S6 NdltTH AMEEICAN WAUBLEBS. 



dance. Thence three courses are open to them: To pass through Texas 

 and Mexico; to go east and south through Florida and Cuba; or to fly 

 directly across the Gulf of Mexico. With respect to the first route, 

 there are only a few records from southern Texas and none from the 

 whole of Mexico west of Campeche. The Florida route can not be so 

 summarily dismissed. The prothonotary warbler occurs in Florida, 

 though at the south end it is rare, the records comprising only two 

 individuals that struck the Sombrero Key light, four taken at Key 

 West, one at the Dry Tortugas, "and a few on the mainland. The birds 

 are more common in northern Florida and increase in numbers north- 

 ward along the Atlantic coast until southern Virginia is reached, 

 where, as already remarked, they are abundant. Since the species 

 occurs in spring and fall in southern Florida, it is evident that a few 

 birds migrate through the State; but the number observed is not at all 

 commensurate with the large number that spend the summer to the 

 northward. In the light of the present records it would seem that the 

 northern birds fly to their winter home without passing through south- 

 ern Florida. Hence, as there are no fall records as yet of birds pass- 

 ing through Mexico and but few of migrants through southern Florida, 

 it follows in the light of our present knowledge that the great bulk 

 of the species must fl)' across the Gulf of Mexico from the shores of 

 Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and northwestern Florida. Their 

 point of departure is known, but not the country toward which they 

 direct their flight. None have been found in the West Indies except 

 an accidental visitor to New Providence, Bahamas, August 29, 1898,'' 

 and the specimen taken at Havana, Cuba, in April, 1859.* Evidently 

 no great number of them fly directly to northern Yucatan, for they 

 are considered rare in that country,'' and but few have been seen by 

 the parties of the Biological Survey. As the species has been recorded 

 at Truxillo'^ on the mainland of Honduras, and off the coast on the 

 island of Ruatan," we must conclude that the principal line of migra- 

 tion is to the moister districts of southern Yucatan and Campeche, 

 whence the birds pass to Honduras and southward. 



The earliest records of fall migration are at Raleigh, N. C, July 14, 

 1893 and 1894, and at Key West, July 28, 1888, and August 8, 1889. 

 These show that migration begins as soon as possible after the young 

 are out of the nest. Statements of observers in the Mississippi Valley 

 are to the same efi'ect. The migration movement in fall in the United 

 States lasts about two months. In the latter part of August the birds 

 leave the northern part of their range. The latest date at which they 

 were noted at Raleigh, N. C, is August 26; the latest dates at Omaha, 



«Bonhote, Ibis, p. 507, 1899. ''Ridgway, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., X, p. 



^-Gundlaoh, J. f. Orn., p. 178, 1862. 579, 1888. 



cBoucard, P. Z. S., p. 440, 1883. «Salvin, Ibis, p. 246, 1888. 



