216 BAY-BREASTED WARBLER. 
ing, many are showy, and some remind one of the gorgeously colored birds of tropical 
countries. One of the most richly attired species is the Bay-BREASTED WARBLER. To- 
gether with other species I observed it in the apple trees of my garden. -It was not an 
abundant bird, being seen always in few specimens. I usually observed it about May 7, 
and by the 20th of that month the. last stragglers left for their northern home. In 
south-eastern Texas I found it one of the most common species of the family during the 
spring migration. They arrived from their winter-quarters about the 25th of April, when 
the magnificent magnolias opened their first flowers, and May 5 they were still numer. 
ous. In a large garden where a beautiful specimen of the laurel magnolia’ was ‘in full 
bloom, filling the air with its delicious perfume, I saw at one time seven Bay-breasted 
Warblers besides several other species. They searched every leave and every flower-cup 
for prey, darting about with great activity and frequently catching insects on the wing. 
Wherever I have observed them they kept more on the lower branches, rarely ascend- 
ing to the tops of tall trees. They always prefer to hunt in small trees and the 
underwood, being especially common on the edges of the woods, where the larger shrubs 
hang over the woodland’s border in wild grace. In Wisconsin they seldom arrive before 
May 15, and extend their stay to the first days of June, when they suddenly disappear. 
Probably some breed in the beautiful coniferous lake and mineral region of northern 
Wisconsin and Michigan. 
“The New England record of the Bay-breast coincides closely with that established 
for the Black-poll; but the former is not quite so late a migrant in spring or fall, and 
is more irregular, both in local distribution and apparent abundance. The two species 
are alike strictly limited in their southern extension in the breeding season by the 
Canadian Fauna; the difference in breeding range being, that the Bay-breasts are 
limited by the same Fauna in their northward dispersion in summer, while the Black- 
polls pass on in the Hudsonian. The consequence is, that the Bay-breasts are abundant 
summer residents of certain portions of northern New England, while the Black-polls 
are- comparatively rare in the same distri¢ts at such period. The more southerly 
summer range of the Bay-breast is also evident by the fact, stated by Mr. Minot, that 
the bird has been seen in Massachusetts in June and July.’’* 
Mr. C. J. Maynard and Mr. Wm. Brewster found this species one of the most 
abundant of the Warblers at Umbagog, Me. The nest is usually placed on a horizontal 
branch of a hemlock or spruce, from fifteen to twenty feet from the ground. One nest 
was found on the side of a thickly wooded hill, another one along a cart-path in the 
woods. The nests were large in comparison with the size of the bird. They were com- 
posed of small larch-twigs, mixed with a little tree-moss, very neatly and smoothly 
lined with black fibrous rootlets, seed-stalks of ground-moss, a little rabbit fur, a bit of 
green sphagnum moss, and sometimes the materials include a few grass-stalks. 
The usual number of eggs is four. They are white, with a bluish tinge, more or 
less thickly spotted and speckled with brown, especially near the larger end. 
In September the Bay-breasts are again on their way to the South. They winter 
abundantly in Central America and perhaps also in the West Indies. This Warbler is 
1 Magnolia glauca, 
* Stearns and Coues, “New England Bird-life.” Vol. I, p. 138. 
