LAND BIRDS. 617 



state. It is known to nest practically everywhere 



north of the Saginaw-Grand Valley, and probably 



nests here and there in favorable localities throughout 



all the southern counties as well. It is decidedly 



fond of evergreens, and although during migration 



it may occur almost anywhere, it is seldom seen 



during the nesting season at any great distance from 



groves of coniferous trees. It abounds in pine, 



spruce and hemlock regions, and not infrecpiently 



a belt of red cedar or Virginia juniper will be found ^'f;rppn^v^bier"'^'From 



to harbor several pairs, although the surrounding Hoffmann's Guide.— 



territory may yield none. _ _ «°"^^*°"' ^'^^^^ * ^«- 



It arrives from the south with considerable regularity during the first 

 week in May, the earliest record at Ann Arbor in twenty-five years, accord- 

 ing to Mr. Norman A. Wood, being April 24, 1905, and the average for 

 the same period. May 3. Owing, however, to its great abundance, and 

 the fact that its breeding area extends far northward of our state, migrants 

 continue to troop northward all through May and doubtless some are still 

 traveling toward their northern breeding grounds while nesting has already 

 begun in the middle parts of the state. Records of specimens killed on 

 Spectacle Reef Light, Lake Huron, range from May 7, 1889 and 1894 to 

 May 18, 1891, and even to June 2 in the same 3"ear. It begins to move 

 southward again the latter part of August and is often abundant all through 

 September, while stragglers linger until the middle of October. 



Dr. Gibbs tells us that in 1879 C. W. Gunn took a female in Ottawa 

 county with nesting material in her bill, and both Mr. Gunn and Dr. Gibbs 

 are confident that this species nests in Kent county as well as in Ottawa 

 county. It was found nesting on Mackinac Island by S. E. White, and 

 also by Dr. Gibbs, and Otto Widmann found fully grown young being fed 

 l)y the parents in Emmet county, July 11, 1901. The writer also found 

 it abundant in Emmet county in June and July 1904, and on Big Beaver 

 Island in Lake Michigan the same season it was the most abundant and 

 characteristic breeding warbler. Everywhere throughout the higher 

 grounds in the Lower Peninsula, and in the Upper Peninsula, this species 

 is a characteristic summer bird, and its somewhat monotonous and often 

 listless song is heard at all times from earliest morning until late afternoon. 

 It is one of the species which sings freely through the heat of the day, 

 and its wheezy notes, which may be written "zee, zee, zee-zee-zee" come 

 down to the traveler through the pine foi'csts during the hottest days of 

 midsummer. 



Whether the bird rears more than one brood in a season is doubtful, 

 but it is often heard singing well into August, and it seems not unlikely 

 that, like its near relative, the Black-throated Blue, it may frequently 

 rear a second family in July and August. 



The nest is built almost invariably in an evergreen, sometimes on an 

 oblique branch well out from the trunk, more often close to the main stem 

 of a small evergreen and only ten to twenty feet from the ground. In New 

 J<]ngland it is often placed in red cedars and small white pines, and in 

 Michigan it may be looked for in these trees as well as in balsams, spruces, 

 hemlocks and tamaracks. The nest is comj^act and decj)ly hollowed, 

 well built of various fil)rous matciials, including shreds of ])ark, slender 

 roots and pine needles, and is often lined with hair and occasionally with 



