worms in Illinois, had all eaten Cerambycid beetles, or borers, to the amount of ten per cent, of their stomach contents. Other important elements of the food of Warblers at times are the destructive click beetles and weevils. Leaf-eating beetles also are eaten. Many Hymenoptera are taken by the flycatching Warblers, such as the Redstart and other species that capture much of their food on the wing. Some of the wasps and bees taken are beneficial, but they are probably most useful when kept

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... in proper bounds by the birds. At times considerable numbers of hymenopterous parasites are taken. It is probable, however, that the larger numbers of these useful insects are found in the stomachs of Warblers only when the parasites are unduly abundant. A surplus of these insects is of no high among weak-voiced Warbler songs. The Black and White's common call-note, small and rather sharp, is pretty easily recogniz-* * * More extensive swamps, especially those bordering the larger streams, are subject to inundations, which, bringing down deposits of alluvial soil, bury up or sweep away the humbler plants, leaving a floor of unsightly mud, interspersed with pools of stagnant water. Such places answer well enough for the Prothonotary and Hooded Warblers, which, although essentially swamp-lovers, are not to any extent terrestrial; but you are not likely to find Swainson's Warbler in them, unless about the outskirts, or in islands elevated above the reach of the floods. Briefly, four things seem indispensable to its existence, viz., water, tangled thickets, patches of cane, and a rank growth of semi-aquatic plants. * * * "When not singing Swainson's Warbler is a silent, retiring bird, spending nearly his entire time on the ground in the darkest recesses of his favorite swamps, rambling about over the decaying leaves or among the rank water-plants in search of small beetles which constitute his principal food. His gait is distinctly a walk, his motions gliding and graceful. Upon alighting in the branches, after being flushed from the ground, he assumes a statuesque attitude, like that of a startled Thrush. While singing he takes an easier posture, but rarely moves on his perch. If desirous of changing his position, he flies from branch to branch, instead of hopping through the twigs in the manner of most Warblers. * * * "Judging by my personal experience, Swainson's Warbler is at all times a singularly unsuspicious bird." In Mississippi, Allison (MS.) writes that Swainson's Warbler is "Everywhere a bird of the cane-brakes-not the heavy riverswamp brakes of Arundinaria gigantea, but the thick patches of A. tecta. These are found in the borders of the deep river swamps, and in the low, rich, parts of somewhat less swampy woods. This Warbler, like the Worm-eating, is constantly rustling among the leaves; but it is nearly always on the ground that it seeks its food, among the fallen leaves at the roots of the trees." Song. -"A bird emerged from a thicket within a few yards of me, where he had been industriously searching among the fallen leaves, flew into a small sapling, and gave utterance to a loud, ringing and very beautiful song. * * * I was impressed by the absorbed manner in which this bird sings. Sitting quietly upon a