1 86 The Ottawa Naturalist. [December 



throated blue warbler has probably not altered much since the 

 days of Audubon, but our knowledg-e ot its habits in this respect 

 become more extensive and varied ; Audubon probably never saw 

 more than one or two nests of this species, and these were 

 probably placed in the situations he describes. Now, it is well 

 known that it nests in various situations ; and from my earliest 

 recollections of this species, I have noted it as a songster, and as 

 warbling its not unpleasing melody as constantly then, as it is 

 now known to do on an early summer day-^in the particular 

 woodland, where it has its haunts and home. And in contradis- 

 tinction to the time when Alex. Wilson wandered and wrote, 

 there are now many persons in the Canadian provinces devoting 

 the keenest attention without mercenary motives to the 

 appearance and life-history of the feathered race : and the results 

 of their observations is considerably effecting the ornithological 

 literature both of Canada and the United States : and when 

 Venner wrote the article Irom which we have quoted ; he con- 

 fessedly knew little of either the habits or the vocal acquirements 

 of this species, or he would not have characterized it as a songless 

 bird. 



But though this little wildwood musician emits its song with 

 clearness and animation, especially for the first few weeks after its 

 arrival from the sunny south, yet it must be admitted that its song 

 notes are not remarkable for the sweetness of their melody, lor in 

 its refrain there seems a melancholy plaintiveness, as though the 

 little performer was complaining that it was seeking in vain for 

 something that it had loved but lost. Yet, as adding a varying 

 strain to the great orchestra of the wildwood wilderness, it must 

 ever be interesting to the lovers of bird music, and the students 

 of animated nature 



The male of this species is about five inches in length, and in 

 his spring plumage of a uniform slaty blue color on the upper 

 parts, the throat is black and the lower parts white, the plumage 

 of the female is of a duller hue. 



