Quebec: 2 records, June 15 and 20.
DENDROICA DOMINICA DOMINICA (Linnaeus)
EASTERN YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER
Contributed by Alexander Sprunt, Jr.
HABITS
One of the botanical attractions of the South is the Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) that drapes with its graceful, swaying strands the cypresses in the lagoons and backwaters, the live oaks that stand in spectacular avenues on the approaches of so many plantations of the Carolina Low Country and in magnificent groves throughout the Coastal Plain, and even the pines that forest wide reaches of Georgia and northern Florida. To many ornithologists the thought of this Spanish moss brings to mind the birds partial to it, particularly the eastern yellow-throated warbler. Indeed, in the coastal part of the range of this bird the two are all but synonymous, so that where the moss is scarce, so, too, is the eastern yellow-throated warbler. Since childhood I have thought of this little gray and yellow sprite, one of the handsomest of a handsome tribe, as the animated spirit of the Spanish-moss country.
Spring.—The eastern yellow-throated warbler is much less migratory than many species of its genus. In the southern portion of its range it is a permanent resident, though of course, quiet at that season and therefore difficult to find; but it occurs throughout the year and can be seen on almost any day in winter from the Charleston, S. C., area southward to Lake Okeechobee, Fla.
In Florida, though it is resident in much of the state, a marked increase of migrants from the south occurs in late February and early March. Arthur H. Howell (1932) states that “the beginning of spring migration is indicated by the appearance of the birds at Sombrero Key Light March 11th.” He also states that F. M. Chapman noted arrivals at Gainesville on March 2. (Some birds are mated by March 11 in the vicinity of Charleston.) Thus, the spring migration seems a rather erratic and long-drawn-out movement.