122 NORTH AMERICAN WARBLERS. 



April 10, 1891; Dallas, April 20, 1898, April 21, 1899; Bonham, April 

 18, 1885, April 16, 1886, April 16, 1887, April 25, 1890, April 20, 

 1891; GaiiiesYille, April 17, 1885, April 29, 1886, April 26, 1887. A 

 fair average date at San Antonio is April 10 and at the Red River 

 April 19. 



A long series of observations at Onaga, Kans., directl}^ north of 

 Dallas, gives May 1 as the average date of arrival for eleven 3^ears. 

 The average time of the journe}" from San Antonio to Onaga, a dis- 

 tance of 685 miles, is therefore twenty-four days, and the dailj^ rate 

 of speed 29 miles per da3\ This is quite close to the average speed 

 along the Atlantic coast. Hence the records for the Mississippi River 

 are evidently quite different from those to the east and to the west. 

 They are not explainable in accordance with the commonly accepted 

 ideas of bird migration, and are one set of a series of data that are 

 accumulating that indicate that not all birds that cross the Gulf of 

 Mexico cease their ilight upon reaching land. 



Fall inicjration. — Chats do not occur in Florida nor in an}^ of the 

 West India islands, and the numbers that pass through Texas are but 

 a small fraction of those that are found in the eastern part of the 

 United States. Hence the great majority must reach their winter 

 home b}" a flight across the Gulf of Mexico. In the fall the chat 

 migriites early. It deserts in August the northern limit of its range, 

 and by the 1st of September few individuals are left north of latitude 

 39^. Some records of the last noted are: Englewood, N. J. , August 29, 

 1886; Renovo, Pa., September 21, 1897; Philadelphia, September 24, 

 1889; Washington, September 19, 1886; Raleigh, N. C, September 1, 

 1888; New Orleans, September 12, 1899, and Bonham, Tex., Septem- 

 ber 20, 1889. 



683a. Icteria virens long-icauda (La^Yr. ). Long-tailed Chat. 



Breeding range. — The long-tailed chat inhabits the western United 

 States from the Great Plains westward, but is found principally in 

 the lower districts, breeding to about 6,500 feet. It breeds from 

 central Jalisco, Guanajuato, and the City of Mexico to North Dakota, 

 southern Montana, and central British Columbia. 



Winter range. — The parties of the Biological Surve}'' in Mexico 

 found the western form of the chat on the western coast and the 

 higher central plateaus. They took it in Chihuahua, Durango, Jalisco, 

 Guanajuato, Colima, Michoacan, Morelos, and western Puebla, and in 

 Oaxaca to Cuicatlan on the Atlantic slope and Pochutla on the Pacific 

 side. 



There seems to be some question of the extension of the range of 

 longicaiida. farther than Oaxaca. The collections of the National 

 Museum and the Biological Survey furnish only negative evidence in 

 this respect. The specimens taken by six different collectors in Gua- 



