384 NOTES ON THE 



and proprietor of The Minneapolis Tribune, and residing on 

 the Island, so that her opportunities were supreme for the 

 observation of many species of the warblers at the full tide of 

 their emigration, not a possible moment of which was neg- 

 lected. This one in particular she watched for hours at a 

 time, glass in hand, sitting in the shade of the magnificent 

 maples, elms, and lofty oaks abounding there, and capturing 

 alike every note and gesture for her record, which she kindly 

 made as my own in our almost daily interviews about the 

 teeming birds. Her ear for the characteristic notes of species, 

 could never be excelled, and her powers of reproducing them 

 by imitation were not a whit behind the other. I had long 

 practiced writing them upon the musical staff, that I might to 

 a small extent at least, recall them after the singer had gone, 

 but when I listened to her, and realized my own deficiencies, I 

 abandoned all such attempts at once. Since those days she 

 has earned fame as a teacher of ornithology, having before 

 been known in its literature as a writer on The Hummingbirds 

 of the Americas. Why are there so few ladies of such culture 

 interested in the systematic study of this fascinating science. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Bill dark blui.sh black, rather lighter beneath; tail dusky, 

 top of head light grayish-blue; front, lore, cheek, and a stripe 

 under the eye, black, running into a large triangular patch on 

 the back, between the wings, which is also black; eyelids and 

 a stripe from the eye along the head, white; upper tail coverts 

 black, some of the feather's tipped with grayish; abdomen and 

 lower tail coverts, white; rump and under parts, except as 

 described, yellow; lower throat, breast, and sides streaked 

 with black, the streaks closer on the lower throat and fore- 

 breast; lesser wing coverts and edges of the wing and tail, 

 bluish-gray, the former spotted with black; quills and tail 

 almost black, the latter with a square patch of white on the 

 inner of all the bands across the wings, ( sometimes coalesced 

 into one) formed by the small coverts and secondaries; part of 

 the edge of the inner webs of the quills white; feathers mar- 

 gining the black patch on the back behind, and on the sides 

 tinged with greenish; second and third quill longest, first 

 shorter than fourth; tail rounded, emarginate. 



Length, 5; wing, 2.50; tail. 2.25. 



Habitat, eastern North America to the base of the Rocky 

 mountains. 



DENDROICA r^RULEA (Wilson). (658.) 

 CERULEAN WARBLER. 



On the 19th of May, 1869, I obtained this warbler amongst 

 several others, since which time few seasons of their vernal 

 migration have passed without seeing them in rather limited 

 numbers. They come with the warbler wave from the 10th to 



