I5 2 THE BLACK-POLL WARBLER. 



No. 68. 



BLACK-POLL WARBLER. 



A. O. U. Xo. 661. Dendroica striata (Forst.). 



Description. Adult male : Top of head uniform lustrous black ; cheeks, 

 hind neck, and cervical collar white, minutely streaked with black; remaining 

 upper parts olive-gray streaked with black ; wings and tail dusky with narrow 

 olive-gray edging on exposed webs ; two loose white wing-bars formed by tips of 

 coverts ; two outer pairs of tail-feathers with subterminal white blotches ; traces 

 of white on remaining pairs, except central ; under parts white, extensively 

 streaked with black on sides, the streaks usually confluent on sides of throat; 

 bill dark above, light below ; feet pale. Adult female : Above, including crown, 

 grayish olive-green ; everywhere streaked with black ; below whitish, tinged with 

 greenish yellow on breast and sides, and with dusky lateral streaks. Adult male 

 in autumn and zvinter: Very different from the summer plumage. Above dull 

 olive-green, passing gradually into dull gray on upper tail-coverts ; back and 

 scapulars narrowly streaked with black; white wing bands usually tinged with 

 yellow ; a narrow and indistinct superciliary streak of pale olive yellowish ; auricu- 

 lar region and sides of neck like upper parts ; under parts pale olive-yellow or 

 straw-yellow, whitening posteriorly ; sides and flanks indistinctly streaked with 

 dusky; under tail-coverts white (Ridgway). Immature: Similar to adult female 

 but brighter ; less streaked on the back and scarcely, or not at all, below. Length 

 about 5.50 (139.7) 5 av - f s i x Columbus specimens: wing 2.95 (74.9) ; tail 1.96 

 (49.8) ; bill .39 (9.9). 



Recognition Marks. One of the larger species. Black "poll," white under 

 parts, and lateral black streaks of male ; grayish olive-green and robust size of 

 female and young. "This species in winter plumage closely resembles immature 

 specimens of D. castanea, but may be at once distinguished by the pure white, 

 instead of buff, under tail-coverts, and pale yellowish brown, instead of dusky, 

 feet, independent of other differences" (Ridgway). Young Black-polls are 

 scarcely distinguishable from the young of D. castanea. Above they are pre- 

 cisely like the Bay-breasts, but below they are somewhat less strongly shaded 

 with yellowish or buffy. 



Nesting. Does not breed in Ohio. "Nest, of twigs, moss, rootlets, etc., 

 lined with fine grasses and tendrils, generally in spruce trees, about six feet up. 

 Eggfj 4~5 > white, more or less speckled and spotted, and generally heavily blotched 

 at the larger end with cinnamon-, olive-, or rufous-brown" (Chapman). Av. 

 size, .70 x .54 (17.8 x 13.7). 



General Range. Eastern North America west to the Rocky Mountains, 

 north to Greenland, the Barren Grounds, and Alaska, breeding from northern 

 New England and the Catskills northward. South in winter to northern South 

 America, but not recorded from Mexico or Central America. 



Range in Ohio. Abundant spring and fall migrants, the latest comers in 

 spring, among the first to return in late summer. 



BLACK-POLLS bring up the rear of the great Warbler host. And 

 when one has seen them the reason of their tardiness becomes apparent. 



