No warbler species migrated through the area in such consistently large numbers as did the Myrtle Warbler, and none had a more prolonged spring or fall migration. The first spring transients, mostly brilliant colored males, were generally seen between April 12 and 20. Thereafter the number of individuals increased rapidly, and from May 1 to May 5 between 100 and 200 birds, mostly males, could generally be daily noted. A marked decrease usually followed this migration wave. Between May 10 and 18, during the period of maximum numbers for most warbler species, there was a second large wave and then 150 to 500, mostly females and young males, were observed daily. A drastic decline in numbers took place shortly after May 18, and by May 23 few or none remained. The migration is about the same in Massachusetts. The birds come in waves, the adult males preceding the females. We usually see the first arrivals about the middle of April, drifting through the leafless tree-tops in the tall deciduous woods where we look for hawks' nests; in their brilliant new plumage with gleaming yellow patches they are easily recognized as myrtle warblers, even in the tops of the 60-foot trees. Mr. Forbush (1929) gives this picture of the later waves: In the latter days of April or very early in May when the south wind blows, when houstonias and violets begin to bloom on sunny southern slopes, when the wild cherry and apple trees and some of the birches, sumacs and the shrubbery in sheltered sunny nooks begin to put out a misty greenery of tiny leaflets, then we may look for the Myrtle Warblers, the males lovely in their nuptial dress of blue-gray, black, white and lemon-yellow. Then they may be found fluttering about in sheltered bushy bogs, catching the early insects that dance in the sunshine along the water-side. All through early May they move northward, or westward toward the mountains, migrating by day or night indifferently as the case may be. Soon most of them have passed beyond our borders and reached their summer homes in the coniferous forests of the Canadian Zone, the first of the family to come, close on the heels of retreating winter and while frost and snow still linger in the northern woods.