880 NOTES ON THE 
other, till the individual is lost in the maze of ceaseless change. 
He must clothe his heart in armor of remorseless steel, and 
listening to no siren song of sentiment, see only forms, and 
hear only the rapidly repeated roar of his own artillery until 
his receptacle is filled with bloody sacrifices to the altar of sci- 
ence, or the golden opportunities are gone for a whole year at 
least. Amid the trophies of his unwelcome victories, that em- 
brace seven-tenths of all the warblers, appears the beautiful 
form and colors of the Black-throated Blue Warbler. [If in his 
zeal he has ceased his warfare for a moment’s rest, while in the 
field, he may have heard some preoccupied insect rubbing his 
chitinous wing's against his harder legs in insect melody, with- 
out suspecting the author was a warbler of such proportions, 
yet it was this same, and no other. Although but few have 
been seen after the month of May has passed, enough have 
been brought to basket to make it presumably certain that the 
Black-throated Blue Warbler breeds in Minnesota, notwith- 
standing no nests have been secured. Its habits lead it to the 
uplands of the forests, where it may be seen energetically flit- 
ting from the very tip of one lofty tree to that of another close 
at hand, occasionally dashing out after an insect on the wing, 
after the manner of the fly-catchers, or descending quietly to 
the lower portions of the trunk, industriously scanning every 
crack and crevice in the bark in search of larvee and wingless 
forms. Careful observations along the borders of forests in 
early September will usually be rewarded by the sight of this 
beautiful bird, in somewhat more sombre plumage. It is on its 
way to the land where the frosts do not deprive it of its indis- 
pensable supplies of insect food during our prolonged and 
rigorous winter. Mr. Lewis found it fairly common at the 
Vermilion lakes in June, but discovered no nests, as his stay 
afforded little opportunity to search for them. From several 
descriptions of the nests and eggs as found in other localities, 
it seems that for the most part the location chosen is quite 
variable, some being ‘‘on the horizontal branch of a fir tree, 
seven or eight feet from the ground,” and others ‘‘about five 
inches.” Eggs four, white and spotted with brown. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Above uniform continuous -grayish-blue, including the outer 
edges of the quill and tail feathers; a narrow frontal line, en- 
tire sides of head and neck, chin and throat, lustrous black, 
which color extends in a broad lateral stripe to the tail; rest of 
under parts including the axillary region white; wings and 
