274 KEPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 



652 Dendroica aestiva (Gmelin). 

 Yellow Warbler. 



PLATE 71. 



Adult male. Length, 4.50-5.25. Wing, 2.50. Above, yellow-olive ; bright 

 yellow on the crown ; wings and tail, dusky, edged with yellow ; tips of the 

 coverts forming two fairly distinct bands ; inner webs of all but the central 

 pair of tail feathers more or less yellow ; sides of face and whole lower surface, 

 rich golden yellow, the breast and sides streaked with chestnut. In autumn 

 greener above, and streaks somewhat veiled by yellow tips. 



Adult female. Similar, but duller and greener, with streaks fewer and nar- 

 rower. 



Young in first autumn. Male similar to adult female ; female still duller, 

 with no streaks below and throat whitish. 



Young in first summer. Above, pale olive-brown ; below, sulphur yellow, 

 without streaks. 



Nest of soft vegetable fibers and vegetable down in a bush near water ; eggs, 

 four to five, bluish-white, with a wreath of brown spots at the larger end, 

 .65 x .50. 



Common summer resident though somewhat local. Arrives April 

 24th (April 30th), departs September 25th. 



This is our best-known breeding warbler. In southern Jersey it 

 is always found near the water, nesting plentiful in the swampy 

 thickets along the Delaware and its tributaries, but in the pine barren 

 swamps I have never detected it. 



In the northern counties it is said to be more a bird of the garden 

 and orchard, breeding in the shrubbery near houses. 



Its nest is a favorite repository for the Cowbird, and the Warbler 

 has been known to raise the sides in order to bury the intruder's egg 

 in the bottom, depositing its own eggs on the upper floor. 



The song of the Yellow Warbler is a liquid "sweet-sweet-sweet- 

 sweeter-sweeter." 



654 Dendroica cserulescens (Gmelin). 

 Black-throated Blue Warbler. 



Adult male. Length, 4.75-5.50. Wing, 2.00. Above, uniform grayish-blue, 

 a square white patch covering the bases of the primary wing feathers, con- 

 spicuous even when the wings are closed ; two outer tail feathers with white 

 subterminal areas, the third often edged with white near the tip ; under parts, 

 white, with the throat, sides of head and sides of breast black. In autumn the 

 throat feathers are frosted with white and there is often an olive tinge to the 

 upper parts. 



