438 BULLETIN 203, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



ber 13. North Carolina — Raleigh, October 10, Georgia — Fitzgerald, 

 October 22. Alabama — Anniston, October 15. Florida — Sombrero 

 Key, November 6 (struck light). 



Early dates of fall arrival are : Mississippi — Bay St. Louis, July 22. 

 Florida — Pensacola, July 20. Bahamas — Maraguana, August 8. 

 Cuba — Cienfuegos, August 16. Puerto Rico — Coamo Springs, Sep- 

 tember 7. Virgin Islands — St. Croix, September 10. 



Casual records. — There is a single record of the occurrence of the 

 prairie warbler in Bermuda, a specimen collected on October 3, 1848. 

 On October 23, 1924, a prairie warbler came aboard a ship about 300 

 miles north of Puerto Rico and after about five minutes aboard it flew 

 off toward Puerto Rico. 



Lighthouses. — The prairie warbler is frequently reported to strike 

 lighthouses in Florida, usually in small numbers. At Sombrero 

 Key they have struck during the periods from March 7 to May 12, 

 and from August 1 to November 4, with 47 the largest number for 

 a single night during the fall migration, but on the night of April 3, 

 1889, 150 struck the light of which 25 were killed. The keeper re- 

 ported that the birds struck between midnight and 4 a. m. and that 

 at the time a light rain was falling. At Alligator Reef they have 

 been reported only in fall from August 22 to September 29. On the 

 night of September 29, 1889, during a rainstorm, 190 struck of which 

 19 were killed. Many struck at Sand Key on August 13, 1902, and 

 a few at Dry Tortugas Island on April 14, 1909. 



Egg dates. — Florida: 10 records, April 23 to June 25; 5 records, 

 May 12 to June 2. 



Massachusetts : 56 records, May 29 to June 21 ; 36 records, June 4 to 

 11, indicating the height of the season. 



New Jersey: 51 records, May 17 to June 13; 35 records, May 24 

 to June 6 (Harris). 



DENDROICA DISCOLOR COLLINSI (Bailey) 

 FLORIDA PRAIRIE WARBLER 



Plates 55 

 HABITS 



Wlien Harold H. Bailey (1926) described this southern race, he 

 called it Collins's warbler, after an old Florida collector. The A. O. U. 

 Check-List adopted Bailey's scientific name but discarded his common 

 name. He describes the type as having " a much lighter yellow breast, 

 and throat almost white at base of lower mandible ; with less reddish 

 on back ; which is decidedly grayish. The males lack the heavy wide 

 black markings on sides, the heavy orange on throats ; and the heavy 

 reddish backs; all so pronounced on the northern breeding birds." 



