BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 389 



follow the course of the principal streams, lakes or swamps, 

 along which they may be seen only in the tops of the tallest 

 trees, with no special proclivity towards the conifers, as is the 

 case with some of the warblers. The kind of insects they 

 prefer for food doubtless determines their haunts, as they are 

 disposed to get as much of their repast upon the wing (like 

 the true fly-catchers), as they can. The nest is most likely 

 to be found in the summit branches of the lofty trees they are 

 known to haunt. This it has not been my fortune to have ever 

 yet seen, yet from a recent communication from a gentleman 

 residing at Duluth, (Mr. J. H. De Voe), I feel inclined to think 

 it probable that he has the nest and eggs of this species, 

 obtained near that city on the 30th of May of the present year, 

 (1889). It was found snug up to the trunk, on the lowest 

 limb of a fir balsam, within easy reach of the ground, and con- 

 tained four eggs, of an ashy-white color, lightly sprayed all 

 over with brown of several shades, more abundantly in a loose 

 band around the bulge of the egg. The nest was built of 

 moss, weeds, dry grass, bits of the fir branches, etc. , and was 

 rather loose and bulky. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Crown, nape and upper half of the head, black; lower half 

 including ear coverts, white, the separating line passing 

 through the middle of the eye; rest of upper parts grayish- 

 ash, tinged with brown and conspicuously streaked with black; 

 wing and tail feathers brown, edged externally (except the 

 inner tail feathers), with dull olive-green; two conspicuous 

 bars of white on the wing coverts, the tertials edged with the 

 same; under parts white, with a narrow line on each side of 

 the throat from the chin to the side of the neck, where it runs 

 into a close patch of black streaks, continued along the breast 

 and side to the root of the tail; outer two tail feathers with an 

 oblique patch on the inner web near the end; the others edged 

 internally with white. 



Length, 5.75; wing, 3; tail, 2.25. 



Habitat, eastern North America to the Rocky Mountains. 



liENDROICA BLACKBIRNIJ: (Gmelin). (662.) 



BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER. 



Who would see the most beautiful of the whole family of the 

 wood warblers, need not look for him in the common brush 

 and thickets when working his way northward in spring, but 

 must keep to the tall trees of the forest, in shady woods, and 

 preferably along the uplands and ridges. He comes with the 



