounds north of Manitoba and west of 
Hudson Bay. 
Returning to my little friends on the 
ground, I found them darting this way 
and that after the Chironomid midges, 
which were keeping close to the-surface 
or rising heavily from the steaming 
wet ground. They delighted me with 
a sommersault or two like the Redstart 
in the sudden quest of some tiny fly; 
and I wondered how they avoided 
humping their red crowns on the litter 
of twigs in trying to be acrobats so 
near the ground. 1 felt doubly satisfied 
that these birds let me hear their songs 
so often during the spring migration, 
although they sang but twice or thrice 
in any given hour’s observation. It 
was amusing to see one present another 
with a midge on one occasion when two 
were foraging close together. Is this 
evidence that the warblers pair before 
they come north? I heard them sing 
again in flocks of two, six to a dozen or 
so, on May 6, 7, 8, 9 and 13. 
Unlike what Chapman says of the 
Eastern variety, “he has no liking for 
the wood, and even trees in the open do 
not seem to attract him. His tastes 
bring him to fields and roadsides.” 
This form, through the spring migra¬ 
tion, chose the woodsy borders and 
woods proper. I did not observe the 
trait noted by Chapman until Sept. 12 
to 13, 1911, when I again made the 
palm warblers’ acquaintance at Milton 
and Brodhead, Wisconsin. As the last 
straggler passes through Chicago about 
October 9tli, my 1911 date would seem 
to have been quite regular. Chap¬ 
man’s note was proved by seeing these 
autumn migrants in an open stubble 
field, although some were still sticking 
to cover, flushing insects along some 
nursery rows. 
In conclusion, I shall be glad to hear 
from readers other points of interest- 
noted about this often seen, but little 
known species, whose migration so 
early in the spring and so late in the 
autumn ranks it among our hardiest 
North American warblers. 
