BLUE-WINGED WARBLER 59 



ings, from which it may follow lines or patches of trees to haunts some 

 distance from the woods." 



Spring. — From its winter home in Central America the blue- winged 

 warbler seems to migrate from Yucatan straight across the Gulf of 

 Mexico to the Gulf States and along the eastern coast of Texas to 

 Louisiana. It is apparently very rare anywhere in Florida or the 

 Keys, and along the Atlantic coast, where it is comparatively rare, it 

 is found at low elevations. It migrates northward mainly west of the 

 Alleghenies, seeming to avoid the mountains; the main body of the 

 species seems to travel through the Mississippi Valley to the centers 

 of abundance in the central States. Perhaps the birds that settle in 

 southern New York and New England travel up the Ohio River, drift- 

 ing through Pennsylvania and New Jersey to their destination. Ac- 

 cording to Milton B. Trautman (1940) this warbler seems to be a rare 

 or uncommon spring migrant in central Ohio, and "in some migrations 

 only 2 individuals were noted" at Buckeye Lake; this adds support 

 to the theory that the birds follow the river along the southern border 

 of the State. 



Nesting. — Although Wilson (1831) gave a very good description of 

 the nest of the blue-winged yellow warbler, very little was known of its 

 nesting in southern New England prior to about 1880, when nests were 

 found in southern Connecticut, where it is now known to be a fairly 

 common breeder. I found two nests near West Haven, Conn., on June 

 3, 1910 ; both were close to the ground but not quite on it ; one was in a 

 clump of blackberry vines, weeds, and grasses, in a swampy corner of 

 a scrubby lot ; the other was in a bunch of grass and rank weeds on some 

 sprout land among some mixed bushes. Again, on June 1, 1934, I 

 photographed (pi. 12) a nest near Hadlyme, Conn., on the edge of an 

 open, neglected field and close to the border of some young woods. 

 It was built among and attached to the upright stems of a clump of tall 

 goldenrod. These were all typical of the nests described below. 



Massachusetts nests are very rare; Forbush (1929) gives but two 

 nesting records for this State, and only one for Ehode Island, though 

 I am confident that its breeds regularly in the latter State. Horace W. 

 Wright (1909b) gives a very full account of a nest found near Sudbury, 

 Mass., in some mixed woods, placed between the exposed roots of a 

 decayed stump and partially concealed by a growth of ferns. 



T. E. McMullen has sent me the data for several Pennsylvania nests, 

 three in old fields, one under a cherry sprout, one under a small bush, 

 and one 6 inches up in a tussock of goldenrod ; another was under a 

 birch sprout along the edge of an old woods road. 



The nest of the blue-winged warbler is unique and quite distinctive, 

 often shaped like an inverted cone, usually very narrow and very deep 



