300 BIRDS OF ALABAMA 



wee-chee, wee-chee, wee-chee, wee-ehee, accent on the first 

 syllable of each repetition, increasing to the last."$ 



Food habits. — Forbush speaks of this bird as being "very 

 destructive to many injurious beetles and caterpillars" and 

 an "active consumer of leaf-eating insects." He mentions 

 also, bark beetles, plant bugs, leaf hoppers, ants, and aphids 

 as a part of the bird's fare.* 



BAY-BREASTED WARBLER: Dendroica castemea 



(Wilson). 



State records. — The bay-breasted warbler occurs as a regu- 

 lar, though rather uncommon spring migrant but it has not 

 been seen in the fall. Its main migration route seems to be 

 through the Mississippi Valley and across the Gulf of Mexico. 

 Dr. Avery took a single specimen at Greensboro, May 3, 1893 ; 

 Holt secured one at York, May 2, 1912, and I collected one at 

 Muscle Shoals, April 25, 1914. I saw^ two birds at Florence, 

 May 4 and 7, 1912, and another near Ardell, May 4, 1914. 

 Graves reports the species from Sand Mountain, May 9 and 11, 

 1912, and April 20, 1914, and Miss Parkhurst reports it from 

 Talladega, April 30, 1906, May 12, 1907, and May 5, 1909. 

 A specimen taken in spring at Point Clear is in the mounted 

 collection of James K. Glennon. The only fall record is that 

 of two birds which I shot in pines on the slopes of Choccolocco 

 Mountain near Piedmont, October 20, 1916. 



General habits. — This rather large warbler is quite leisure- 

 ly in movements and during migration is most frequently 

 found in upland, deciduous timber tracts. In its summer 

 home in the North it is said to frequent the tops of tall trees ; 

 nests have been found in hemlocks 15 and 20 feet above the 

 ground. Langille describes its song as "a very soft warble, 

 somewhat resembling the syllables tse-chee, tse-chee, tse-chee,. 

 tse-chee, tse-chee, but far too liquid to admit of exact spell- 

 ing.»t 



tLaneille, J. H., Our Birds in Their Haunts, p. S8S, 1884. 

 •Forbush, E. H., Useful Birds and Their Protection, p. 194, 1907. 

 tLangille, J. H., Our Birds in Their Haunts, p. 328, 1884. 



