//v/-; WAI; in. KU. 49 



Tin- following is a description of a specimen taken by Mr. Brewstcr: "A nest which I collected in Cambridge, 

 Mass., May i's. ls7i'. contained four l're>li eggs, with one of the Cow Bird, and was placed on a horizontal branch 

 <>t' the yellow pine near the extremity, about fifteen feet from the- ground and nearly the same distance from the 

 main trunk of the tree. It was fastened (Irmly in the centre of three or four upright clusters of pine needles, and 

 is extremely lame and bnlky for the si/.e of (he bird. Coarse weed stalks and dry twigs form the outer nest. Next 

 come (lue roots, (wine, and dow ny substances of various kinds, and dually, a thick bed of large white feathers from 

 (lie domestic fowl, with :i scanty lining of horse hairs. The dimensions are. internal diameter, li inches; depth, 1-50." 



EM*, usually four in number, oval in form, bluish-white in color, spotted and blotched with brown and umber; 

 these .spots usually form a ring around the larger end, but some specimens are spotted irregularly. Dimensions 

 from T.'iX'.'iO to HTx'iS. 



HABITS. 



While walking in the piny woods of Florida one will suddenly observe that the trees over 

 his head an- tilled with birds, where but a moment before not a living thing was to be seen ; 

 and his ears will be sainted by a variety of sounds. Besides the loud, harsh notes of the 

 Woodpeckers or Nuthatches, and the mellow whistle of the Bluebirds, the slowly given trill 

 of the Pino Warblers will occasionally bo heard. There are hundreds of these little birds in 

 every passing Hock, yet but few of them ever sing. They are extremely active, now searching 

 for insects among the swaying foliage of the pines high overhead, then clinging to the brown 

 trunks to peer into the crevices of the bark, or alighting on the ground among the grass. But 

 the birds do not remain long in one spot and soon pass on; thus these great avian waves are 

 constantly passing over the barrens through the entire winter, and generally more than half the 

 birds of which they arc composed arc Pine Warblers. Of all the thousands of this species 

 which spend the colder season in Florida but few remain to breed, and by the middle of March 

 the greater portion leave for the North. They arrive in New England in early April, and by the 

 first of May begin to construct their nests, which are commonly placed in a fork of the topmost 

 limb of a pine tree. They keep close watch of their homes and when any one chances to 

 approach them will chirp loudly; but although the collector can thus ascertain when he is in the 

 vicinity of a nest, he will find that the birds have been careful to place it in such a position 

 that it cannot be seen from below; therefore it is exceedingly difficult to discover. I have 

 frequently searched a long time for a nest and then been obliged to abandon the attempt to find 

 it although 1 was confident, by the actions of the birds, that it was near. 



Dining tliis season the males have a louder song than when in the South; it consists of 

 si-veral short notes which commence low but increase iu volume and end abruptly. After 

 leaving the' iie>ts the young follow their parents and are thus found in small companies until 

 after the moult, which takes place in August; then several families will come together and the 

 flocks thus formed will increase in size until the first of October, when the Pine Warblers depart 

 for the South, arriving in Florida about the middle of November. 



DENDRCECA STBIATA. 



Black-polled Warbler. 

 Dfndraca striata BAIRD, Birds of North America, 1858, 280. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Sr. Cn. Form, stout. Si/.e, large. Bill, stout and somewhat conical. Wings, feet and tail, moderate, the 

 latter square but not emarginate. Sternum, .stoutly built and precisely similar in proportion to that of the preceding 

 species. Tongue, rather wide at the base where it is lleshy but becomes thin, horny and quite suddenly acuminate. 

 The end is ciliated but not as much as in D. pinus, the fringes not being as long or as much extended along the sidea. 



COLOR. Adult ?/ y. Above, slaty, with au olivaceous tinge, and streaked with black. Top of head, 



black, with numerous streaks of white. Winns. dark brown, edged with whitish and olivaceous. Upper wing 

 coverts, black, tipped with white, forming two bars. Tail, dark brown, with the six outer feathers spotted 

 terminally on the inner webs with white. All the tail feathers are also more or less edged with white on the inner, 

 and with slaty on the outer webs. Sides of head and lower portions of body, including under tail coverts and under 

 wing coverts, white, with black maxillary stripes. Sides and flanks, streaked with black. 



IlIKDS OF FLORIDA. 7 



