KIRTLAND'S WARBLER 



207 



Warblers. In 1898 I 1 estimated that sixty-eight specimens of it were 

 known, of which twenty had been taken in the United States, the 

 remaining forty-eight in the Bahamas, to which islands it is apparently 

 restricted in the winter. 



At this time the bird's breeding habits were still unknown, but in 

 June, 1903, its nest was discovered by Norman A. Wood 2 in Oscoda 

 County, Michigan. The following year in the same county, a nest 

 with three eggs was taken June 6, by R. A. Brown and J. A. Parmelee, 

 and, on June 15, a nest with four eggs by E. Arnold 4 . The appended 

 biography, contributed by Mr. Wood, is based on his own studies in 

 1903, and those of Brown and Parmelee in 1904. 



"This bird is of local distribution, living and nesting on the 

 high, sandy, jack-pine plains of Crawford, Oscoda, Roscommon, and 

 probably, Otsego and Montmorency Counties, Michigan. It may 

 breed also in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and in northern Wis- 

 consin and Minnesota. It is unevenly distributed throughout the 

 counties named, only occurring in colonies, and these are from two to 

 ten miles apart. I have hunted over hundreds of acres of seemingly 

 favorable ground, and failed to find a single pair. This Warbler is a 

 very graceful walker and seems equally at home on trees or on the 

 ground, where the habit of bobbing its tail is very characteristic. 



"Incubation seems to be performed by the female alone and she 

 seems to feed herself while incubating. When the young were newly 

 hatched, I have seen the male carry as food a white moth, that is com- 

 mon on the small jack pines, and deer flies, but I could not tell if the 

 female ate them or fed the young with them. 



"The female is a close sitter and left the nest only when I was 

 within two or three feet of it. When flushed she fluttered off with 

 open wings and tail trying to lead me after her, failing in this she 

 came back and circled about the nest uttering a sharp chip-chip, even 

 alighting on the toe of Mr. Parmelee's shoe as he sat near the nest. 



"On July 8-11, 1903, when but a few days old, the young seemed 

 to have no fear of me, but on the morning of the 14th, when I tried 

 to take a photograph of the nest, they scampered out and quickly hid 

 in the thick cover, and I had to put them back a number of times before 

 they would stay. I think they leave the nest at twelve or eighteen 

 days of age. Both parents brought food to the nest, but the female 

 came oftener and was more fearless than the male. 



Song. "This Warbler has several distinct songs, all of which 

 belong to the whistling type and have the clear ringing quality of the 

 Oriole's. The usual perch, while singing, is the top of a dead stub 

 or limb of such a tree in the vicinity of its home. At short intervals 



