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PRAIRIE WARBLER 



Adult ?, Spring. Similar to adult <$ but chestnut back marks much reduced 

 or wanting, back duller, black markings less pronounced (better denned than 

 in young c?) wing-bars duller. In very worn plumage (late summer) the upper- 

 parts become grayish, the underparts whitish. 



Adult $, Fall. Similar to adult ? in Spring but back with a grayish bloom, 

 cheeks grayer, line over eye less distinct, black markings less pronounced. 



Young ?, Fall. Similar to adult $ but no chestnut in back, cheeks still 

 grayer, black marks faint and dusky or entirely absent. 



Nestling. Above olive-grayish brown; below whitish the breast dusky; a 

 faint grayish line over the eye; wing-coverts blackish tipped with buffy. 



General Distribution. Eastern United States ; north to southern 

 New England and Michigan; west to the Plains. 



Summer Range. The Prairie Warbler is a bird of middle alti- 

 tudes, shunning the mountains above a thousand feet and rare in the 

 low coastal region of the Gulf States. Along the Atlantic slope it is 

 common from the northern Bahamas and Florida north to Pennsyl- 

 vania, but north of Philadelphia, it is found, as a rule, only near the 

 coast; common locally in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and eastern 

 Massachusetts, where it is characteristic of the barberry districts 

 (Plymouth and Bristol Counties, Martha's Vineyard) ; casual or acci- 

 dental in New Hampshire (Hollis, June 28, 1884, August 23, 1876, 

 September 4, 1876; Manchester, spring, 1901), Ontario (Toronto, 

 May u, 1900; Mt. Forest, May 13, 1905), Michigan (Port Huron, 

 May 20, 1900; Ottawa County, May 26, 1879; Montcalm County), 

 Wisconsin, (Racine, Lake Koshkonong). The western range extends 

 regularly to eastern Nebraska ( West Point, Omaha), eastern Kansas, 

 rarely to southern Mississippi (Beauvoir), Louisiana (West Baton 

 Rouge Parish), and Texas (Gainesville). 



Winter Range. The Greater Antilles, the Bahamas and the 

 southern half of Florida. 



Spring Migration. From its winter home in the West Indies 

 and Florida, the Prairie Warbler begins to move northward early in 

 March, though the full tide of migration does not start until the last 

 of the month. 



