BLACKBURNIAN WARBLEB. 369 



season is over. In the fall these birds are again seen in increased 

 numbers, many being in the young plumage, and not in such haste to 

 depart, although none remain over the winter. 



The musical powers, if they have any, are not exercised in this 

 latitude, the birds while here being mostly silent. They feed largely 

 on winged insects, which are never plentiful till the end of May, and 

 this may account for the Black-polls being late in arriving in spring. 



Viewed from the ordinary traveller's standpoint, one would expect 

 that the birds which go farthest north would be the first to start on 

 the journey, but such is not the case. This species, which is the very 

 latest to arrive from the south, keeps moving on the northern route, 

 passing many which left the winter rendezvous before them, and 

 though some may drop off by the way, large numbers keep on till 

 they reach Alaska, and they are found even in Greenland. 



Macfarlane noticed this species breeding on the Anderson River, 

 and its eggs were taken at Fort Yukon on the 8th and 10th of June. 



DENDROICA BLACKBURNI^. (Gmel.). 

 •277. Blackburnian Warbler. (662) 



Male ill ■■<pr'ui<j : — Back, l)lack, more or less interrupted with yellowish; 

 crown, black, with a central orange spot ; a broad black stripe through the eye, 

 enclosing the orange under eyelid ; rest of head, with whole throat, most 

 brilliant orange or flame color; other under parts, whitish, more or less tinged 

 with yellow, and sides streaked with black ; wing bars, fused into a large white 

 patch ; tail ])lotches, white, occupying nearly all the outer feathers ; bill and 

 feet, dark. Female and young male: — Upper parts, olive and black, streaked; 

 superciliary line and throat, clear yellow, fading insensibly on the breast; 

 lower eyelid, yellow, confined in the dusky ear -patch ; wing patch, resolved 

 into two bars ; tail blotches, nearly as extensive as in the adult male, the outer 

 feathers showing white on the outer webs at base. Length, 5:| ; wing, 2§ ; 

 tail, 2J. 



Hab. — Eastern North America to the Plains, bi^eeding from the northern 

 and more elevated parts of the Eastern United States northward ; in winter, 

 south to the Bahamas, Central America and Northern South America. 



Nest, in an evergreen, twenty feet from the ground ; built of twigs, grass 

 and moss, and lined with fine fibre, hair and feathei's. 



Eggs, three or four, bluish-green, speckled toward the larger end ^ith 

 reddish-brown and lilac. 



This " flying gem," clad in black, and orange of the richest shade, 

 is by many regarded as the most gaily attired of all the Warblers. 

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