610 MICIlKiAN J5IR1) LIFE. 



conspicuous fiekl-nuirk, however, is a large ijaich of cream white on each 

 side of the neck. 



Distribution. — Eastern North America, north to Hudson Bay. Breeds 

 from northern New England and northern Michigan northward; in winter, 

 south through eastern Mexico (rare) and Guatemala to Colombia. 



The Bay-breasted Warbler is one of the later migrants, seldom arriving 

 from the south before the second week in May, even in the southern counties, 

 and not infrequently delaying its appear- 

 ance until the 15th or 20th of the month. 

 At Ann Arbor Mr. N. A. Wood gives the 

 average date of arrival for twenty-five 

 years as May 13, and the records from 

 the various lighthouses indicate that the 

 principal movement occurs between the 

 15th and 30th of the month. We have 

 records from Spectacle Reef Light, Lake 

 Huron, on May 11, 1888, May 15 and 19, 

 1891, May 17," 1885, May 19, 1887, May 

 22, 1890 and again in 1893, and May 23, 

 1897. The southward movement begins 

 early in September and is mainly comple- 

 ted during the month, although specimens 

 are frequently taken well into October. 



In Michigan, as in New England and Wisconsin, the Bay-breast is much 

 more abundant in some seasons than in others. Occasionally it is a com- 

 mon spring migrant, and then for several years it may hardly be seen at 

 all. In our experience the adults are decidedly scarce during the fall 

 migration, but the young are fairly al)undant. The birds during migration 

 frequent forests, groves and orchards, with apparently little preference for 

 any particular kind of grow^th, but it is said to prefer the neighborhood 

 of evergreens in the regions where it nests. 



Much uncertainty exists with regard to its joresence in Michigan in 

 summer. The distribution given above by the A. O. U. list includes 

 Michigan in its breeding range, and Professor A. J. Cook, in his 1893 list, 

 speaks of it as breeding in the northern part of the state and cites Davie 

 and Nehrling as authorities. Mr. S. E. White states that it is a rare summer 

 resident on Mackinac Island, where he found it also an abundant migrant; 

 but he did not find it nesting. After thorough search of the literature, 

 and careful inquiries in every available quarter, we have failed to find any 

 authentic record of its nesting in Michigan, and while it is by no means 

 impossible that it may do so, we believe that it yet remains to be proved 

 to be a summer resident of the state. It is well known to nest in some of 

 the northernmost parts of the United States, and w' as found by Mr. Brewster 

 to be a fairly common nester in the neighborhood of the I^mbagog Lakes 

 in Maine. He states that there the nest w^as usually placed on a horizontal 

 branch of hemlock or spruce from fifteen to twenty feet from the ground, 

 the nest being large in comparison with the size of the bird. The materials 

 of the nest were small tamarack twigs, mixed with a little tree moss, very 

 neatly and smoothly lined with black fibrous rootlets, seed-stalks of grouncl- 

 moss, a little rabbit fur, and^some sphagnum moss. The eggs are usually 

 four, bluish-white, more or less speckled with brown, and average .71 

 by .51 inches. 



According to Dr. (libbs the bird has a beautiful song, but we have found 



