BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 389 
follow the course of the principal streams, lakes or swamps, 
along which they may be seen only in the tops of the tallest 
trees, with no special proclivity towards the conifers, as is the 
case with some of the warblers. The kind of insects they 
prefer for food doubtless determines their haunts, as they are 
disposed to get as much of their repast upon the wing (like 
the true fly-catchers), as they can. The nest is most likely 
to be found in the summit branches of the lofty trees they are 
known to haunt. This it has not been my fortune to have ever 
yet seen, yet from a recent communication from a gentleman 
residing at Duluth, (Mr. J. H. De Voe), I feel inclined to think 
it probable that he has the nest and eggs of this species, 
obtained near that city on the 30th of May of the present year; 
(1889). It was found snug up to the trunk, on the lowest 
limb of a fir balsam, within easy reach of the ground, and con- 
tained four eggs, of an ashy-white color, lightly sprayed all 
over with brown of several shades, more abundantly in a loose 
band around the bulge of the egg. The nest was built of 
moss, weeds, dry grass, bits of the fir branches, etc., and was 
rather loose and bulky. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Crown, nape and upper half of the head, black; lower half 
including ear coverts, white, the separating line passing 
through the middle of the eye; rest of upper parts grayish- 
ash, tinged with brown and conspicuously streaked with black; 
wing and tail feathers brown, edged externally (except the 
inner tail feathers), with dull olive-green; two conspicuous 
bars of white on the wing coverts, the tertials edged with the 
same; under parts white, with a narrow line on each side of 
the throat from the chin to the side of the neck, where it runs 
into a close patch of black streaks, continued along the breast 
and side to the root of the tail; outer two tail feathers with an 
oblique patch on the inner web near the end; the others edged 
internally with white. 
Length, 5.75; wing, 3; tail, 2.25. 
Habitat, eastern North America to the Rocky Mountains. 
DENDROICA BLACKBURNIE (GMELIN). (662.) 
BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER. 
Who would see the most beautiful of the whole family of the 
wood warblers, need not look for him in the common brush 
and thickets when working his way northward in spring, but 
must keep to the tall trees of the forest, in shady woods, and 
preferably along the uplands and ridges. He comes with the 
