CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER. 235 



The Blackburnian is rather common in the Atlantic States and 

 westward to the Plains, breeding chietly north of 45°, and sparingly 

 in Massachusetts and Connecticut. It winters from the Bahamas 

 and eastern Mexico southward. 



Many Canadian observers have considered this Warbler rather 

 rare, but the opinion has probably arisen from the secluded habits 

 of the bird while in its summer home. It shows a preference for 

 the higher branches, and its favorite haunts are amid the deeper 

 forests where the pine and hemlock flourish. 



CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER. 



Dendroica pensvlvanica. 



Char. Back black, streaked with olive of grayish or yellowish tint ; 

 crown yellow ; sides of head white, enclosing a patch of black ; sides of 

 neck and entire under parts white ; sides streaked with chestnut, which 

 extends frona neck to flanks ; wing-bars and blotches on tail white. Length 

 4X t° SX hiches. 



Nest. On the edge of an open woodland or the margin of a moist 

 meadow, in low tree or bush ; composed of grass and strips of bark fas- 

 tened with insect silk, and lined with grass or leaves or hair. 



Eggs. 4-5 ; white or creamy, spotted, chiefly around the larger end, 

 which is sometimes wreathed, with reddish brown and lilac ; 0.68 X 0.50. 



This rare and beautiful Sylvia, which probably winters in 

 tropical America, appears in the Middle and Northern States 

 early in May on its way north to breed ; it is also seen in the 

 spring in Canada and around Hudson's Bay. A few pairs re- 

 main, no doubt, to rear their young in secluded mountainous 

 situations in the Northern States, as on the 2 2d of May, 

 1830, a pair appeared to have fixed their summer abode 

 near the summit of the Blue Hills of Milton. The note of the 

 male was very similar to that of the Summer Yellow Bird, being 

 only a little louder, and less whistling ; it resembles 'tsh 'tsh 

 Ush Ushyia, given at about an interval of half a minute, and 

 answered by his mate at some distance, near which, it is proba- 

 ble, there was a nest. He appeared to be no way suspicious 

 of our approach ; his restlessness wag stibdued, and he quietly 

 sat near the same low bushes, amusing himself and his consort, 

 for an hour at a time, with the display of his lively and simple 



