BAY-BREASTED WARBLER. 237 



BAY-BREASTED WARBLER. 



Dexdroica castanea. 



Char. Male : back grayish olive, streaked with black ; forehead and 

 cheeks black ; sides of neck buffy ; crown, throat, breast, and sides chest- 

 nut ; remainder of under parts buffish ; wing-bars and patches on tail 

 white. Female : above, olive streaked with black ; beneath, buffy, sides 

 and breast tinged with dull rufous. Length 5)^ to 6 inches. 



Nest. In an open woodland, on horizontal branch of coniferous tree 

 10 to 20 feet from the ground ; of twigs, shreds of bark, grass roots, and 

 moss, lined with fine roots, moss, or pine-needles. 



Egg^- 3-6 (usually 4) ; white, with blue tint, or bluish green, spotted 

 with reddish brown ; 0.70 X 0.50. 



This is a still rarer and more transient visitor than the last. 

 It arrives in Pennsylvania from the South some time in April 

 or about the beginning of May, and towards the 12 th or 15 th 

 of the same month it visits Massachusetts, but seldom stays 

 more than a week or ten days, and is very rarely seen on its 

 return in the autumn. Audubon once obsen-ed several in 

 Louisiana late in June, so that it probably sometimes breeds 

 in very secluded places without regularly proceeding to the 

 northern regions. It is an active insect- hunter, and keeps 

 much tow^ards the tops of the highest trees, where it darts about 

 with great activity, and hangs from the twigs with fluttering 

 wings. One of these birds, which was wounded in the wing, 

 soon became reconciled to confinement, and greedily caught 

 and devoured the flies which I offered him ; but from the 

 extent of the injury, he did not long survive. In habits and 

 manners, as well as markings, this species greatly resembles 

 the preceding. 



This Warbler is exceptional in being more abundant in New 

 England in spring than in autumn. Mr. Mcllwraith reports that 

 the same rule obtains in Ontario, but Dr. Wheaton considered that 

 in Ohio the birds were more numerous during the autumn : and 

 these apparently conflicting statements suggest an interesting phase 

 in the question of migration routes. 



The bird is common as a summer resident in the northern por- 

 tions of New England, New York, and Michigan, though rather rare 



