328 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. —PASSERES— OSCINES. 



eluding a very Barrow frontlet ; eyelids and a stripe behind eye, between the ash and black, 

 white. Entire under parts rich yellow, excepting the white crissum, heavily streaked with 



black across breast and along sides, the streaks on the 

 breast so thick as to form a nearly continuous black 

 border to the immaculate yellow throat. Wings fus- 

 cous, with wliite lining, white edging of inner webs 

 of all the quills, of outer webs of the inner secondaries, 

 and with a large white patch formed by tips of median 

 coverts and tips and outer edges of greater coverts. 

 Tail blackish, with square white spots on middle of 

 inner webs of all the feathers excepting middle pair. 

 Bill blackish; feet dark. Length 4.75-5.00; extent 

 F.a;i1^.-Black.and-yellow warbler. (L. ' -00-7.50 ; wing 2.25-2.50 ; tail 2.00-2.25. Young: 

 A. Fuertes.) Upper parts ashy-olive, grayer on head ; rump as yellow 



as in the adult ; no decided head-markings ; a whitish ring around eye. Below, yellow, gen- 

 erally pure and continuous, sometimes partially replaced by gray ; black streaks wanting, or 

 few and confined to the sides. Wings with two bars ; tail-spots as in the adult. While the 

 sexes of this dainty little species are quite similar, the young require looking after ; observe 

 yellow rump (usually as conspicuous as in the species so named), small square tail-spots on 

 middle of feathers, and extensively or completely yellow under parts. Eastern N. Am., N. to 

 Hudson's Bay and Great Slave Lake, W. to the Rocky Mts. of Colorado, casually to British 

 Columbia; abundant, chiefly migratory in the U. S., but breeds from our N. border northward, 

 and S. in mountains to Pennsylvania at least, probably still further ; winters wholly extralim- 

 ital, in the Bahamas, Cuba, Mexico, and Central America. Builds a small neat nest in conifers 

 at a very variable height from the ground ; eggs 4-5, 0.64 X 0.48, not peculiar, and with 

 considerable range of variation in the markings. 



D. dis'color. (Lat. discolor, parti-colored; opposed to concolor, whole -colored. Fig. 186.) 

 Prairie Warbler. Adult ^ 9 • Yellow-olive; back with a patch of brick-red sjjots ; forehead, 

 superciliary line, two wing-bars, and entire under parts, rich 

 yeUow; a V-shaped black mark on side of head, its upper arm 

 running through eye, its lower arm connecting with a series 

 of black streaks along sides of neck and body ; white tail- 

 blotches very large, occupying most of inner web of outer 

 feathers. The sexes are almost exactly alike, and the young 

 only differ in not being so bright and in having the dorsal 

 patch and head-markings obscure. Small: Length 4.75; 

 extent 7.00-7.40; wing 2.15-2.25; tail 2.00. Eastern U. S. 

 to Massachusetts and Michigan, W. to Kansas ; an abundant 



bird of the Middle and Southern States, in sparse low wood- p,Q jgg _ prairie Warbler. (L. 

 land, cedar thickets, and old fields grown up to scrub-pines ; A. Fuertes.) 



remarkable for its quaint and curious song ; an expert flycatcher, constantly darting into the 

 air in pursuit of winged insects, like the Redstart and the species of Sylvania. Breeds through- 

 out its U. S. range ; winters in Florida and the West Indies. Nest in a bush or sapling near 

 the ground; a small, neat, compact structure; eggs 3-4, not peculiar. On the nesting of the 

 Prairie Warbler in the vicinity of Washington, D. C, see the account by my son, Mr. E. B. 

 CouES, Auk, Oct., 1888, pp. 40.5-408. 



D. gra'ciae. (To Miss Grace D. Coues, the author's sister.) Grace's Warbler. Adult $: 

 Entire upper parts ashy-gray, with a slaty-blue tinge ; middle of back streaked witli black ; 

 upper tail-coverts less conspicuously so marked ; crown with crowded black arrow-heads, 

 especially anteriorly and laterally, the tendency of these markings being to form a line along 



