BAY-BREASTED WARBLER 



195 



but never wholly violated, of phrasing and accentuation. The Bay- 

 breast's singing, in the spring at least, is the most liquid and inarticu- 

 late of the lot, and sometimes the loudest. It varies greatly, from 

 the bases of at least two and probably three clearly distinct main 

 songs. In one of these, the six or more barely-separated lisping notes 

 are all alike in volume, accentuation, tone, and speed. They are 

 slightly louder than the average Blackpoll notes, and not quite so 

 smooth in tone. Another song begins in about the same way, but 

 ends with three or four clearly-separated louder notes, which have a 

 more nearly full-voiced ring. A third, uncommon, song, which I 

 have all but surely traced to the Bay-breast, is louder throughout, 

 and otherwise very different. It begins with about ten penetrating 

 notes, in close-knit couplets like those of the Black and White's 

 shorter song, and of much the same tone, but louder; and it ends, 

 abruptly, with a single, lower-toned, much richer note, like a frag- 

 ment of Oven-bird song." (Thayer, MS.) 



Nesting Site. — Nests recorded by Maynard^ were placed on the 

 horizontal branch of a hemlock fifteen and twenty feet from the 

 ground and five or six feet from the trunk of the tree. 



Nest. — The nest of the Bay-breasted Warbler is characterized 

 by large size, and the irregularity of outline given to it by the long 

 coniferous twigs which compose its exterior. 



Maynard describes a nest as "composed outwardly of fine dead 

 twigs, from the larch, among which are scattered a little of the long 

 tree-moss. It is very smoothly and neatly lined with black, fibrous 

 roots, the seed-stalks of a species of ground moss, a few hairs of 

 Lepus americana, and a single piece of green moss that grows m 

 damp woods." 



Eggs. — Doubtless usually 4. Maynard^ describes one of a set 

 of three eggs as "bluish green, thickly spotted with brown over the 

 entire surface, with a ring of nearly confluent blotches of brown and 

 lilac at the larger end." A second egg is similar but has some amber 

 spots in the ring around the larger end and, the smaller end is immac- 

 ulate. The third egg "is less spotted than the others, and has a few 

 brown lines on the larger end." These eggs measure .71X.53, .65X.50, 

 .70X.50. (Figs. 60,61 Childs Coll.) 



Nesting Dates. — Bangor, Me., June 15, one egg, very rare. 

 (Knight); Listowel, Ont., June 9- June 14. (Kelts). 



Biographical References 

 (i) C. J. Maynard, Birds of Coos County, N. H., and Oxford County, Me., 

 Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., XIV, 1871, 364. (2) Wm. Brewster. Birds of the 

 Cambridge Region, 338. 



