238 NORTH AMERICAX BIRDS. 



Sp. Char. 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 forepart of the breast, bright orange-red. A black stripe 

 from the commissure passing around the lower half of the eye, and including the ear-coverts; 

 with, however, 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 tail-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 ; tail, 2.25. 



Hab. Eastern Province of United States ; Eastern Mexico, and south to Bogota and 

 Ecuador; Bahamas alone of West Indies with certainty. 



Autumnal males resemble the females. They have two white bands in- 

 stead of one ; tlie black stripes on the sides are larger ; under parts yellowish ; 

 the throat yellowisli, passing into purer yellow beliind. 



Autumnal young birds have the same pattern of coloration, but the dark 

 portions are dull grayish-umber, with the streaks very obsolete, and the light 

 parts dull buffy-white, tinged with yellow on the jugulum ; there is neither 

 clear black, bright yellow, nor pure white on the plumage, except the latter 

 on the wing-bands and tail-patches. 



Habits. This somewliat rare and very beautiful Warbler requires addi- 

 tional investigation into its habits before its history can be regarded as satis- 

 factorily known. Save in reference to its wider distribution during its south- 

 ern migrations, little more is known as to its habits than where Audubon 

 left its history nearly thirty years since. The Smithsonian collection lias 

 specimens from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Missouri, Illinois, and from 

 Central America. Mr. Sclater has received specimens from Mexico, and from 

 Ecuador in South America. Other writers mention having specimens from 

 Guiana, Martinique, and Panama, and Dr. Bryant found it in the Bahamas. 

 It is thus known to have a wide distribution from the Atlantic to the Mis- 

 sissippi Eiver, as far to the nortli probably as Labrador. Its area of repro- 

 duction is not known with exactness, but the southern limit is supposed to 

 be the liigh wooded districts of Pennsylvania, New York, and New England. 

 A young bird was taken by HolboU, October 16, 1845, at Frederikshaab, 

 Greenland. In 1837 an egg was sent me from Coventry, Vt., which pur- 

 ported to belong to this bird ; and in the following summer its nest and eggs 

 w^ere procured in a wild, secluded part of Eoxbury, Mass. In neither case 

 was the identification entirely free from doubt. 



Dr. Bachman states that Mdien a resident of Lansingburg, N. Y., in 1833, 

 he saw a pair of these birds in the act of constructing their nest. Mr. Allen 

 has no doubt that a few breed in the vicinity of Springfield, Mass., as he has 

 obtained them as late as June 24. He found it most common in mixed or 

 hard-wood forests. It arrives about the middle of May. Professor Verrill 

 gives it as a summer resident of Western Maine, though rarely seen on 



