THE YELLOW WARBLER. 237 



About the middle of October, sometimes not before the 

 last of that month, the Black-poll Warbler leaves on its 

 southern migration : at that time, it has, in New England 

 certainly, all the characteristics and habits of the Autumnal 

 Warbler described above; and, having examined numbers 

 of specimens, I conclude, from the reasons expressed above, 

 that the species are identical. 



DENDROICA .ESTIVA. Baird. 

 The Yellow Warbler. 



Motacitta cestiva, Gmelin. Syst. Nat., I. (1788) 996. 

 Sylvia citrinella, Wilson. Am. Orn., II. (1810) 111. 

 Sylvia childreni, Audubon. Orn. Biog., I. (1831) 180. 

 Motacilla petechia, Linnaeus. Syst. Nat., I. (1766) 334. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Bill lead-color; head all round, and under parts generally, bright-yellow; rest of 

 upper parts yellow-olivaceous, brightest on the rump; back with obsolete streaks 

 of dusky reddish-brown ; fore breast and sides of the body streaked with brownish- 

 red ; tail feathers bright-yellow ; the outer webs and tips, with the whole upper sur- 

 faces of the innermost one, brown ; extreme outer edges of wing and tail feathers 

 olivaceous, like the back; the middle and greater coverts and tertials edged with 

 yellow, forming two bands on the wings. Female similar, with the crown olivaceous, 

 like the back, and the streaks wanting on the back, and much restricted on the under 

 parts ; tail with more brown. 



Length of male, five and twenty -five one-hundredths inches ; wing, two and sixty- 

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



This exceedingly abundant species is a summer resident, 

 and breeds in all the New-England States. It arrives from 

 the South about the last of April or first of May, and com- 

 mences building about the 15th of the latter month. The 

 nest is usually placed in a low bush, frequently the bar- 

 berry. Occasionally, it is built in an alder or maple tree, 

 seldom more than fifteen or twenty feet from the ground, 

 although Mr. Nuttall gives instances of its being built in the 

 forks of a sugar-maple-tree, fifty feet from the ground : this, 

 however, is a very rare case. Nuttall's description of the 

 nest is the best I have seen, and I give it entire: 



" The nest is extremely neat and durable ; the exterior is formed 

 of layers of asclepias, or silk-weed lint, glutinously though slightly 



