322 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS.— PASSERES—OSCINES. 



full dress : Above, jet-black from bill to tail, anteriorly narrowing to a point on tbe forebead, 

 with scarcely a trace of olivaceous toward and on rump. Entire side of bead and neck golden- 

 yellow, reaching bill, elsewhere enclosed in black, and enclosing a long black stripe through 

 eye to side of nape, nearly cutting off a superciliary stripe from the general yellow area, w-hich, 

 however, is continuous on lore and side of nape. Chin, throat, and breast jet-black, this color 

 extending backward along sides as heavy streaking; narrowing anteriorly where sharply 

 defined against the yellow ; other under parts, including lining of wings, white, squarely de- 

 fine<l against black of breast (whole under parts thus as in virens). Wings blackish, with two 

 broad white cross-bars, and whitish edging of quills, especially the inuer secondaries. Tail black- 

 ish ; outermost feather white with only a black shaft-line clubbed at end ; next three pairs 

 with decreasing white. Adult 9 : Above olive-green indistinctly streaked ; throat yellowish 

 more or less mixed with black. Texas and southward. Nest in upright fork, preferably of a 

 cedar, large for the bird, compactly felted of bark strips, fine grasses, rootlets, and slender veg- 

 etable fibres and cobwebs, lined copiously with hair and feathers ; eggs 0.75 X 0.55, white, 

 dotted with reddish-brown and lavender, and blotched with darker brown, laid in May. 

 D. nigres'cens. (Lat. nigrescens, growing black. Fig. 176.) Black-throated Gray 

 Warbler. Adult ^i Above, bluish-ash, the interscapular region, and usually also upper-tail 

 coverts, streaked with black. Below, from breast, pure white, the 

 sides streaked with black. Entire bead, with chin and throat, black ; 

 a sharply defined yellow spot before eye, a broad white stripe behind 

 eye, and a long white maxillary stripe widening behind from corner 

 of bill to side of neck. Wings fuscous, with much whitish edging, 

 crossed with two broad white bars on ends of greater and median 

 coverts. Tail like wings, the three lateral feathers mostly white, 

 Fig. 176. — Black-throated except on outer webs, the fourth with a white blotch. Bill and feet 

 Gray Warbler, nat. size. (Ad. black. Size oi D. townsetidi. 9 like ,J, but black of crowu mixed 

 with the ashy of back, and that of throat veiled with white tips of 

 the feathers. Young : Like 9 > but crown almost entirely like back, and black of throat still 

 more hidden. Back not streaked. Less white on tail. Bill not entirely black. Rocky Mts. to 

 the Pacific, U. S. and British Columbia, southward in winter in Mexico, common in woodland. 

 Quite unlike any other species ; one of the five Dendracce which are normally confined to the 

 West. Nest, usually low, in bushes and shrubbery, small, 2.00 X 1-50, resembling that of the 

 Summer Warbler, but lined with grasses and hairs ; eggs from dull white to greenish-buff, 

 heavily marked, 0.63 X 0..50; May, June. The breeding range is ciiineidfiit with the distribu- 

 tion of the bird in the U. S., it being common in summer 



in the mountains of Southern Arizona up to 9,000 feet. ../ i^r-i - ,\ 



D. coerules'cens. (Lat. coendescens, growing blue ; cccni- 

 leiis, blue. Fig. 177.) Black-throated Blue War- 

 bler. Adult (J, in spring: Above, uniform slaty-blue, 

 the perfect continuity of which is only interrupted in very 

 high plumages, by a few black dorsal streaks ; below, pure 

 wliite; sides of head to above eyes, chin, throat, and 

 wliole sides of body continuously jet-black ; iving-hars 

 wnnting (the coverts being black, edged with blue), hut 

 a large uhite spot at base of primaries : quill-feathers Fig. i:;.- Black-throated Blue War- 



blackish, outwardly edged with bluish, the inner ones ^^^^- (^- ^- ^uertes.) 

 mostly white on inner webs ; tail with ordinary white blotches, the central feathers edged with 

 bluish ; bill black, feet dark. Young ^ : Similar, but the blue glossed with olivaceous, and 

 tlie black interrupted and restricted. 9 entirely different: Dull olive-greenish, with faint 

 bluish shade, below pale soiled yellowish ; but recognizable by the white spot at base ofpri- 



