124 SYLVICOLID^E : AMERICAN WARBLERS. 



BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER. 

 DENDRCECA VIRENS (Gm.) Bd. 



Chars. Male, adult : Back and crown clear yellow-olive, in high 

 plumage with dusky markings ; forehead and entire sides of head 

 rich yellow, with olive markings through eyes and auriculars ; 

 chin, throat, and breast, jet-black, this color prolonged in streaks 

 on the sides of the body ; other under parts white, more or less yel- 

 low-tinted ; wings and tail dusky, the former with two white cross- 

 bars and much white edging, the latter with the three outer feath- 

 ers nearly all white ; bill black, feet dark. Female and young, 

 and male in fall : Not so highly colored, the black restricted, inter- 

 rupted, veiled with yellow, or wanting entirely, except a few 

 streaks along the sides. Length, 4.75-5.00 ; extent, 7.25 ; wing, 

 2.50 ; tail, 2.00 ; bill, 0.35 ; tarsus, 0.70. 



Next after the ubiquitous and almost domestic Sum- 

 mer Warbler, the Black-throated Green is the most 

 abundant and most widely distributed of its kind in 

 New England during the summer months. Its evi- 

 dent preference in the choice of a home is for the pine 

 woods, and wherever there are tracts of coniferous 

 trees, there these Warblers are almost sure to be found 

 the tenants of sighing seclusion, reiterating in no un- 

 certain accents the secrets which the melancholy pines 

 confide to stealthy breezes. In New Hampshire and 

 northward the birds are more numerous than they ap- 

 pear to be in southern New England, where they are 

 seen in greatest numbers during the vernal and au- 

 tumnal migrations ; and they are, moreover, some- 

 what locally distributed in summer, abounding in some 

 places, at least in comparison with their numbers in 

 others to all appearance equally eligible ; still, the 

 general statement that they breed in all the New Eng- 



