LAND BIRDS. 599 



blue) in place of the blue, and plain gray or pale buff in place of the black. 



Distribution. — Eastern North America to the Plains, breeding from 

 northern New England and northern New York northward to Labrador, 

 and in the Alleghanies south to northern Georgia; West Indies and Guate- 

 mala in winter. 



This dainty little warbler is one of our most abundant migrants and is 

 a summer resident in larger or smaller numbers over by far the greater 

 part of the state. While many doubtless pass far north of Michigan to 

 nest, large numbers remain in the northern part of the Lower Peninsula 

 and all over the Upper Peninsula, and probably a few pairs nest in favorable 

 localities everywhere in the state, except possibly in the two or three 

 southernmost tiers of counties. It arrives from the south with the great 

 wave of warblers early in May, or occasionally during the last week in 

 April, and continues to move along in a rather leisurely manner until 

 the very last of the month. We have records of specimens killed ■ on 

 Spectacle Reef Light, Lake Huron, May 17, 19, 21, 22, 23, and 24, in as 

 many different years, while out of just a dozen fall records all but three are 

 during the last week of September or the first week in October, the ex- 

 ceptions being September 17, 1893, August 19, 1889, and September 

 1, 1894. The latest lighthouse records are October 1, 1890 and October 3, 

 1893, on Spectacle Reef Light, and October 10 on Waugoshance Light, 

 near the western entrance of the Straits of Mackinac. 



Nesting records are somewhat numerous. C. W. Gunn took a set of 

 four fresh eggs in Ottawa county June 6, 1878, from a nest in a raspberry 

 bush in the edge of a pinery, the nest placed only about two feet from the 

 ground. The late R. B. Westnedge, of Kalamazoo, took a nest in Kala- 

 mazoo county May 29, 1891, containing four fresh eggs. This nest was 

 but eleven inches from the ground, in a small maple bush. Dr. Gibbs 

 has also found the bird in Kalamazoo county during summer. J. Claire 

 Wood states that in June 1899 his brother found this warbler nesting near 

 Detroit, Wayne county, and Dr. R. H. Wolcott found it at Charlevoix, Char- 

 levoix county, where he took the nest and young. The writer also took a 

 nest and three eggs near Petoskey, Emmet county, July IS, PJ04. In ]\Iack- 

 inac county, August 2 and 3, 1901, several pairs were found by the writer 

 which evidentlj'- were feeding young, although neither these nor the nests 

 weie located, and* Mr. Norman A. Wood and other members of the 

 LTniversity of Michigan party, had a similar experience in the Porcupine 

 Mountains, Ontonagon county, where a pair, evidently nesting, were 

 found July 17, 1904, and young unable to fly were taken July 20. Miss 

 Harriet H. Wright reports the finding of two nests in Iosco county, the last 

 week in June, 1907. The nests were in small bushes at the edge of a swamp 

 and l)oth contained eggs. 



The nest is very compactly and prettily built of leaves, fil)rous bark of 

 various kinds, and roots, and often ornamented externally with cater- 

 l)illars' silk, ])irch bark and similar materials, like the nests of many vireos. 

 The nest above mentioned, found near Petoskey, was built very largely 

 of fibrous bark of the hemlock, mixed with fine twigs of the same tree, 

 and lined almost entirely with threadlike black loots. The outside was 

 largely covered with strips and lolls of the white outer bai'k of the ])irch, 

 and the nest was j)laccd in a small hemlock only about two feet from the 

 ground and dii-ectly against the white trunk of a lai'ge bii'ch, so that it 

 was by no means (•()ns])icu()us. 



The eggs ar(> three or four in iiiiniber, white or cieani}- white, spottetl 



