532 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



The first migrants arrive near Bangor about April sixteenth 

 to the twentieth and for a few days the species is really common 

 in the lower Penobscot Valley, associated often with the migrat- 

 ing hosts of Myrtle and Yellow Palm Warblers in the tops of 

 the higher trees or in the roadside bushes less frequently found. 

 By the last of April the host has gone, whither? Only a 

 comparatively few remain to breed in the Penobscot Valley, 

 seemingly having eggs in late May, and the extreme paucity 

 of records from northern and eastern Maine shows that they 

 do not summer there in any numbers. Captain Spinney reports 

 the species as a common migrant at Seguin, but eastward from 

 there records of its occurrence are also few. 



Where do these hosts go to? In the fall the species is again 

 common in migration in the Penobscot Valley, from late 

 August to the very last of September, indicating that they 

 come and go by a regular route to and from some breeding 

 ground to us unknown. Again there seems to be a difference 

 in the plumage of these migrating birds as compared with 

 southern specimens, and it is evident that we have much yet 

 to learn regarding them. Mr. Brown records the species near 

 Portland from April eighteenth to the middle of October. 



The song is a series of trilled notes or whistles which have 

 been variously compared to those of the Chipping or Field 

 Sparrow, though the birds I have heard resemble neither, 

 which shows how bird songs and habits may vary in different 

 regions. The chief song near Bangor is a "wee-chee-wee-chee- 

 wee-chee-wee-chee" and a "chip" of alarm or concern. 



The following extracts from the article by Mr. Swain in 

 The Journal of the Maine Ornithological Society, 1906, p. 88, 

 89, will show as much regarding the habits in Maine as can 

 be told at present. 



" In early April this species enters the southern part of our 

 State and soon becomes rather common along the coast and in 

 the interior, wherever there are patches of pine trees, and 

 through May and June I have found them quite common in 



