MNIOTILTID^: AMERICAN WARBLERS. 323 



mnries, which, though it may be reduced to a mere speck, is nearly always evident, at least on 

 pushing aside the primary coverts ; no other wing-markings ; tail-blotches small or obscure ; 

 feet rather pale. Size of virens. Eastern N. Am., abundant, in woodland, its range somewhat 

 coincident with that of virens ; breeding range N. from northern New England and the north- 

 ern border of the U. S. at large, S. in the Appalachian chain to the Carolinas and even Georgia 

 (var. cairnsi); in winter found in the West Indies and S. to Guatemala; west in migrations 

 to Rocky Mts. It is rather a bird of brake and burn than of high woods, at least in summer; 

 and nests in bushes, close to the ground. Nest of bark-strips, mosses, lichens, rootlets, cob- 

 webs, etc., built by the 9 > rather compact, about 1.50 deep and 2.00 across (inside measure- 

 ment), affixed usually to upright supports; eggs 3-4, 0.67 X 0.48, white with buffy or even 

 greenish tinge, well spotted and blotched with reddish-brown. This is a beautiful bird, the 

 (J with black, white and blue in masses, thus resembling no other, and the olive-colored 9 as 

 different as possible from lier mate. 



D. c. cairn'si. (To John S. Cairns of Weaverville, N. C.) Cairns' Black-Throated 

 Blue Warbler. A local race of the last, with nearly black back, and rather smaller, breed- 

 ing in the mountains of western N. Carolina in May and June, building in shrubs and weeds 

 from si.x inches to three feet from the ground, and laying 3-4 eggs. Arrival a week or ten 

 ihiys earlier than that of the stock form, which latter is migrating in the same region while 

 cairnsi is nesting. CouES, World's Congress on Ornith., Nov., 1896, p. 138 ; Auk, Jan., 1897, 

 ]^. 96 ; A. O. U. Suppl. List, ibid., p. 123, No. 654 a. 



D. ra'ra. (Lat. rarws, rare. Fig. 178.) Cerulean Warbler. Azure Warbler. Adult ,^ : 

 Entire upper parts sky-blue, the middle of the back streaked with black ; the crown usually 

 richer and also with dark markings. Below, pure ivhite, streaked across the breast and along 

 tlie sides with dusky-blue — the breast-streaks inclin- 

 ing to form a short bar, sometimes interrupted in the 

 middle. Auriculars dusky ; edges of eyelids and su- 

 perciliary line white. Wings blackish, much edged 

 f.xternally with the color of the back ; inner webs of 

 all quills, outer webs of inner secondaries, and two 

 broad bars across tips of greater and median coverts, 

 white. Tail black, with much exterior edging of the 

 color of the back, all the feathers, except middle pair, 

 witli small, white, subterminal spots on inner webs. 



Length 4.00-4.50; wing 2.66; tail 2.00 or less. Adult Fig. 178. - Cerulean Warbler. (L. 



9: Quite different. Upper parts dull greenish, with 



more or less grayish-blue shade, the greenish brightest and purest on crown. Eyelids, line 

 over eye, and entire under parts, whitish, more or less strongly overcast witli dull greenish- 

 yellow. Wings and tail dusky, with exterior edgings of the color of the back ; the bars, 

 spots, and interior edgings white, as in J". The 9 is curiously similar to the same sex of D. 

 coerulescens (but in the latter the tail-spots are different ; there are no white wing-bars, and 

 instead there is a small whitish spot at base of outer primaries). The autumnal plumage of 

 adults is said to differ in no wise from that of tlie spring. Young males are much like adult 

 females, but less uniformly greenish-blue above and purer white below, with evident blackish 

 stripes on interscapulars and sides of head. The young 9 resembles the adult of that sex, but 

 is still greener above, with little or no blue, and quite buffy-yellowish below. Wlien in full 

 dress this is a perfect little beauty, tliere being something peculiarly tasteful and artistic in the 

 simjde contrast of snowy-white with delicate azure-blue, without any " warm " color. East- 

 ern U. S. to the bordering Britisli Provinces, rarely N. to New England, and apparently not 

 common anywhere E. of the AUeghanies ; W. ordinarily to the Plains, sometimes to the Rocky 

 Mts. in the latitude of Colorado; in winter S. through Mexico, Central America, and much of 



