THE BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLER. 331 



slowly drawn out and not very loud. I become excited, and 

 am conscious of each heart-throb as I listen. Now I have 

 a full view of the musician — the Black-throated Blue War- 

 bler {DcndrcEca ccerulescens). Rather more than an average 

 in size as a Dendrceca (5.10 long and 7.75 in extent), he is of 

 a rich slaty-blue above, often having graceful little black 

 spots on the back; the inner webs of the tail and wings, 

 black or dusky; throat, cheeks, and sides of the breast, jet- 

 black; under parts, spots on the inner webs of the outer 

 tail feathers, and nearly triangular spot at the base of the 

 primaries, pure white. He is a genuine beauty; but his 

 mate, of a bluish-olive above and yellowish-white beneath, 

 the white wing-spot rather obscure, is one of the very plain- 

 est of the Warblers. Generally found in the upland forests, 

 this is one of the commonest of the genus in Western New 

 York during the migrations. Keeping rather to the lower 

 parts of the trees, though often found in the tree-tops, ex- 

 ceedingly spry in all its movements, it is not only a thorough 

 gleaner among spray and foliage, but also a fair flycatcher. 

 Seldom seen here after the month of May, I conclude that 

 I am not within the range of its breeding habitat. The 

 most interesting and thorough account of its nidification 

 is given in the Nuttall Ornithological Bulletin for April, 

 1876, by Rev. C. M. Jones, who reports a nest with four eggs, 

 from the northeast corner of Connecticut, taken June 8th, 

 1874, and another, with the same number of eggs nearly 

 hatched, on the 13th of the same month. Both nests were 

 placed but a few inches from the ground, in small bushes of 

 laurel in the woods, near a swamp. In regard to the first: 

 ''About five inches from the ground the bush separated into 

 three branches, and in this triple fork the nest was situ- 

 ated." The second was " in two laurels. One of these lay 

 horizontally in the fork of the other, and on the horizontal 



