490 THE BLACK-POLL WARBLER. 



about one inch in depth internally and three in depth 

 externally, and is composed of the small spray of the ever- 

 greens, dried weeds, moss and wool, the lining being of 

 fine dried grasses and a few feathers. The materials are all 

 rather roughly laid; and the wool may be peculiar to the 

 locality under consideration, as the hundreds of sheep kept 

 here throughout the year leave tags of their fleece on 

 almost every bush. The four eggs, about .75X-53, are 

 grayish-white, slightly specked all over, and spotted in a 

 wreath around the large end, with several shades of brown, 

 and still more with subdued lilac or neutral tint; the whole 

 being intensified with here and there a distinct blackish 

 spot or scrawl in the wreath of spots or thickest part of the 

 marking. The eggs of the various species of Warblers 

 differing greatly in size for birds so similar in measurement, 

 those of this species are among the larger specimens. 



In color and in habit the Black-poll is strongly differen- 

 tiated. Male, 5.50 long and 8.50 in extent, has first primary as 

 long as the second, thus making the wing quite pointed, and 

 the tail emarginate. The upper parts are light bluish-ash 

 streaked with black; crown, jet-black; wings and tail, dusky, 

 the former edged with greenish, the latter edged with white, 

 and having patches of white on the inner web of the three 

 outer feathers toward the end; tertiaries edged, and wing- 

 coverts tipped, with white; cheeks and under parts, white, 

 with spotted lines of black from the bill down the sides. 

 Female similar, with colors and marking not so bright, gen- 

 erally more or less tinged with greenish-yellow. 



The mature male, moving among the dark foliage, much 

 after the manner of a Flycatcher, also capturing insects 

 with a sharp snap of the bill, is as conspicuous in his 

 strongly contrasted colors as the Black-and-White Creeper 

 or the Black-capped Chickadee. Appearing in the very 



