, WARBLERS. 57 



built in a similar situation, fifteen feet from the ground, and con- 

 tained two fresh eggs. These nests were large for the bird, and 

 resembled those of the Purple Finch. They were composed out- 

 wardly of fine twigs of the hackmatack, with which was mingled 

 some of the long hanging Usnea mosses. They were very smooth- 

 ly and neatly lined with black fibrous roots, the seed-stalks of 

 Cladonia mosses, and a few hairs. They had a diameter of about 

 six inches, and a height of about two and a half inches. The cav- 

 ity was three inches wide and an inch and a quarter deep. 



The eggs varied in length from .71 to .65 of an inch, and in 

 breadth from .53 to .50. Their ground-color was a bluish-green, 

 thickly spotted with brown, and generally with a ring of confluent 

 blotches of brown, and lilac around the larger end. Occasionally 

 the spots proved to be more or less of an umber-brown, and in some 

 specimens the spots were less numerous than in others." — Baird 

 Brewer and Ridgway's N. A. Birds, vol. i, pp.253, 254. 



lOI, DENDRCECA STRIATA. 



BLACK POLL WARBLER. 



Two nests of this species, from Great Slave Lake and Fort Yu- 

 kon, respectively, are entirely similar in material and structure. 

 Both were taken in June, one with four, the other with five eggs. 

 They are built of soft weedy material, bleached and gray, and with - 

 ered almost to disintegration, mixed with grasses, and lined with 

 finer stems of the same. The eggs are finely sprinkled with brown 

 and neutral tint, chiefly in a wreath about the larger half of the 

 &gg, and have also a few larger blackish spots and scrawls, very 

 sharply marked. The size is 0.70 by 0.52. — Coues, Birds of the 

 Northwest, p. 60. 



102. DENDRCECA BLACKBURNI^. 



BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER. 



'♦This somewhat rare and very beautiful Warbler requires ad- 

 ditional investigation into its habits before its history can be re- 

 garded as satisfactorily known. The Smithsonian collection has 

 specimens from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Missouri, Illinois 

 and from Central America. *** 



