Page:Birdcraft-1897.djvu/157

 :spots on tail. Bill and feet dark. Female with crown olive-green and chestnut striped with black.


 * Song:
 * Not marked, insect like.


 * Season:
 * A rare migrant here. Seen in May, and less frequently on the return trip.


 * Breeds:
 * From northern New England and northern Michigan north-ward.


 * Nest:
 * Large and rough, for so small a bird, made of tree moss and twigs, and fur-lined.


 * Eggs:
 * Blue-green and spotted.


 * Range:
 * Eastern North America, north to Hudson's Bay; winters in Central America.

This Warbler is an irregular migrant in the greater part of its range; sometimes it will not be seen at all in a locality where in previous seasons it was fairly constant. The chest. nut colouring of the breast is the distinetive mark by which it may be recognized, and this dull red breast renders it conspicuous and more likely to be discovered than many plainer, though more common species. In full spring plumage the male looks, at a little distance, like a well-fed Robin in miniature.

The Bay-breasts seem, according to many authorities, to be very freaky and capricious as to the course of their migrations, and it is said they return to the South by a different route from that by which they travelled up in spring, no two people being able to agree with certainty as to the locations where they may be found. Dr. Allen, in his "List of Massachusetts Birds," says that they are common in both migrations, varying in abundance; while Mr. Minot says that as a rule these birds are rare in spring in eastern Massachusetts and are never seen in autumn, —the consensus of opinion being that in some seasons the birds take a westerly course in spring and an easterly in autumn, or vice versa. All of which goes to prove that you may have considered this Warbler an unknown bird in your locality, and some May morning in looking out your window you will find a little party of them almost peering in at you.