20 The Wilson Bulletin — Xo. 54. 



Strangely enough, on the same date that I found the first 

 one this year (May 20), Mr. Swales and Prof. Barrows heard 

 sounds that they were very sure came from the bird on Chand- 

 ler's ]\Iarsh, Ingham County. Prof. Barrows is well acquaint- 

 ed with the species from experience with them elsewhere, and 

 Mr. Swales had just returned from Point Pelee, Ont., where 

 he became acquainted with their eminently characteristic calls. 

 He afterward studied them on the above mentioned occasions 

 and is well satisfied as to the correctness of the first suppo- 

 sition. 



Mr. Trombley, under date of July 13, 1905, tells me, "A 

 pair nested here ("Monroe County) last year. It does not ap- 

 parently gain or decrease in numbers." And again, "I regard- 

 ed the Chat, at my first discovery, in 1877, as purely accidental, 

 at the time, but subsequent observation leads me to think that 

 it will be found sparingly in Monroe County every year, were 

 all the localities carefully searched that are favorable to it. 

 Of late years, I have noted it several times and I have come 

 to regard it as a rare but regular summer resident of Monroe 

 County." 



In the adjoining territory to Tvlichigan some interesting data 

 is to be gathered. 



In Ohio, Prof. Pynds Jones, Birds of Ohio, lists it as a com- 

 mon bird in the southern counties of his state, but becoming 

 less so to the north mitil it becomes almost rare on the Lake 

 Erie shore. 



Across the Lake at Point Pelee, Out.. ^Mr. W. E. Saunders 

 found it in 1884, and in May, 1905, he. together with Mr. 

 Swales and the writer, found several pairs there.^ 



In Indiana, Butler lists it as common in the southern parts 

 of the state to rare in the northern sections, and adds, "Prior 

 to 1893, it was unknown in the north-western part of the state, 

 and the same may be said along the northern boundary in both 

 Indiana and Michigan." From the data I have from Illinois 

 about the same conditions have prevailed. It seems to have 

 appeared about Chicago in. 1894 ; since then it seems to have 

 been a more or less regular summer resident, especially in the 

 Calumet region and about the Skokie ^^larshes. but not reg- 

 ularlv common and rather local. 



