112 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 



Bay-breasted Warblers? I have on!}' "Wilson's Ornithology" 

 at hand, and unfortunately no specimen of the bird in question. 

 But the weight of evidence seems to show that the bird as col- 

 ored and described by Wilson represents the young of the 

 latter ; and yet is it not possible that he may have accidentally 

 obtained a young Ba3'-breasted AVarbler from among a com- 

 panj^ of " Black-polls "? 30 Coues admits that the young of 

 the two species are so much alike as often to be indistinguish- 

 able. It is certain that the small warblers seen here in Octo- 

 ber, which resemble the Autumnal Warblers, are young "Black- 

 polls," as is indicated by the fact of their abundance and by 

 their habits. Mr. Maynard states it as a positive fact. 



Their note is a feeble Cedar-lnrd-like lisp; but Wilson 

 speaks of the males warbling in autumn " low, but very sweet 

 notes," which perhaps is a mistake. (See D, d, E, d.) ] 



(F) BLACKBURNi^. Blackbumian Warbler. HemlocJc War- 

 bler. 



(Generally not a common migrant through Massachusetts, 

 where this species occasionally breeds.) 



(a). About 4] inches long. J' dark above. Wing-patch, 

 white. Head, throat, and breast, brilliant orange, with a border 

 to the crown and a broad stripe through the eye black. Sides 

 black-streaked, and belly nearly white. 9 essentially like 9 

 striata (E) above. Superciliary line, throat and breast, yellow. 

 Otherwise like ^ . 



(6). A nest of this species, containing young, which I found 

 in Northern New Hampshire, was placed about twenty feet 

 from the ground in a pine. Another, which I was so fortunate 

 as to find in a thick hemlock-wood near Boston, was also about 

 twenty feet above the ground. It contained three young and a 

 yet unhatched egg, which measures -GoX'^O, and resembles 

 the egg of the Chestnut-sided Warbler (D), being white, with 

 lilac and principally reddish-brown markings, grouped at the 



'" The legs in Wilson's picture nre, however, colored like those of the " Black- 

 poll," and uot like those of the "Bay-breast." 



