610 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
conspicuous field-mark, however, is a large patch of cream white on each 
side of the neck. 
Distribution.—LHastern North America, north to Hudson Bay. Breeds 
from northern New England and northern Michigan northward; in winter, 
south through eastern Mexico (rare) and Guatemala to Colombia. 
The Bay-breasted Warbler is one of the later migrants, seldom arriving 
from the south before the second week in May, even in the southern counties, 
and not infrequently delaying its appear- 
ance until the 15th or 20th of the month. 
At Ann Arbor Mr. N. A. Wood gives the 
average date of arrival for twenty-five 
years as May 13, and the records from 
the various lighthouses indicate that the 
principal movement occurs between the 
15th and 380th of the month. We have 
records from Spectacle Reef Light, Lake 
Huron, on May 11, 1888, May 15 and 19, 
1891, May 17, 1885, May 19, 1887, May 
22, 1890 and again in 1893, and May 23, 
1897. The southward movement begins 
early in September and is mainly comple- _ Fig. 138. _ Bay-breasted — Warbler. 
ted during the month, although specimens: tout Goues: Key, oui ed..\12025 Dana 
are frequently taken well into October. 
In Michigan, as in New England and Wisconsin, the Bay-breast is much 
more abundant in some seasons than in others. Occasionally it is a com- 
mon spring migrant, and then for several years it may hardly be seen at 
all. In our experience the adults are decidedly scarce during the fall 
migration, but the young are fairly abundant. The birds during migration 
frequent forests, groves and orchards, with apparently little preference for 
any particular kind of growth, but it is said to prefer the neighborhood 
of evergreens in the regions where it nests. 
Much uncertainty exists with regard to its presence in Michigan in 
summer. The distribution given above by the A. O. U. list includes 
Michigan in its breeding range, and Professor A. J. Cook, in his 1893 list, 
speaks of it as breeding in the northern part of the state and cites Davie 
and Nehrling as authorities. Mr. 8. Id. White states that it is a rare summer 
resident on Mackinae Island, where he found it also an abundant migrant; 
but he did not find it nesting. After thorough search of the literature, 
and careful inquiries in every available quarter, we have failed to find any 
authentic record of its nesting in Michigan, and while it is by no means 
impossible that it may do so, we believe that it yet remains to be proved 
to be a summer resident of the state. It is well known to nest in some of 
the northernmost parts of the United States, and was found by My. Brewster 
to be a fairly common nester in the neighborhood of the Umbagog Lakes 
in Maine. He states that there the nest was usually placed on a horizontal 
branch of hemlock or spruce from fifteen to twenty feet from the ground, 
the nest being large in comparison with the size of the bird. The materials 
ee ne nest were small tamarack twigs, mixed with a little tree moss, very 
atly and smoothly lined with black fibrous rootlets, seed-stalks of ground- 
moss, a little rabbit fur, and some sphagnum moss. The eggs are usually 
four, bluish-white, more or less speckled with brown, and average .71 
by .51 inches. 
\ccording to Dr. Gibbs the bird has a beautiful song, but we have found 
