BIRDS — SYLVICOLIDAE — DENDEOICA BLACKBDENIAE. 



275 



Sp. Ch. — Upper parts nearly uniform black, with a whitish scapular stripe and a large white patch in the middle of the wing 

 coverts. An oblong patch in the middle of the crown, and the entire side of the head and neck, (including a superciliary stripe 

 from the nostrils,) the chin, throat, and fore part of the breast, bright orange red. A black stripe from the commissure passing 

 over the lower half of the eye, and including the ear coverts ; with, howuver, an orange crescent in it, just below the eye, the 

 extreme lid being black. Rest of under parts white, strongly tinged with yellowish orange on the breast and belly, and streaked 

 with black on the sides. Outer three tail feathers white, the shafts and tips dark brown; the fourth and fifth spotted much with 

 white; the other tall feathers and quills almost black. Female similar; the colors duller; the feathers of the upper parts with 

 olivaceous edges. Length, 5.50; wing, 2.83; tall, 2.25. 



JIab. — Eastern North America to the Missouri. South lo Guatemala. 



This is, perhaps, the most beautiful of the American warblers ; none certainly can show any 

 color to compare with the delicate orange of the throat. The precise shade of this, however, 

 varies a good deal in different specimens. 



The black ear patch sends a short branch down on the side of the throat, so as to connect 

 with the series of short black stripes on the sides. The under tail coverts are pure white. 

 The female exhibits a much more striated appearance above, and the orange is much more 

 yellowish ; the black of the cheeks is replaced by grayish. An autumnal male is like the 

 female, the single white band on the wing replaced by two ; the black stripes on the sides 

 much larger and more conspicuous ; the upper parts glossed with yellowish ; the throat orange 

 yellow, passing insensibly into purer yellow behind. In this condition it is much like an 

 autumnal D. townsendii, the top and sides of the head being exactly the same, except the yellow 

 patch on the crown of the former. The throat, however, is more orange, and with no trace of the 

 black. The pure white bases of the outer tail feathers are a strong distinctive mark of D. 

 hlackburniae. It is this plumage that I consider to be the Sylvia parus of Wilson and Audubon, 

 their descriptions agreeing exactly with specimens before me of summer D. hlackburniae. 



A specimen from Calcasieu, La., (4305,) is considerably smaller, though otherwise similar, 

 the wing measuring only 2.50 inches, instead of 2.80. 



List of specimens. 



