AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 5 



MAGNOLIA WARBLER. 



A. O. \/. JVo. 637. (Dendroica Macaloja.) 



RANGE. 



Eastern North America, west to the base of the Rocky Mountains, 

 and casually to British Columbia; breeding from northern New England, 

 northern New York, and northern Michigan, to Hudson Bay territory, and 

 southward to the Alleghanies in Pennsylvania, in winter, Bahamas, 

 Cuba and south through eastern Mexico to Panama. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Length, five inches; extent of wing, 7.50 inches; length of tail, 

 2.25 iuches. Color, male (in spring), bill, bluish black; eyes, 

 brown; top of the head, bluish gray. A black line extends across 

 the forehead at the base of the bill, through the eye, where it widens 

 into a black patch on the side of the head, and continuing around 

 the base of the neck forms a large black patch in the middle of the 

 back. A white stripe extends from over the eye down the side 

 of the neck; a short white stripe under the eyes; tail black, each 

 feather except the middle two having a square white patch on the 

 inner web about midw^ay. The upper tail coverts black, under 

 coverts white. Tail, rump and under parts yellow. There is a 

 black patch on the lower part of the throat, extending down the 

 sides in stripes. Wings black with inner webs edged with gray. Two 

 wide bands sometimes merging into one, across the wing; these 

 are formed by the coverts, the feathers margining the black 

 patch on the back, edged with greenish yellow. (In autumn) the 

 black is duller, and nearly absent on sides of the head and on the 

 back, with less white on the wings. Female similar to the male with 

 black markings obscured with greenish, and top of the head is 

 paler. This warbler may be known by the white band on the tail 

 which is always present in all stages. 



NEST AND EGGS. 



Nests usually placed in evergreen trees. They are composed 

 of small twigs, weeds and dried grass, not very compactly woven, 

 and lined with fine horse hair and fibrous roots. The structures are 

 very neatly made. Eggs are four or five in number, oval in shape, 

 white, spotted and blotched with brown and lilac, mostly around 

 the larger end, where they sometimes form a wreath. 



