78 



NORTH AMERICAN WAEBLEES. 



poll warbler came aboard a ship 50 miles off the coast of South Caro- 

 lina, April 19, 1898. The average date of earliest arrival from the 

 south during nine years' observation near Atlanta, Ga., is April 30, 

 with extremes of April 23, 1894, and May 10, 1901. The seven years' 

 average at Raleigh, N. C, is May 2, with extremes of April 29, 188Y, 

 April 30, 1891, and May 5, 1890. The average of five years in the 

 mountains at Asheville is May 5, with extremes of April 29, 1893, and 

 May 10, 1890. The dates of first arrival for several successive years 

 at St. Louis are remarkably uniform — April 29, 1884, 1885, and 1887, 

 May 1, 1886, and April 28, 1888. Thus arrival from the south at St. 

 Louis is three days earlier than at Raleigh; this in spite of the sup- 

 position that the birds come from the southeast and the fact that St. 

 Louis is farther north by 200 miles than the North Carolina point of 

 observation. Compared with dates of arrival near Atlanta, Ga., those 

 at St. Louis show a difference of but one day in the average, although 

 nearly 600 miles measure the difference in distance along the south- 

 east and northwest line of migration between the two points. Along 

 the Atlantic slope some records of average date of arrival are: Wash- 

 ington, May 6; Philadelphia, May 8; southeastern New York, May 

 15; central Connecticut, May 15; Boston, May 17; southern New 

 Hampshire, May 21, and Lewiston, Me., May 23. The first arrival 

 was noted at Montreal, May 28, 1892; Godbout, Quebec, June 6, 1884 

 and 1887, and North River, Prince Edward Island, June 10, 1890. 

 Records of averages west of the Alleghenies are: Chicago, May 13; 

 southern Wisconsin, May 16; southern Michigan, May 14; southern 

 Ontario, May 17, and Ottawa, May 21. Near the Mississippi the 

 dates of arrival are somewhat earlier, averaging, at St. Louis, April 

 30; Keokuk, Iowa, May 9, and Lanesboro, Minn., May 16. The 

 migration route thence bears strongly northwestward, and the black- 

 polls reach Alaska in the last week of May. 



The black-poll warbler is common along the Mississippi from St. 

 Louis northward, while west of the mouth of the river, along the Gulf 

 coast, and in Texas it is almost unknown. It is fairly common west- 

 ward to the Missouri River, but is scarcely or only locally known in 

 the Plains region. Of more than twenty observers in Kansas only 

 two report seeing this species, and one of these saw it but once in 

 eleven years of active observation. The earliest arrival noted m 

 Kansas was May 12, 1885, at which time the birds were already much 

 farther north along the Mississippi River. At the western edge of its 

 range along the foothills of the Rocky Mountains the species is rare. 

 It reaches the Arkansas River in the first week in May and northern 

 Colorado a week later. There can be no doubt that the great bulk of 

 the western individuals of the species pass north along the forest 

 region of the Mississippi and through the corresponding region of 

 Minnesota. 



