WARBLERS 



137 



ish Main, to the interior of Brazil, Xot a Black- 

 l)oII winters north of South America. This 

 means that if a BraziHan liird nests in .Alaska, 

 he has five thousand miles to tra\el twice 

 a year. At the shortest, from the mouth of the 

 Orinoco to the .\dirondacks there are twenty- 

 five hundred miles to travel. 



Coming- north as it does among the latest of the 

 Warblers, Black-poll is very diflicult to see. The 

 trees, already far advanced in foliage, easily hide 

 him ; and when the Black-poll remains, as he 

 often does, in the tops, he is well out of sight. 

 His song resembles the Black and White War- 

 bler's, but the notes are separated, not in [jairs. 

 The hesitating, sibilant notes have crescendo and 

 diminuendo efifects that make it possible to dis- 

 tinguish the song from its near relatives. Once 

 learned, the song in the leafy trees is a clue to 



his presence, and the search mav bring him to 

 view. 



The Black-[.)oll delays into June before leaving 

 the areas just south of its breeding range, while 

 the more northern breeding birds are on their 

 way to Alaska and the lower Mackenzie. There 

 are a few that nest in the northern tier of .States 

 west to Montana, but most often, j.iossibly 

 always, in evergreens, the preference being for 

 short thick clum]is of sjjruces. 



Again in the f.ill the Black-poll seems loath to 

 leave, waiting behind the other \\'arblers. He 

 does not leave the northern States before October. 

 His Vireo-like movements often make him more 

 noticeable than in the spring. At last he does 

 decide to go. and he is ofi" for the Amazonian 

 forests. 



L. Nelson Nichols. 



Photograph by R. W. Shufeldt 



BLACK-POLL WARBLER 

 Adult male in spring plumage, from life 



BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER 

 Dendroica fusca {Mnllcr) 



Other Names.— Hemlock Warbler; 'Idrch-bird ; 

 I'ire-lirand : rjianyc-throated Warbler. 



General Description.— Length. 5'j inches. Upper 

 parts, black or blackish with spots of yellow and white; 

 inider parts, orange and yellow. Bill, shorter than 

 head, slender, tapering gradually to the tip : wings, 

 long and pointed ; tail, notched. 



Color. — Adult M.\le : Cro-.vn ivid hnidncck. Mack, 

 relieved by an oval patch of oraiuic on middle of 

 crown: a broad stripe of oramje o-;'er eye confluent 

 behind with a large patch vf the same on side of neck : 

 a spot of rather paler orange-yellow immediately 

 beneath eye, including lower eyelid ; loral streak and 

 sides of head, black, the two connected by a narrow 



See Color I 'late 97 



streak at the corner of the mouth; cheeks, chin, throat, 

 and chest, rich orange; remaining under parts, pale 

 yellowish (more decidedly yellowish on breast), the 

 under tail-coverts, white; sides and flanks streaked with 

 black, these black streaks commencing at lower rear 

 extremity of ear region ; .general color of upper parts, 

 black, the back streaked with whitish, especially the 

 exterior row of shoulder-featliers. which have most of 

 the outer web whitish, forming, when feathers are 

 properly arranged, two stripes alon.g each side of back ; 

 feathers of rump and upper tail-coverts edged with 

 whitish; two to three outermost tail-feathers white. 

 with black shafts and with a terminal wedge-shaped 

 mark of black; fourth tail-feather also with much 



