SYLVICOLID^E — TPIE WARBLEKS. 265 



Dendroica townsendi, Baird. 



TOWNSEND'S WARBLER. 



Sylvia townsendi, "Nuttall," Townsend, J. A. N. Sc. VII. ii, 1837, 191. — Aud. Orn. 

 Biog. V, 1839, pi. cccxciii. Sylvicola t. Bon. ; Aud. Birds Am. II, 1841, pi. xcii. 

 Dcnd-oicat. Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 269; Rev. 185. — Sclater, P. Z. S. 1858, 

 298 (Oaxaca ; high lands in winter) ; 1859, 374 (Totontepec ; winter) ; Ibis, 1865, 89. 

 — Sclater & Salvin, Ibis, 1859, 11 (Guatemala). — Cooper & Suckley, P. R. R. 

 XII, II, 1859, 179 (Cal.). — Turnbull, Birds of East Penn., etc. 1869, 42. — Sunde- 

 val, Ofvers. 1869, 610 (Sitka). —Cooper, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 91. 



Sp. Char. Spring male. Above bright olive-green ; tlie feathers all black in the centre, 

 showing more or less as streaks, especially on the crown, where tlie black predominates. 

 (!Juills, tail, and upper tail-covert feathers dark brown, edged with bluish-gray ; the 

 wings with two white bands on the coverts ; the two outer tail-feathers white with a 

 brown streak near the end ; a white streak only in the end of the third feather. Under 

 parts as far as the middle of the body, with the sides of head and neck, including a super- 

 ciliary stripe and a spot beneath the eye, yellow ; the median portion of the side of the 

 head, the chin and throat, with streaks on the sides of the breast, flanks, and under tail- 

 coverts, black ; the remainder of the under parts white. Length, 5 inches ; wing, 2.6-5 ; 

 taill, 2.25. 



Spring female. Resembling the male, but the black patch on the throat replaced hy 

 irregular blotches upon a pure yellow ground. 



Hab. Western Province of United States, north to Sitka; Mexico, into Guatemala. 

 Migratory. Accidental near Philadelphia. 



The autumnal adult male is iiiucli like the spring female, but the black 

 throat-patch is perfectly defined, though nuicli obscured by the yellow edges 

 of the feathers, instead of broken into small blotches. The young male in 

 autumn is similar in general appearance, but there are no streaks above, except 

 on the crown, where tliey are mostly concealed ; the stripe on side of head 

 is olivaceous, instead of black ; and nearly all the black on the throat is con- 

 cealed. 



A fine adult male of this species was taken near Philadelphia, Penn., in 

 the spring of 1868, and is now in the collection of the late W. P. Turnljull, 

 Esq., of that city. 



Habits. In regard to the habits of this very rare Western Warbler very 

 little is as yet positively known, and nothing whatever has been ascertained 

 as to its nesting or eggs. The species was first met with by Mr. Townsend, 

 October 28, 1835, on the banks of tlie Columbia Piver, and was named by 

 Mr. Nuttall in honor of its discoverer. It is spoken of by these gentlemen 

 as having been a transient visitor only, stopping but a few days, on its way 

 north, to recruit and feed, previous to its departing for the higher latitudes in 

 which it spends the breeding-season. It is, liowever, ([uite as probable that 

 they disperse by pairs into solitary places, where for a while they escape ob- 

 servation. When the season again compels them to migrate, they reappear 

 on the same path, only this time in small and silent fiocks, as they slowly 

 move toward their winter quarters. These birds also are chiefly to be found 

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