ORNITHOLOGIST 



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OOLOGIST. 



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VOL. VIII. 



BOSTON, NOVEMBER, 1883. 



No. II. 



Mississippi Valley Migration. 



Note. — The stations and observers, to which these num- 

 bers refer, are given in the O. and O. for April. 



A group of entirely different habits and 

 of comparatively rare occurrence is com- 

 posed of the Cape May Warbler, (P. tlgrl- 

 na,) Bay-breasted Warbler, (Z>. castanea,) 

 and the Connecticut Warbler, {O. agilis.) 

 These all leave the United States to win- 

 ter, and pass entirely beyond it to breed ; 

 at least, we know the first two do so, and 

 it is generally supposed that the last does 

 also, although its nest and eggs have never 

 yet been found. No. (30) was the only 

 observer who saw the first two, and he 

 found the Cape May Warbler on the 2d of 

 May, and the Bay-breasted for the first 

 time May 3d, and the last time both male 

 and female were seen on the 21st of that 

 month. Both (30) and (52) observed the 

 Connecticut Warbler, which is the rarest 

 regular migrant in the Mississippi Valley, 

 during the Spring, and on the Fall return 

 seems to shun its Spring course and passes 

 southward through New England. No. 

 (30) saw it on 5-14, 5-18 and the last one 

 5-24, while (52) procured his first speci- 

 men 5-26, and saw it three times after- 

 ward, the last being 5-29. Different in 

 habits from the rest of their Wai'bler 

 brethren are the Warbler Thrushes, the 

 Golden- crowned Thrush, or Oven-bird, {8. 

 auricapillns,) the Small-billed Water 

 Thrush, {S. ncevms,) and the Large-billed 

 Water Thrush, (*S. motacilla.) Their ranges 

 differ widely. The bulk of all of them 

 winter beyond our limits, though a few of 

 the first remain in Florida, and numbers of 

 the second are scattered over all the South- 



ern States and occasionally as far north as 

 Southern Illinois. But while the first two 

 breed over all the Mississippi Valley, the 

 last breeds regularly only to Middle and 

 Northern Illinois and sometimes as far 

 north as Southern Minnesota. The first 

 Golden-crowns reached (30) 4-17, and 

 passing north with medium speed (38) 

 found them about 4-26, (52) 4-28, and (51) 

 on 5-5, while farther west, like the other 

 Warblers, they were somewhat later, ap- 

 pearing at (21) on 5-5, and (45) on 5-6. 

 No. (30) found a nest 5-15, with three 

 eggs and a Cow bird's, while only three 

 days before they were just beginning to be 

 common at (52,) and the height of the sea- 

 son was not until 5-19. The Large-billed 

 was the earliest of the three to migrate, 

 arriving at Southern and Central Illinois 

 about the 10th of April, and at (21) on the 

 14th, but after that, moving rather slowly, 

 reached its usual northern limit at (41) on 

 5-10. It will be convenient to study five 

 more Warblers together, not because they 

 migrate at the same time, but because their 

 places of wintering and breeding are the 

 same, and their habits, during migration 

 and even the general appearance of some 

 of them, are alike. He must have sharp 

 eyes who can recognize at sight, while in 

 the trees, the Nashville Warbler, {H. rii4- 

 capilla,) the Orange-crowned Warbler, {H. 

 celata,) and the Tennessee Warbler, {II. 

 peregrina;) while the Black-capjied Yellow 

 and the Canadian Fly-catching Warblers. 

 {31. 2)usilli(s) and {31. canadensis,) share 

 with them a Uking for low shrubs, and are 

 not uncommonly found with them. 



The first three spend the Winter in the 



