The Bay-Breasted Warbler {Dendroica castanea) 



By I. N. Mitchell 



Length: 5^ inches. 



Range : Eastern North America. 



Song: A low Hquid warble. 



It is a beautiful company, this warbler family, that come to us about the 

 middle of May. We are fortunate, too, in the number of species that traverse 

 our woods and fields, and best of all, a large and increasing number of her 

 people are interested in the passing show and enjoy "warbler week" as the most 

 delightful days of the migration. 



Of the nearly forty species — thirty-eight by the book — that pass our doors, 

 the large majority go on into Canada for the nesting season. Among these is 

 the bay-breasted warbler, so rare that few besides the bird hunters see it, so 

 common to them that it is an unusual spring that fails to find it on their records. 



This warbler, though not to be compared with some of his fellow travelers 

 in beauty, is nevertheless, a beautiful bird. The throat, breast, sides, and crown 

 are a bright chestnut or bay, the forehead and sides of the face are black, the 

 sides of the neck are buff, and the rest of the upper parts are sparrow color 

 relieved on the wings by two white bars. This coloring — nicely shown m the 

 cut — taken in connection with its sprightliness and well-groomed plumage, 

 justifies one in placing the bay-breast among Mr. Van Dyke's "little dandies of 

 the air." 



In its journey through our midst, this warbler is not given to singing. The 

 song is said to be a short, wheezy "tse-chee, tse-chee, tse-chee, tse-chee, tse-chee," 

 which is certainly more suggestive of a nimble sneeze than a warble and has 

 prompted Mr. Bradford Torrey to say in his very expressive way, "These warb- 

 lers are poor hands at warbHng, but they are musical to the eye." From which 

 it naturally follows that warbler week is the spring season of coloratura opera. 



If not good singers, the warblers are great travelers. Our bay-breast spends 

 the winter in Central America, but when the breeding season calls, it leaves the 

 warmth of the tropics and picks its way northward going as far as Hudson's Bay 

 and Labrador. 



On this long journey they feed as they go and do good service to the trees 

 and shrubs by ridding them of great numbers of injurious insects, and being 

 little birds, hunting for little insects, no part of tree or bush is too small tb 

 escape their keen eyes and sharp bills. 



Their habits most nearly resemble those of the Chestnut-sided warbler. 



It is rather hard to identify, because its song so closely resembled the Black- 

 polls. 



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