Part 44

Early dates of fall arrival are: Louisiana--New Orleans, July 15. Mississippi--Bay St. Louis, July 7. Florida--St. Marks, July 18. Mexico--Sonora, Sáric, July 31; Oaxaca, Tapanatepec, August 20. Honduras--Lancetilla, August 27. El Salvador--Le Unión, August 1. Nicaragua--Bluefields, August 22. Costa Rica--Puerto Limón, August 17. Panamá--Almirante, August 13. Colombia--Bonda, Santa Marta Region, August 27. Venezuela--Cantaura Anzoatique, September 27. British Guiana--Abary River, September 2. Surinam--Paramaribo, August 28.

Banding.--The majority of the banding recoveries indicate the return to the place of banding and give records of longevity. Three birds banded as adults at Wilton, N. Dak., were retrapped at the same station in the following year. One banded at Sioux City, Iowa, on May 17, 1929, was killed by an auto at the same place June 18, 1932. One banded at Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., on May 30, 1926, was retrapped on May 29, 1929; another banded at the same station, May 20, 1928, was killed by an auto June 28, 1934. A yellow warbler banded at North Eastham, Cape Cod, Mass., on May 28, 1931, was retrapped at the same station May 15, 1932, May 18, 1936, and August 6, 1937.

Casual records.--The yellow warbler has twice been collected in Bermuda: November 23, 1875; and October 14, 1903. It has also been observed near Habana, Cuba, on September 3 and 10, 1939. There are three winter records in South Carolina; it was seen at a feeding station at Summerville in the winter of 1939 and on January 21, 1940; and at Charleston on January 18, 1947.

Egg dates.--California: 110 records, April 16 to July 15; 56 records, May 21 to June 19, indicating the height of the season.

Massachusetts: 113 records, May 19 to June 30; 82 records, May 27 to June 7.

Minnesota: 26 records, May 29 to June 23; 17 records, May 29 to June 8.

New Jersey: 32 records, May 15 to June 24; 24 records, May 26 to June 7.

Utah: 23 records, May 8 to July 16; 12 records, June 6 to 17.

Washington: 21 records, May 28 to June 24; 11 records, June 2 to 7.

Baja California: 11 records, May 8 to June 12; 6 records, May 15 to June 2, indicating the height of the season.

Mexico: 6 records, June 4 to 20 (Harris).

DENDROICA PETECHIA AMNICOLA Batchelder

NEWFOUNDLAND YELLOW WARBLER

HABITS

Based on a series of 14 adult males and 3 adult females from Newfoundland, Charles F. Batchelder (1918) gave the above name to the yellow warblers that breed in that region. After giving a detailed description of the type from Curslet, Newfoundland, he remarks: "When seen in series, the yellow of the under parts is duller, less richly golden, and the chestnut streaks are darker. In comparison with aestiva, the female is duskier, less yellowish, throughout the upper parts. * * *

"In general coloring D. ae. amnicola shows a certain similarity to D. ae. rubiginosa, but it is readily distinguishable from that race by the yellow forehead which, as in D. ae. aestiva, contrasts strongly with the green of the back."

Its breeding range extends from Newfoundland to central Alaska, and from Nova Scotia to British Columbia, which includes nearly all of Canada. It migrates through most of the United States, principally through the Mississippi River Basin, and winters in Mexico and possibly South America.

Only a few nesting data are referable to the Newfoundland yellow warbler. Henry Mousley (1926), at Hatley, Quebec, saw a female yellow warbler leaving a large cedar hedge, and says: "Proceeding to the spot from which she came out, I found the nest, which, unlike the usual run of nests of this species, was heavily lined with feathers, instead of plant down. * * * It was nine feet above the ground, in the forks of a small cedar tree."

Roderick MacFarlane (1908) found this warbler abundant in northern Mackenzie, where the nests were "placed on dwarf willows and small scrub pine at a height of a few feet above the ground." Dr. E. W. Nelson (1887) writes:

This is, perhaps, the most abundant warbler throughout Alaska. It is found everywhere in the wooded interior, on the bushy borders of the water-courses, or frequenting the scattered clumps of stunted alders on the shores of Bering Sea, and the coast of the Arctic about Kotzebue Sound. * * * It breeds to the shores of the Arctic Ocean wherever it can find a willow or alder patch wherein to build its nest and shelter its young. * * * In fall, from the last of July to towards the last of August, they come about the houses and native villages to feast on the fare they find provided abundantly in those localities, until, a little later in the season, a few chilling storms send them trooping away with others of their kind to far distant winter quarters.

Dr. Herbert Brandt (1943) writes:

The Newfoundland Yellow Warbler was not observed about Hooper Bay, but as soon as I reached the willows near the mouth of the Yukon River I found it common, and also of like distribution at the other stops that I made on the river as far up as Mountain Village. * * *

The nest of the Newfoundland Yellow Warbler in the Yukon delta is placed usually in a small willow from two to six feet above the ground. The foliage in early July is but partly unfolded, for the alders are yet in their golden curls and the willows in their silver catkins, so the nest is rather conspicuous.

The bird chooses a pronged fork usually with not more than three or four shoots, and in this form constructs its beautiful, trim nest, which is made of plant down and inner bark shreds, all circularly woven and firmly rimmed.

Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway (1874) say: "The notes of Mr. Kennicott and the memoranda of Messrs. McFarlane, Ross, and Lockhart attest the extreme abundance of this species in the farthest Arctic regions. In nearly every instance the nests were placed in willows from two to five feet from the ground, and near water. In one instance Mr. Ross found the eggs of this species in the nest of Turdus swainsoni, which had either been deserted or the parent killed, as the eggs were in it, and would probably have been hatched by the Warbler with her own."

As evidence of the late migration of this subspecies, Robie W. Tufts writes to me from Nova Scotia: "The latest date of departure which appears to be normal is October 7, 1936, though they generally leave during the second week of September. On November 25, 1929, a female was collected by me at Wolfville. The bird was searching for food very actively and its general behavior was decidedly abnormal. The bird's body showed slight traces of emaciation." Birds that have been recorded in Massachusetts as late as September 30, long after our local breeding birds have left, were probably of this subspecies.

DENDROICA PETECHIA RUBIGINOSA (Pallas)

ALASKA YELLOW WARBLER