ALONG THE HIGHWAY. 



THE Red-poll Warbler is about five inches and a quarter long. The 

 adult birds are distinguished by a deep chestnut brown crown. The 

 back is olive brown, with a distinct grayish wash or suffusion, shading 

 into olive green on the rump. There is a pale yellow line above the eye, de- 

 fining the crown patch. Below, the throat and breast are bright yellow, shad- 

 P 1 Wa bier '"f? ''^''° g^'^^Y'sh white on the belly. The feathers below 

 Dendroica paimarum the tail are yellow. The sides of the throat, breast, sides, 

 (Gmei.). j^Pj-j flanJ^s are streaked with bright chestnut. The tail is 



dusky or blackish, the outer feathers having white areas on their inner webs. In 

 the fall and winter the birds have the crown obscured by the dull brown tips 

 of each feather, and the chestnut color is sometimes replaced by brown. The 

 line above the eye is grayish or whitish. The breast is dusky, and the rest of 

 the under parts are grayish white washed, more or less, with faint yellow. 

 The breast and sides are streaked more obscurely than in summer with 

 dusky brown. 



The birds build, on or near the ground, a nest of grasses lined with finer 

 grasses and plant fibres. Four or five eggs are laid, dull white with some cin- 

 namon and brown markings mainly about the larger end. They are about 

 two thirds of an inch long, and half an inch broad. 



These birds breed in the interior north of the United States to the Great 

 Slave Lake region. Their migration is chiefly through the Mississippi Valley 

 and west of the Alleghanies, though a few pass regularly through the more 

 northern Atlantic States. They winter in the South Atlantic and Gulf 

 States, in the Bahamas and West Indies and in Mexico. 



The Yellow Red-poll Warbler is a close ally of the bird just described. 

 It is found in Eastern North America north to Hudson's Bay, breeding from 

 Nova Scotia to that point. It passes through the Atlantic States, in num- 



