I30 NATURE .STUDY. 



Local Bird Notes. 



BY ANNIE V. BATCHELDER. 



I. DENDROICA C^eRULESCENS IN NOVEMBER. 



On the morning of Saturday, October 25th, three small 

 birds were seen flitting about our purple beech. Field 

 glasses were speedily brought into requisition, and to our 

 great surprise the birds were identified as immature male 

 black-throated blue warblers. As the latest date given in 

 Chapman's Handbook for this species is October 10, we 

 watched these visitors with intense interest. They remained 

 about the grounds the greater part of the day, feeding most- 

 ly in the apple trees. "We made the usual observations 

 and records, and when night came marked that Saturday 

 as a red letter day in the calendar. 



Yet this was only the beginning of wonders. Sunday, 

 the 26th, the birds appeared again, and with them was an 

 adult male, an elegant fellow in blue and jet black and 

 white. The}'^ were all so tame that they could be approached 

 closely, sometimes so closely that they could almost have 

 been caught in the hand. For the next few days we had 

 only an occasional glimpse of the visitants. Meantime an 

 observer in another part of the city brought us a minute 

 description of a bird seen there. This proved to be as ac- 

 curate a description as could be desired of the black-throat- 

 ed blue warbler. 



On Saturday, November ist, appeared a second adult 

 male, apparently a little maturer than the first one. The 

 two fed side by side in an apple tree so that we were able 

 to note minute differences. In the new comer the black of 

 the throat extended down to the upper part of the breast, 

 and the markings on the sides were more pronounced. 

 Both these birds were also seen on the next daj^ Novem- 



