122 Bird Studies. 



web of the two or three outer tail feathers. The webs of the outer tail 

 feathers arc zu/iite to tlieir bases. 



The females and old males in the fall have much yellow mixed with the 

 black of the throat, and immature birds have a preponderance of yellow, 

 the black being much obscured, or at times wanting. 



They breed generally in evergreen trees, ten to fifty feet from the 

 ground, where a nest of fine twigs, moss, and roots, lined with finer material, 

 is built. Three to five white eggs are laid, spotted chiefly at the larger end 

 with varying shades of brown. They are nearly seven tenths of an inch long 

 and not quite half an inch in their smaller diameter. 



The Blackburnian Warbler is about five and a quarter inches long. 



Its distinctive characteristic mark, serving to identify the adult male, is 



the brilliant cadmium vellow throat and breast. The head 

 Blackburnian , , , , , , Vi i i • i i ■ i i ■ 



Warbler '^ back are black. i he back is streaked with white. 



Dendroica biackburni* There is a line in the centre of the black of the top of the 



'°""'''' head, one over the eye, and an area behind the ear, of 



bright cadmium yellow, like that of the throat and breast. The belly is white 



with more or less suffusion of orange. Some of the feathers of the shoulders 



are white, forming a patch in strong contrast to the black of the rest of the 



wing, and there is a preponderance of white on the inner web of most of the 



tail feathers. The females and immature birds are duller than the adult male, 



the black becoming grayish olive, and the cadmium yellow salmon buff. There 



is generally less white on the wings and tail, and the under parts are whiter 



with a yellowish tinge. 



The nesting habits are similar to those of the Black-throated Green 

 Warbler, and the four whitish eggs are a little larger than those of that bird, 

 and more profusely spotted with reddish and olive brown markings. 



The bird is found in Eastern North America, w^est to Kansas. It breeds 

 at elevations in the AUeghanies, south as far as South Carolina, and regularly 

 from Maine and Minnesota north to Labrador. It winters in Tropical 

 America. 



The Bay-breasted Warbler is rather large, being about five and three 

 quarter inches long. The adult male has a chestnut crown bordered on the 

 front and sides with black, and the entire throat, breast, and sides are 



