340 



MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



ous trees) ; in maple swamps and dense thickets bordering brooks and ponds ; in 

 blossoming apple orchards ; and scarcely anywhere more plentifully than in our 

 city parks and gardens. The return movement in autumn extends over a longer 

 period than in the case of any other species of Warbler excepting the Yellow- 

 rump, for the first Black-polls .sometimes appear soon after the middle of August 

 (I have an adult male that I took at Concord on August 17, 1886), and the 

 last stragglers do not always depart before the close of the first week of Novem- 

 ber. The bulk of the flight passes, however, during the month of September- 

 The birds are then less conspicuous than in May, by reason of their duller 

 plumage and comparative silence, but they are even more numerous and also 

 more ubiquitous, for they not only revisit all the localities where they occur in 

 spring, but in addition are often seen flitting along fences and stone walls that 

 traverse open country or feeding on the ground, in company with various species 

 of Sparrows, in grain stubbles and weed-infested fields. 



210. Dendroica blackburniae (Gmel.). 

 Blackburnian Warbler. Blackburnian. 



Transient visitor, uncommon in spring, rare in autumn. One instance of occurrence dur- 

 ing the breeding season. 



SEASONAL OCCURRENCE. 



May 7, 1892, one seen, Arlington, W. Faxon. 



May 12 — 24. (Summer?) 

 May 30, 1S67, one ad. male taken, Cambridge, W. Brewster. 



September 16, 1878, one im. male taken, Waltham, E. A. and O. Bangs. 

 September 23, i88g, one seen, Waltham, W. Faxon. 



We see the beautiful Blackburnian oftenest during the latter part of May, 

 in extensive tracts of upland woods, where it spends much of its time in the 

 tops of the larger trees, showing a decided preference for hemlocks and white 

 pines. In Cambridge I have repeatedly observed it in our garden and the 

 immediate neighborhood, usually in tall elms or in blossoming apple trees. It is 

 exceptional to note more than one or two birds in the course of a single day, 

 but Mr. H. M. Spelman tells me that he and Mr. C. F. Batchelder found no less 

 than six in the hemlock grove at Fresh Pond on May 21 and 22, 1882, when 

 there was an unusually heavy flight of Warblers of various kinds. I have never 

 met with the Blackburnian in autumn in the Cambridge Region, but the Messrs. 



