362 BIRDS OF ONTARIO. 



DENDROICA C^ERULESCENS (GMEL.). 

 270. Black-throated Blue Warbler. (654) 



Malt in spring : Above, uniform slaty-blue, the perfect continuity of 

 which is only interrupted, in very high plumages, by a few black dorsal 

 streaks ; below, pure white ; the sides of the head to above the eyes, the 

 chin, throat and whole sides of the body continuously jet black ; wing bars 

 wanting (the coverts being black, edged with blue), but a large white spot at 

 the base of the primaries ; quill feathers, blackish, outwardly edged with bluish, 

 the inner ones mostly white on their inner webs ; tail, with the ordinary white 

 blotches, the central feathers edged with bluish ; bill, black ; feet, dark. YOIUHJ 

 male: Similar, but the blue glossed with olivaceous, and the black interrupted 

 and restricted. Female : Entirely different ; dull olive-greenish with faint 

 bluish shade, below pale, soiled yellowish, recognizable by the white spot at 

 the base of the primaries, which, though it may be .reduced to a mere speck, is 

 always evident, at least on pushing aside the primary coverts ; tail blotches, 

 small or obscure ; feet, rather pale. Length, about 5 ; wing, 2 ; tail, 2^. 



HAB. Eastern North America to the Plains, breeding from Northern New 

 England and Northern New York northward, and in the Alleghanies to 

 Northern Georgia ; West Indies in winter. 



Nest, placed in the fork of a bush near the ground, composed of grape-vine 

 bark and rootlets, lined with vegetable fibre and horse -hair. 



Eggs, three to five, creamy-white, with a few spots of reddish-brown toward 

 the larger end. 



During the spring migration this species is always fairly .repre- 

 sented, and some seasons it exceeds in numbers any other group of 

 the family to which it belongs. It arrives about the 10th of May? 

 and continues common till the 25th, by which time those bound for 

 the north have disappeared. I have heard of individuals being seen 

 in the woods in summer, and think it quite likely that a few pairs 

 breed in suitable places in the southern part of the Province; but the 

 majority unquestionably go farther north. While here the favorite 

 haunt of the species is in the open woods, but it also visits the 

 orchard, and is often seen among the lilac bushes in search of its 

 insect food. In the fall it is in the woods during the greater part 

 of September, after which it disappears and is seen 110 more till the 

 following spring. 



Since the above was written I find the following notice in Davie's 

 "Nests and Eggs of American Birds": "Mr. Wm. L. Kells found the 

 Black-throated Blue Warbler breeding in the thick underbrush of 

 the high timbered land near Listowel, Ontario, in June, and on the 

 5th of that month, 1886, discovered a compactly built nest of this 

 species in a small maple. On the 9th it contained three eggs of the 

 Warbler and one of the Cowbird." 



