THE BLACK- THRO ATED BLUE W ARBLER. 139 
No. 62. 
BLACK THROATED BLUE WARBLER. 
Bye O. U. No. 654. Dendroica cerulescens (Gmel.). 
Description.—Adult male: Above, dark dull blue, occasionally spotted with 
black on the back; extreme forehead, sides of head, chin, throat, sides of breast, 
and sides, intense black; remaining lower parts pure white; wings and tail black- 
ish, edged on exposed portions with blue or whitish; a large white spot at base 
of primaries on both webs; secondaries and lower tertials broadly edged with 
white; three outer pairs of tail-feathers broadly but decreasingly blotched with 
white on inner webs; bill black; feet brown. Adult female in spring: Above 
dull greenish blue; no pure black anywhere; sides of head dusky; below white, 
sordid, or with a bluish buffy suffusion; white spot at base of primaries reduced 
but still prominent. Adult female in autwmn: Similar but with more yellow 
everywhere; therefore dull olive-green above, dingy yellow below; brownish 
washed on sides. Jimmature male: Like adult male, but upper parts greenish; 
less black below. Jimmature female: Like adult female in autumn. Adult male 
im winter: Above touched with olivaceous; below black somewhat restricted; 
flanks touched with brownish. Length 4.75-5.50 (120.6-139.7) ; av. of five Co- 
lumbus specimens: wing 2.53 (64.3); tail 1.86 (47.2); bill .39 (9.9). 
Recognition Marks.—Medium size; black, dull blue, and white in masses 
of male; white spot at base of primaries in female. 
Nesting.—Not found breeding in Ohio. Nest, of bark-strips, twigs, and 
grasses, lined with fine rootlets and horse-hair ; placed in low bushes near ground. 
Eggs, 4 or 5, dull white, with spots and dots of olive-brown, chiefly w ‘reathed 
about larger end. Av. size, .68 x .51 (17.3 x 13.). 
General Range.—E astern North America to the Plains, breeding from north- 
ern New England and northern New York northward to Labrador, etc. West 
Indies and Guatemala in winter. 
Range in Ohio.—Common spring and fall migrant. 
THE Warblers are a world unto themselves. When the semi-annual 
flood-tide of migration is at its height, nearly all available space is occupied 
by them as completely as tho no other sorts of birds existed. The spatial 
exceptions are the open fields where Sparrows reign supreme, and open water 
where none but web-footers and the Swallow kind may go. The portion 
which falls to the Black-throated Blue in the grand allotment consists of the 
lower levels in the deeper forests, together with an added gratuity of outlying 
evergreens wherever these may occur. Not but that the bird may appear as 
a visitor in the tree-tops, or even as an inquisitive tourist in swampy recesses, 
but these are not his home. 
The clear-cut, modest color-masses of the male bird are enough to awaken 
enthusiasm in any beholder ; but the totally different pattern of the female with 
her shifting olive-greens and dingy yellow, is apt to be confusing. The white 
