, THE BLACK-POLL WABBLER. 233 



at one wliilo she was sitting on her nest, and she almost 

 permitted me to touch her before she flew off. 



By the first week in September, the old birds and young, 

 apparently in a group by themselves, leave for the South, 

 and winter in Panama and the Bahamas. 



DENDROICA STEIATA, Baird. 

 The Black-poll Warbler. 



Muscicapa gtriata, Forster. Philos. Trans., LXII. (1772) 383, 428. Gm. Syst. 

 Nat., I. (1788) 930. 



Sylvia striata, Wilson. Am. Orn., IV. (1811) 40. Nutt. Man., I. (1832) 383. 

 Aud. Orn. Biog., II. (1834) 201. 



Sylria autumnalis, Wilson. Am. Orn., III. (1811) 65. Aud. Orn. Biog., I. (1832) 

 447. Nutt. Man., I. (1832), 390. (Female or young in autumn.) 



DESCRIPTION. 



Hale. Crown, nape, and upper half of the head black ; the lower half, including 

 the ear coverts, white, the separating line passing through the middle of the eye; 

 rest of upper parts grayish-ash, tinged with brown, and conspicuously streaked with 

 black; wing and tail feathers brown, edged externally (except the inner tail feathers) 

 with dull olive-green; t\vo conspicuous bars of white on the wing coverts, the ter- 

 tials edged with the same ; under parts white, with a narrow line on each side the 

 throat from the chin to the sides of the neck, where it runs into a close patch of 

 black streaks continued along the breast and sides to the root of the tail; outer two 

 tail feathers with an oblique patch on the inner web near the end, the others edged 

 internally with white. 



Female similar, except that the upper parts are olivaceous, and, even on the 

 crown, streaked with black; the white on the sides :md across the breast tinged 

 with yellowish; a ring of the same round the eye, cut by a dusk}' line through it. 



Length of male, tive and seventy-five one-hundredths inches; wing, three inches; 

 tail, two and twenty-five one-hundredths inches. 



This bird, although very abundant in all parts of New 

 England in the spring migrations, passes far to the north 

 to breed ; but few remain in the States through the breed- 

 ing season, and these in the most northern districts. It 

 arrives from the South about the last week in May, and pro- 

 ceeds leisurely on its journey, arriving at its destination 

 about the second week in June. I have two nests in mj 

 collection, both found in the northern part of Maine: 

 they were placed in low trees or saplings, and are con- 

 structed of first a layer of twigs and grass, then the 



