398 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



and lesser wing coverts, sometimes tending to form 2 white wing bars. 

 Adult female: Upper parts grayish olive; under parts yellowish white streaked 

 on the breast and sides with blackish but much less conspicuously than 

 in the male; wing bars grayish white, not forming the conspicuous white 

 patch seen in the male ; side of the neck and line over the eye and rump 

 vary from yellowish to olive green. Young male: Lacks the black crown 

 and chestnut ear patches ; upper parts grayish olive green obscurely spotted 

 with black ; rump dingy yellow ; the wing bars grayish white ; under parts 

 dull yellow streaked less conspicuously than in the adult. Young female: 

 Similar to the adult female but less yellow and the streaks more obscure. 

 Adult males and females are both more obscurely colored in the fall 

 plumage, being tinged with grayish. The adult female similar to the spring, 

 but yellower on the rump and more tinged with whitish on belly. 



Length 5-5.2 inches; extent 8.32; bill .3; wing 2.62-2.7; tail 1.9; 

 tarsus .75. 



Distribution. The Cape May warbler ranges in summer from Nova 

 Scotia, New Brunswick, Hudson bay and Great Slave lake, southward 

 to the northern portion of Maine, northern New Hampshire, Minnesota 

 and westward to Manitoba and Assiniboia. It has been reported on good 

 authority that a few breed in the island of Jamaica. The winter range 

 of the species is the West Indies and Central America. 



In New York State this species is only a transient visitant and for 

 more than a century has been considered a rare species, but of recent years 

 has apparently increased perceptibly in numbers so that for the last 3 or 

 4 years it has been a positively common migrant in various sections of 

 western New York, as I have found it in Monroe, Ontario and Erie counties. 

 On several mornings in the spring of 191 2, the author was able to see, 

 within a space of two hours, from 12 to 20 different individuals each 

 morning, often as many as 8 or 10 males being in sight at the same time. 

 I believe that this really indicates an increase in the species and that it 

 has not been overlooked in past years as it is quite conspicuous and easy 

 to observe wherever it occurs, and is one of the most frequently reported 

 by amateur observers who are unfamiliar with it, but are able to describe 

 it so that it can be positively recognized. The migrations in New York 

 begin between the 4th and the loth of May. In some portions, however. 



