136 SYLVICOLIDyE : AMERICAN WARBLERS. 



BLACK-POLL WARBLER. 



Dendrceca striata {Forst.) Bd. 



Chars. Male, adult : Above, grayish-olive streaked with black, the 

 crown glossy black ; below, white, with a chain of black streaks 

 from chin to tail ; wings dusky, with much greenish and whitish 

 edging, and two white cross-bars. Tail like the wings, with 

 rather small white spots on two or three outer feathers. Bill 

 blackish above ; lower mandible and feet pale flesh-color or yel- 

 lowish. Female : Similar, but crown like the back, the under parts 

 tinged with greenish-yellow, the streaks dusky and not so sharp 

 as in the male. Young : " Similar to the adult female, but brighter 

 and more greenish-olive above, the streakings few, and mostly 

 confined to the middle of the back ; below, more or less com- 

 pletely tinged with greenish-yellow, the streaking obsolete, or 

 entirely wanting. Under tail-coverts usually pure white. These 

 autumnal birds bear an extraordinary resemblance to those of 

 D. castanea (though the adults are so very different), the upper 

 parts being, in fact, the same in both. But young castanea gen- 

 erally show traces of the chestnut, or at least a buffy shade, 

 quite different from the clear greenish-olive of striata, this tint 

 being strongest on the flanks and under tail-coverts, just where 

 striata is the most purely white. Moreover, castanea shows no 

 streaks below, traces at least of which are usually observable in 

 striata.'''' {Cones.) Length, 5.25-5.50 ; extent, 9.00-9.25 ; wing, 

 2.75-2.90 ; tail, 2.25. 



It is chiefly as a spring and autumn migrant that 

 the Black-poll is known in New England. The bird 

 is one of those which passes very far north to breed, 

 in Labrador and Arctic America, only a few individ- 

 uals lingering through the summer in northern New 

 England, in the Canadian Fauna alone. It is noted 

 by Prof. Verrill as breeding at Umbagog, and by 

 Mr. Boardman at Calais, Me. Mr. Maynard did 

 not find it breeding at Upton, where it disappeared 

 early in June, on its way north. But young birds 



