232 BULLETIN 203, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



The general trend of the pitch is upward in 29 records, downward in 

 10, and ending in the same pitch as the first note in 2. 



"The pitch of songs varies from G''' to E"", a range of four and 

 a half tones. Single songs range from half a tone to three tones, the 

 majority covering one and a half or two tones. The length of the 

 songs is from IV5 to 2 seconds. This indicates the slowness of the 

 three or four notes, for other warbler songs with twice as many notes 

 are about the same length. In the few songs of this bird that have 

 more notes the notes are shorter and faster, so that the songs are not 

 longer. 



"This species shows a greater tendency to sing unusual songs than 

 most warblers. On three occasions I have heard a warbler song that 

 I could not recognize, and when I located the bird, found it to be a 

 black-throated blue. 



"Two of these songs were of rapid notes, in a clear, ringing quality, 

 not at all like the ordinary song of this bird. The third was two 

 rather long notes in a clear, sweet whistle, the second higher in pitch 

 than the first, so that it resembled the fhoebe whistle of the chicka- 

 dee reversed. 



"The average date of the last song in 14 summers in Allegany State 

 Park is July 21. The earliest is July 14, 1927 an 1940, and the latest 

 July 29, 1931. The song is rarely revived in August, after the molt." 



Francis H. Allen (MS.) writes the two common songs as "g'wee quee 

 quee-e-e' " and ''''que-que-que-que quee-ee'^^ and says further, "in 

 June 1907, I heard a bird in Shelburne, Vt., that sang persistently 

 a short song like ku quee-e-e' besides singing occasionally one of the 

 ordinary songs. In May, 1910, at Jaffrey, N. H., I heard a bird sing 

 over and over qui-qui-qui-qui-qui-qui-qui-qui-quee\ but most of the 

 birds of the region seemed to sing zee zee zee-ee^ with a falling in- 

 flection, while some sang the ordinary quee quee quee-e-e' ^ with rising 

 inflection. The quee songs have a nasal tone. The call note is a dry 

 cliut or chet^ resembling the chif of the black-throated green but not 

 so thick." 



Mrs. Nice (1930b) describes four different songs; and Gerald 

 Thayer, in Chapman (1907), gives four main songs, with variations, 

 but the versatility of this singer seems to be well enough shown in the 

 previous descriptions. 



Field marks. — The male black-throated blue warbler could hardly 

 be mistaken for anything else; there is no other American warbler 

 that is at all like it. The blue back, the extensive black throat, the 

 white patch near the bases of the primaries, the white under parts, 

 and the white spots on the inner webs of the three outer tail feathers 

 are all diagnostic. Fortunately, the fall plumage is essentially the 

 same. But the female is one of the most difficult of the warblers to 



