THE KIRTLAND WARBLER. 163 



But in the case of the Kirtland Warbler the lapse of time has brought in- 

 creased knowledge, and the ornithological appetite has been more keenly 

 whetted by each succeeding announcement of the bird's occurrence. 



The type specimen, an adult male, was collected by Mr. Charles Pease, 

 May 13, 1851, near Cleveland, and by him presented to Dr. Jared P. Kirt- 

 land. Dr. Kirtland forwarded the bird in the flesh to Professor Baird for 

 identification, and it was very properly named by the latter Kirtland's War- 

 bler, in recognition of the fact that to Dr. Kirtland we are "indebted for a 

 knowledge of the Natural History of the Mississippi Valley." Five other 

 specimens have since been secured in the vicinity of Cleveland, the last by 

 H. E. Chubb on May 12, 1880. In may, 1872, Mr. Charles Dury shot a 

 male bird near Cincinnati; and the last Ohio specimen reported was taken 

 by Lynds Jones at Oberlin, May 9, 1900. 



At this writing (July I, 1903) some twenty-five specimens have been 

 captured in the United States and Canada, while more than fifty have beer, 

 taken in the winter haunts of the species in the Bahama Islands. Of the 

 United States specimens the westernmost was obtained by H. M. Guilford 

 at Minneapolis, Minn., and the northernmost was picked up dead below the 

 light house on Spectacle Reef, in the Straits of Mackinac, Michigan. 1 All 

 specimens seen in the interior (until the summer of 1902) have been spring 

 birds, but two fall specimens were shot on the coasts of Virginia and South 

 Carolina respectively. After Cleveland, Ann Arbor, Michigan, has been a 

 leading place for the capture of this rare warbler, and it seems probable that 

 that locality is especially favored during the northern migrations. The spe- 

 cies will doubtless be found breeding in northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, 

 Michigan, Ontario, and in the region south of Hudson Bay. 



The pursuit of this woodland beauty, whose only offense is rarity, has 

 been so keen that most observers have shot first and questioned afterward. 

 Authorities agree, however, that it is a rather quiet, sedate bird, having no 

 especial fear of man, but frequenting the lower levels of bushes and trees, 

 and allowing a somewhat near approach for inspection. It has been compared 

 by some to the Palm Warbler, and it certainly resembles this bird in its habit 

 of bobbing, or jetting the tail. 



Rev. Leander S. Keyser closely observed a specimen near Springfield, 

 Ohio, and heard its song. He gives it as "a blithe, liquid melody" and says 

 "the tones were full, clear and bubbling." 2 On May /th, and 9th, 1900, Pro- 

 fessor Lynds Jones heard two, and perhaps three, of these Warblers near 

 Oberlin. "The song was loud and clear, given with all the vigor of a Wren 

 or Kinglet; the body being straightened to almost a perpendicular direction, 

 and the beak pointing straight up. It was no by-talk or incidental song, but 

 manifestly an earnest purposeful call song. The song is a doubly phrased 

 one, the first part slightly longer and a little less rapidly uttered, the second 



1 For many of these details I am indebted to Mr. Frank M. Chapman's resume in The Auk, October, 1903. 



2 "Bird-dom," by Leander S. Keyser, p. 63. 



