DENDRCECA CASTANEA, BAY-BREASTED WARBLER. Gl 



more compact. They are built chiefly- of moss, mixed with small twi^js, 

 weedy aud fibrous material, and rootlets ; but are liued, like the others, 

 eutirely with fiue grasses. 



DENDECECA CASTAXEA, (Wils.) Bd. 



Bay-breasted AVarbler. 



Sylvia caaianea, Wils., Am. Orn. ii, 1810, 97, pi. 14, f. 4.— Bp., Syn. 1828, 80.— Nutt., 



Man. i, 1832, 382.— Aud., Orn. Biog. i, 1832, 3.58, pi. 69. 

 Sylvicola casfaiiea, Rich., List, 1837.— Bp., List, 1838, 22 ; Consp. i, 1850, 308.— Aud., S.yn. 



1839, .53.— Aud., B. Am. ii, 1841, 34, pi. 80.— Hov, Smiths. Rep. 1864, 438 



(Missouri). 

 Mniotilfa castanea, Gray, Genera of Birds. 

 Iihuna)q>hu8 castaneus, Cab., Mus. Hein. i. 18.50, 19. 

 Dendrocca castanea, Bd., B. N. A. 1858,276; Rev. 1865, 189.— Scl. & Salv., Ibis, i, 1859, 



11 (Guatemala) ; Cass., Pr. Phila. Acad. 1860, 193 (Darien).— Lawh., Ann. Lye. 



N. Y. 1861, 322 (Panama).— Mayn., Guide, 1870, 103.— CoUES, Key, 1872, 101; 



and of most late writers. 

 Syh-ia aiititmiiaUs, Wils., Am. Orn. iii, 1811, 65, pi. 23, f. 3.— Nutt., Man. i, 1832, 390.— 



Aud., Orn. Biog. i, 1832, 449, pi. 8fi. 



Hah. — Eastern North America ; North to Hudson's Bay ; West to the Lower Missouri. 

 Breeds from Northern New England northward. Winters in Central America. Mi- 

 grant only in most parts of the United States. No Mexicau nor West Indian (^notations. 



The earlier authors left the history of this species very incomi)lete, 

 haviug had, from some cause, little opportunity of becoming acquainted 

 with it ; nevertheless, it is a common bird of the Eastern United States. 

 I observed it every season when collecting about Washington, U. C, 

 and took a large number of specimens. It passes through the Middle 

 States in May and returns in September, being found during the whole 

 of these months, sometimes, particularly in the fall, in abundance. It 

 may be looked for in any woods, where the other species of the genus 

 stop to rest and feed during their journeys, and iu orchards — the last a 

 favorite resort of AYarblers of various kinds in the spring v.hen the ap- 

 ple, pear, peach, and cherry-trees are in blossom, the birds doubtless 

 being attracted by the diftereut minute insects that infest our fruit trees. 

 The breeding places of the Bay-breasted Warbler, not to mention its 

 nest and eggs, were for a long while unknown; latterly the desired in- 

 formation has been supplied. Mr. C. J. Maynard, a very good observer 

 and collecter, has published a satisfactory account. He took two nests 

 with eggs, June 8th, at Umbagog, where, he says, the species is the 

 most abundant of the Sylvicolida'. Both were placed on the horizontal 

 branch of a hemlock-tree, fifteen or twenty feet from the ground, and 

 seemed large for the size of the bird, resembling those of the Purple 

 Finch. They were built of fine, dead larch twigs, mixed in one instance 

 with long tree-moss, in the other with a few grass-stems, and smoothly 

 lined with black fibrous rootlets, some moss and rabbit's hair. Exter- 

 nal diameter five and one-half to six inches, internal two and one-half 

 to three; depth outside two and one half to three, the cavity one and 

 one fourth to one and one half ; they differed iu shape, the broader nest 

 being the shallower one. Oiu' contained three eggs, the other two; the 

 five ranged from 0.05 to 0.71 long, by 0.50 to 0.53 broad. The ground 

 color was bluish-green, more or less thickly speckled with brown all 

 over, the markings becoming (;onlluent, or nearly so, at or around the 

 larger eiul, where the brown was mixed with some lilac or umber 

 markings. 



