98 NORTH AMERICAN WARBLERS. 



records of migrants to the northward are March 5, 1888, March 12, 

 1889, and February 19, 1891, at Frogmore, S. C. The full tide of 

 migration, however, does not start until the last of March. Though 

 there are records of single birds striking as early as March 7 at 

 Sombrero Ke}^ lighthouse; no large flights occur until the last week 

 in the month. During the first week in April the species crosses 

 northern Florida and Georgia, arriving the following week in central 

 North Carolina. The average date of earliest arrivals for sixteen 

 3^ears at Kaleigh, N. C, is April 15, with extremes of April 6, 1892, 

 and April 22, 1886. In the northwestern extremity of Georgia, at 

 Rising Fawn, the bird was seen April 5, 1885. At Eubank, Ky. , on the 

 other side of the mountains, the seven years' average of earliest arrival 

 is April 20, with extremes of April 13, 1893, and April 22, 1889. The 

 earliest migrants usuall}^ arrive at Washington April 22; in south- 

 eastern New York May 1; at Portland, Conn., May 6, and at Boston 

 May 8. One was taken at Toronto, Ma}^ 11, 1900, probably the first 

 record of the species for Canada. Thus the northern part of the breed- 

 ing range is reached b}^ the first week in May, at which time and for 

 a week longer migrants are still crossing from Cuba to Florida. 

 According to the records, Haiti is finalh^ abandoned April 1, Jamaica 

 April 11, and the southern Bahamas April 12. Some late migrants 

 struck the Cay Lobos lighthouse, ofi' the north coast of Cuba, Ma}^ 3, 

 1900, and May 13, 1901. 



Fall migration. — The time when the prairie warbler begins its south- 

 ward journe}^ can be judged from the fact that migrants have been 

 noted b}^ August 18 at New Providence, Bahamas, and on the island 

 of Jamaica. Throughout the Bahamas and in Cuba this species is one 

 of the most abundant winter birds; hence it must be a common migrant 

 through Florida. But no such numbers of the species are killed by 

 striking the lighthouses as of several other species apparently no more 

 common. The prairie warbler is recorded as striking on sixty-one 

 difl'erent nights, more than two-thirds of which were in the fall. At 

 Sombrero Key, where an exact count was kept of the number of each 

 species striking and killed, just half of the fall records of this species 

 are of but 1 bird per night. Six in a night was the largest number 

 attained, except on October 2, 3, and 1, 1888, when the light was struck 

 by 20, 47, and 7 birds respectively. The keeper at the Alligator Reef 

 light reports that 15 prairie warblers struck his light on September 

 28, 1889. 



The prairie warbler leaves its northern breeding grounds early in 

 September, and few of the birds are seen along the central Atlantic 

 coast later than this date. The five years' record of the latest date 

 on which fall migrants were seen at Raleigh, N. C, gives an average 

 of September 6, with extremes of September 3 and 9. At Frogmore, 

 S. C, the reported dates of the end of fall migration are September 



