‘THE BAY-BREASTED WARBLER. 151 
subterminal blotches of white on inner webs; throat and sides of breast chestnut, 
produced irregularly on sides; middle of breast and remaining under parts buffy. 
Adult female: Similar to male but duller; black of head overlaid with olive- 
ashy; chestnut of under parts very faint. Jmmature: Bright olive-green above, 
streaked with black; below whitish, tinged with buffy or yellow on breast, and 
with buffy (female) or rusty on flanks. Length 5.00-6.00 (127.-152.4); av. of 
four Columbus specimens: wing 2.45 (62.2); tail 2.12 (53.9); bill .40 (10.2). 
Recognition Marks.—One of the largest of the genus; chestnut throat- 
patch distinctive in adult. For young see under following species. 
Nesting.—Not known to breed in.Ohio. Nest, described as a compact, cup- 
shaped structure of grass, bark-strips, twigs, etc., lined with plant-down and hair, 
and placed five to twenty feet high in coniferous trees. Eggs, 4 or 5, white with 
a greenish or bluish tinge, speckled in usual warbler fashion, chiefly near larger 
end, with reddish- or olive-brown. Av. size, .71 x .51 (18. xX I3.). 
General Range.—Eastern North America north to Hudson Bay. Breeds 
from northern New England and northern Michigan northward; in winter south 
through eastern Mexico (rare) and Guatemala to Colombia. 
Range in Ohio.—Not common, but fairly regular spring and fall migrant. 
ONCE in a while we almost miss this gentle Warbler during the spring 
migrations. ‘This is not so much because the bird is really rare as because 
it comes late in the season, say about the roth or 15th of May, when the foliage 
is well out, and stays for the most part well up in the trees. It 1s moreover 
a rather quiet bird, having nothing of the nervousness and dash peculiar to 
those who have braved the later frosts. So far as ready identification goes 
the bird is further unfortunate in that its somewhat rare song bears a close 
resemblance to that of the swarming Black-polls who. are soon to bring up 
the rear of the great procession. But in spite of these obstacles, or because of 
them, the ‘one good view” which satisfies the working ornithologist each 
season is eagerly sought after. It is particularly disappointing that a bird 
of such substantial quality, and of such elegant appearance withal, should 
not deign to tarry with us through the summer; but this is in part atoned 
for by the swarms of lusty children which sweep down upon us in the fall 
from the teeming North. ‘Then there is the perennial problem of identifica- 
tion in immature plumage. How dull a study ornithology would be without 
some of these bracing posers! 
The song of the Bay-breast does not seem to have been particularly well 
studied. It is perhaps the highest and squeakiest of them all. Sometimes it 
is merely a high hissing fswis, tswis, tstwis, but oftener a succession of shrill 
sibilations in the form of a swell, wiss wiss Wiss Wiss WiSS WISS WISS. 
