26 BLACK AXD YELLOW WAKBLEK. 



YouxG. Brownish above. Beneath, pale yellow, obscurely streaked with 

 dusky, much as in the adult. 



Dimensions. Length, 4.97; stretch, 7.55 ; wing, 2.35; tail, 1.90; 

 bill, .35 ; tarsus, .90. 



Comparisons. Known in all stages by the singular band of spots 

 on tail feathers. The spots are comparatively small, but are remarkable 

 in beginning nearer the base than in any other warbler, and in extend- 

 ing over four or five instead of two or three feathers on either side. 

 (See Fig. 23, C.) 



Nests and Eggs. Nests placed in low evergreens, composed of twigs, 

 weeds, and dried grass, not very compactly interwoven ; lined with black 

 fibrous roots and horse hair. Kggs, four or five in number, ashy white in 

 color, spotted somewhat irregularly and coarsely with brown and lilac. The 

 spots are frequently confluent around the large end. Dimensions, .62 by 

 .52. 



General Habits. While mio-ratinor the Black and 



O O' 



Yellow Warbler appears to prefer deciduous trees. Al- 

 though they sometimes feed among the lower branches, 

 they are apt to keep well up among the topmost boughs. 

 In their northern home they live mostly among the. 

 evergreen trees. The Black and Yellow Warblers have 

 little to distinguish them in habit from many other mem- 

 bers of the genus. 



Breeding Habits. Nests of the Black and Yellow 

 Warbler, whicli I have found, have all been placed in 

 low evergreen trees, in open places, sometimes by a road 

 side, often not over two or three feet from the ground. 

 The eggs appear to be laid the second week in June. 



Song. The alarm note of the Black and Yellow 

 Warbler is not loud. The song is rather short and re- 

 sembles somewhat that of the Canadian Flycatching War- 

 bler. It is rather sweet and pleasing. 



Migration and Breeding Range. The Black and 

 Yellow Warblers appeared on May eleventh, 1876, at 

 Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and they were abundant the 

 next day. They arrive in Massachusetts late, not often 

 earlier than the fifteenth of May, and I have found them 

 here as late as the twenty-seventh of this month. 



