84 NORTH AMERICAN WARBLERS. 



seven months for the migration to and from North America and the 

 entire breeding season. If this latter covers not less than ten weeks, 

 then during the rest of the year — more than a third^the bird must be 

 traveling at an average rate of 50 miles per day. 



663. Dendroica domiiiica (Linn.). Yellow-throated Warbler. 



Breeding range. — The yellow-throated warbler is a species of quite 

 limited extension. Its range is east of the Allegheny MountaiDS. 

 North of Maryland the bird is rare or casual, though it breeds near 

 the Choptank River in southwestern Delaware. It breeds in the 

 Carolinian and Austroriparian zones, and seems to desert in summer 

 the tropical zone of southern Florida. 



Winter range. — ^The southernmost recorded winter home of the 

 yellow-throated warbler is the island of Jamaica. Since the species 

 does not move north until early March, the Jamaican individuals spend 

 about seven months of the year in their winter .home. The bird is also 

 a winter resident of the Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti, Porto Rico, and Grand 

 Cayman, and there is one record for Yucatan. It winters abundantly 

 in southern Florida, less commonl^y in the northern part of the State, 

 and locally along the Atlantic coast to South Carolina. 



Spring migration. — The j'ellow-throated warbler is one of the early 

 migi'ants. Its arrival at Gainesville, Fla. , has been noted on March 2, 

 ISSY, and it has been recorded as abundant by March 5 near Jackson- 

 ville. The earliest dates of striking at the lighthouse at Sombrero 

 Key, Fla., are March 28, 1887, March 11, 1888, and March 3 and 11, 

 1 889. Reports do not show that this species is ever present at the light- 

 houses in large numbers, fifteen in one night being the highest number 

 observed. Small parties pass for several weeks, but the spring migra- 

 tion is not extended like that of fall. All the recorded spring observa- 

 tions of the bird at the lighthouses are included between March 3 and 

 April 4. There is a greater difference between the time of spring arrival 

 at Raleigh, N. C, and that at Asheville, N. C. — both places in the same 

 latitude, one on the plains and the other in the mountains — than in 

 the case of any other species. At Raleigh the average date of arrival 

 during fifteen years is March 26, with extremes of March 20 in 1894 

 and April 1 in 1885, 1887, 1891, and 1901. There was also an unusu- 

 ally early migrant seen March 13, 1890. At Asheville the average for 

 four years is April 21, with extremes of April 13, 1893, and April 26, 

 1894. Eggs have been taken in southeastern Georgia April 24 and 

 fully fledged young in northern Florida early in June. 



Fall migration. — An early breeder, the yellow-throated warbler is 

 ready to migrate before the middle of summer. It is the first migrant 

 of all the birds to reach Cuba, where it arrives at the end of July and 

 becomes abundant in August. At Key West, Fla. , where it does not 

 breed, the arrival of the bird has been noted July 25. Yet there is 



