BAY-BREASTED WAItBLEU. 31^ 



Brei:dixg Habits. While walking along a wood road, 

 near Lake Umbagog, on Jrine 3, 1871, I saw a female Bay- 

 breasted Warbler fly into a hemlock which steed near the 

 road, and alight on a nest; the first known to science of this 

 species. This nest was placed on an horizontal branch of 

 the tree about tv/entyfeet from the ground, and a few days la- 

 ter Mr. Brewster discovered another nest in a similar situation. 

 This appears to be the usual method of building, Mr. Biew^s- 

 ter says that but fev; of these warblers now breed about Un> 

 bagog, where he, Mr. Ruthven Deane and myself found them 

 so abundant thirty years ago. 



Song. The first part of the song resembles the lisp of the 

 Black-poll, but this is follow^ed by a terminal warble that is 

 similar to the song of the Redstart, but is given with less en- 

 ergy. The alarm note, uttered both spring and fall, is a sharp 

 chirp, similar to that of the Black-poll. 



Migration and Breeding Range. The Baj-breasts 

 breed from Northern New England north to Hudson Bay. 

 Their winter quarters are from Guatemala to Columbia. In 

 passing northward, the majority of this species usually avoid 

 eastern New England, and pass up the Connecticut Valley to 

 their summer home; thus, as a rule, the Bay-breasts which 

 appear in Eastern Massachusetts in spring are stragglers 

 from the main body. The spring migration is late ; the birds 

 appearing here from the tenth to the last of May. At Wat- 

 sontown, Pennsylvania, I saw^ the first specimen on May 15, 

 but the birds were not common until four or five days later. 

 In the spring of 1900, when many species of birdp, the major- 

 ity of which usually pass to the westw^ard of us, were forced 

 into Eastern Massachusetts by extreme cold weather in the 

 west, and held here by ecjually cold weather in the north, 

 these warblers were not uncommon as early as May 11. 



In autumn the Bay-breasts are rather more common than 

 in spring, but at that time, through their close resemblance to 

 the Black-polls, are apt to be overlooked. This year ( 1901) 



