WARBLERS 517 



The ground color of various eggs ranges from white to 

 creamy white, speckled and spotted with rusty brown, chestnut 

 and grayish lilac. Many eggs are wreathed about the larger 

 ends while others are somewhat more evenly spotted all over 

 but nearly always with the tendency of concentration of mark- 

 ings toward the larger end. One egg I have is wreathed about 

 the smaller end and almost unmarked at the larger end, but 

 of course this is a freak. 



The male helps feed the young, but I am unable to give 

 any more definite information regarding the domestic life. 

 The food consists of the usual run of insects eaten by the 

 Warblers in general. 



660. Dendroka castanea (Wils.). Bay-breasted Warbler. 



Plumage of adult male : crown chestnut, bordered on sides and front with 

 black ; a buff patch on sides of neck ; cheeks black ; back brownish ashy, 

 streaked with black : wing coverts plumbeous edged and tipped with white, 

 forming two white or yellow tinged bands on wing ; inner web of outer tail 

 feathers with white patches near tips ; throat, upper breast and sides chest- 

 nut rufous ; lower breast and belly buffy white. Plumage of adult female : 

 crown olive green, streaked with black and with little if any chestnut ; 

 chestnut below the merest band, if any, on breast and a slight washing of 

 chestnut on the sides ; otherwise much like male. Immature plumage : 

 above yellowish olive green, streaked with dusky on crown ; a few black 

 spots or streaks on the back, generally semi-concealed ; upper tail coverts 

 grayish ; below cream color, washed with yellow on throat and flanks ; flanks 

 with little or no chestnut. Wing 2.90 ; tail 2.20. 



Geog. Dist. — Eastern North America, breeding in northern New England, 

 Nova Scotia, southern Ontario, northern Michigan, and Manitoba north to 

 Hudson Bay and Newfoundland ; wintering from the Isthmus of Panama to 

 Colombia, South America ; migrating southward chiefly through the Missis- 

 sippi Valley, and not recorded from Florida, Alabama or Georgia. 



County Records. — Androscoggin ; rare migrant, (Johnson). Aroostook; 

 very rare summer resident of the Woolastook Valley, (Knight). Cumber- 

 land; rare, (Mead). Franklin; rare migrant, (Richards). Hancock; found 

 in small numbers, evidently breeding, (Mrs. W. H. Gardiner) ; rare in Green 

 Lake region as summer resident, (Knight). Knox; rare in summer, (Rack- 

 liff). Oxford ; breeds, (Maynard, L. B. C. Co. N. H. & O. Co. Me. p. 9). Penob- 

 scot ; very rare, even as a migrant, a nest and egg taken near Orono are in 

 the University of Maine collection, and I have also twice found nests near 

 Bangor, (Knight). Piscataquis; migrant, not uncommon, (Homer). Sagada- 



