136 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



The Bay-breasted Warbler is a bird of the 

 Canadian forests noticeable to civilization mainly 

 in its spring and fall migrations. The migra- 

 tion of the bird is one of the most interesting 

 things yet known about it. Between Canada and 

 its winter home in Colombia and Panama, it 

 restricts itself to areas that lead to the upper 

 northern and northeastern waters of the Missis- 

 sippi basin. 



Following the basin down the Gulf coast, 

 the bird makes the great flight across the 

 Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea to 

 Panama and the adjacent Colombian shores. The 

 bird thus evades Virginia, Florida and the West 



Indies on the east, and Mexico on the west. Why 

 this little deep buff-colored bird should evolve 

 such a route is a puzzle. In the United States 

 it has been found nesting in the Maine woods 

 and in the White Mountains. 



It is a trifle larger than most of the tree-top 

 Warblers, a trifle duskier, and rather quieter in 

 its habits. It has more of the leisurely manner 

 of the Vireo. 



There is much variation in the Bav-hreast's 

 song and this, together with its resemblances to 

 the songs of the Blackburnian, the Black-poll, 

 the Black and White, and the Cape Mav 

 \\'arblers. makes it difficult to identify. 



BLACK-POLL WARBLER 



Dendroica striata 



Other Names. — Black-poll ; Autumnal Warliler. 



General Description. — Length, Sz-i inches. Male: 

 Upper parts, gray streaked with black ; under parts, 

 white streaked with black. Female: Upper parts, 

 olive streaked with black ; under parts, white and yellow 

 streaked with black. Bill, shorter than head, slender, 

 tapering gradually to the tip : wings, long and pointed ; 

 tail, notched. 



Color. — AnuLT Male in Spring and Summer: 

 Entire crown, uniform black; hindneck, streaked with 

 black and white, in varying relative proportion ; back 

 and shoulders, broadly streaked with black on a gray 

 or pale olive ground ; rump and upper tail-coverts 

 similar but less distinctly streaked, often ( especially 

 the rump) without streaks; tail, dusky, with light gray 

 edgings, the inner webs of two or three outermost 

 feathers with a patch of white near the tip (largest on 

 the outside one) ; wings, dusky with light olive edgings 

 (more yellowish-olive on primaries), the middle and 

 greater coverts broadly tipped with white, forming two 

 conspicuous bands; sides of head, white, including 

 lower eyelid, space below eye, and cheeks; sides of 

 neck, streaked with black and white ; under parts, 

 white, broadly streaked laterally with black, the black 

 streaks on sides of throat merging into two stripes con- 

 verging and usually united on chin, forining a con- 

 spicuous I'-shapcd mark: under tail-coverts, pure 

 white ; bill, dusky ; iris, brown ; legs and feet, pale 

 yellowish-brown. Adult Male in Autumn and 

 Winter: Above, dull olive-green passing gradually 

 into dull gray on upper tail-coverts ; back and shoulders 

 (sometimes also the crown, rump, or upper tail-coverts), 

 narrowly streaked with black ; wings and tail as in sum- 



I. R. Forstcr) 



.See t'olor Plate 96 



mer plumage, but white wing-bands usually tinged with 

 yellow ; over the eye a narrow and indistinct streak of 

 pale olive-yellowish, the upper eyelid whitish ; ear region 

 and sides of neck, olive or dull olive-greenish, like 

 color of upper parts; cheeks, chin, throat, chest, breast, 

 and sides, pale olive-yellow or straw-yellow, the sides 

 and flanks indistinctly streaked with dusky ; abdomen, 

 anal region, and under tail-coverts, white. Adult 

 Female: Above, varying from olive-green to gray, 

 streaked with blackish, the streaks usually obsolete or 

 nearly so on rump ; wings and tail as in adult male, but 

 white wing-bands tinged with yellow ( except in speci- 

 mens having a gray upper surface) ; inider parts, vary- 

 ing from white to pale olive-yellow (with all inter- 

 mediate conditions — the under tail-coverts always 

 white), streaked laterally with black or dusky, the 

 streaks usually most distinct on sides of throat and 

 breast. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest : Placed in small spruces 

 from three to eight feet up ; constructed of small twigs, 

 rootlets, lichens, and grasses and lined with feathers, 

 fine grasses, and down. Eggs : 4 or 5, creamy or 

 grayish-white, speckled and blotched with varying 

 shades of chestnut, lilac, and gray. 



Distribution. — North and South America ; breeds 

 from the limit of trees in northwestern Alaska, northern 

 Mackenzie, central Keewatin. northern Ungava. and 

 Newfoundland south to central British Columbia, Mani- 

 toba, Michigan, northern Maine, and mountains of 

 Vermont and New Hampshire; winters from Guiana 

 and Venezuela to Brazil ; migrates through the Bahamas 

 and West Indies; casual in New Mexico, Mexico, 

 Chile, and Ecuador ; accidental in Greenland. 



The Black-poll Warbler is frequently associated 

 in its breeding range with its nearest relative, the 

 Bay-breast. Like the Bay-breast, the Black-poll 

 has an extraordinary migration range. The areas 

 over which these two kinds of Warblers travel 

 are, however, quite different. Black-poll, nesting 



in Alaska and northern Canada as far as the 

 northern limit of trees, passes south in migration 

 pretty well over the whole of the United States 

 east of the Missouri River, concentrating its lines 

 in Florida, and goes on from island to island the 

 whole length of the West Indies, over the Span- 



