Page:The Singing Tree - William Henry Mousley - The Auk 36(3) - P0339-p0348.pdf/3

Vol. XXXVI 1919 time and also in this same wood, for his persistent singing from the top of a particular birch tree eventually enabled me to locate the nest and eggs, as I shall relate hereafter. Neither of these Warblers had been observed here during the breeding season, but I was familiar with them at migration times, when the former has always struck me as being somewhat of a mute species.

However, to return to the Myrtle Warbler (Dendroica coronata), after finding its nest I measured the distance of the latter from the ash or 'singing tree,' and found it to be twenty-one yards. I did this at the time and have continued it ever since) more from habit, than with any preconceived idea in my mind that it was going to be of material benefit to me hereafter, or that it would eventually enable me to answer with some degree of confidence, the question (which I have adopted as the title of this paper) recently sprung upon me in a letter from one of my most valued friends, viz: How near to the nests do the male birds generally sing?

To this question I replied that in my experience if a male bird could be found singing constantly in the same tree or trees, the nest would generally be found within twenty yards of the spot, in support of which I have prepared the following table, from which the average distance of the rest from the 'singing tree' or observation post of the male, for a number of birds works out at rather less than twenty yards, or to be precise seventeen yards.