BAY-BREASTED WARBLER (Dendroica 
castanea) 
Range: Breeds in Canadian Zone from 
northeastern Alberta, southern . Keewatin, 
southern Ungava, and Newfoundland south 
to southern Al f itoba, northern Maine, and 
mountains of few Hampshire; winters in 
Panama and Colombia. 
The bay-breast appears to be increasing in 
numbers. Forty years or so ago it was rare 
in Massachusetts in fall, and search by the 
most vigilant collector during the entire 
autumn migration was rarely rewarded by 
the sight of more than one or two. Today 
it is far different, and not a season passes 
that at the proper time and place careful 
search will not reveal a dozen or more mingled 
with others of the warbler family. In spring 
the bird has always been uncommon or alto- 
gether wanting in the Eastern States, as it 
migrates up the Mississippi Valley, spreading 
out to occupy northern Maine and other of 
its northern summer haunts. In summer it 
frequents coniferous forests, and often nests 
in hemlocks. 
BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLER 
(Dendroica nigrescens) 
Range: Breeds in Transition Zone from 
southern British Columbia, Nevada, northern 
Utah, and northwestern Colorado south to 
northern Lower California, southern Arizona, 
and northern New Mexico; winters in southern 
Lower California and in Mexico from Du- 
rango to Michoacan, Vera Cruz, and Oaxaca. 
The handsome black-throated gray warbler 
is exclusively western in distribution, from our 
southern border to British Columbia. Though 
I have seen it many times, I am unable to re- 
call any especially salient characteristics pos- 
sessed by the species. Like others of the fam- 
ily, the black-throat is an active insect hunter, 
both among the oaks and various kinds of 
scrub growths of the valleys and the conifers 
of higher altitudes. The bird seems naturally 
to suggest the black-throated green warbler of 
the Eastern States, but I am not aware that 
in habits it is more nearly comparable to that 
species than to others. In choice of nesting 
sites it exhibits a wide range of taste, and 
nests have been found in scrub oaks, pines, and 
firs, and varying in height from the ground 
from 3 or 4 feet up to 50 feet or more. 
BLACK-THROATED GREEN WAR- 
BLER (Dendroica virens) 
Range: Breeds in lower Canadian and 
Transition Zones from west, central, and 
northeastern Alberta, southern Manitoba, 
central Ontario, northeastern Quebec, and 
Newfoundland south to southern Minnesota, 
southern Wisconsin, northern Ohio, northern 
New Jersey, Connecticut, and Long Island, 
New York, and in the Alleghenies south to 
South Carolina and Georgia; winters in 
Mexico (Nuevo Leon to Chiapas and 
Yucatan), Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Panama. 
What true bird lover is there who does not 
94 
cherish fond memories of certain birds? The 
very name of black-throated green warbler 
carries me back to boyhood days and to a 
certain pine-crested hill in Massachusetts, 
from which was wafted on an early spring 
morning the song of this warbler, heard by 
me then for the first time. The many years 
since elapsed have not effaced the sweet 
strains, and I seem to hear them now as they 
were borne that morning by the pine-scented 
spring breeze. I can vividly recall the pleasure 
the song occasioned and the satisfaction of 
having added one more bird to my small list 
of avian acquaintances. «Those were the days 
of mystery, when the woods seemed filled with 
unknown birds, and secrets lurked in every 
thicket and met the seeker at every turn. 
They were the times when bird books were 
few, keys unknown, and the keen eyes of 
youth far more satisfactory than the best field 
glasses of the present day. 
The black-throated green is one of the com- 
moner of our eastern warblers and one of the 
first to engage the attention of the bird stu- 
dent. During migration it may be met with 
in every kind of woodland, where it is at home, 
both high and low, ever pursuing with tireless 
energy its quest for insects. It has two songs, 
or rather one song delivered in two different 
ways, sprightly, sweet, and perfectly character- 
istic. In summer it is partial to coniferous 
woods, especially white pines and hemlocks, 
and it frequently nests in these, though also in 
birches and alders. 
PINE WARBLER (Dendroica vigorsi) 
Range: Breeds in Transition and Austral 
Zones from northern Manitoba, northern Mich- 
igan, southern Ontario, southern Quebec, and 
New Brunswick south to east-central Texas, 
the Gulf States, and Florida; winters from 
southern Illinois and coast of Virginia to Flor- 
ida, eastern Texas, and Tamaulipas. 
Few of our birds are so aptly named as the 
pine warbler, which first, last, and all the time, 
except in migration, resorts to pine woods. It 
summers in them in the north and it winters 
in them in the south. Even its feathers often 
bear conclusive evidence of its predilection for 
pines, being often besmeared with their gum. 
Among its bright-hued relatives the pine war- 
bler cuts but a poor show with its somber green 
and brown coat, which, at least in Florida, is 
often dingy and smoke-begrimed from contact 
with burnt timber. 
Though distinctively a warbler and not a 
creeper, the pine warbler is more deliberate in 
its motions than most of its kind and, some- 
what in the manner of the creeper, moves 
among the branches or over the trunks in 
search of its insect food. For a warbler it is 
an early migrant and reaches the latitude of 
Massachusetts soon after the middle of April. 
Indeed, its nest contains eggs or young while 
the late migrants are still passing north. Its 
song has little variation, but while monotonous 
is pleasing and sweet, far sweeter than the trill 
of the chipping sparrow, which it recalls. Nat- 
urally the pine warbler nests in pines, usually 
rather high up, either on a horizontal limb or 
among the twigs at the extremity of a limb. 
