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THE BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER. 



Sylvia Blackburn ijE, Lath. 



PLATE CXXXV. Male. 



This charming and delicate Warbler passes through the United 

 States in April and May. T have met with it at different times, al- 

 though sparingly, in every part of the Union, more frequently in the 

 southern districts in spring, and in the eastern in early autumn. In the 

 State of Maine, on the north-eastern confines of the United States, it is 

 not uncommon, and I have reason to think that it breeds in the vicinity 

 of Mars Hill, and other places, along the banks of St John's River, where 

 my sons and myself shot several individuals, in the month of September. 

 While at Frederickton, New Brunswick, Sir Archibald Campbell kind- 

 ly presented me with specimens. On the Magdalene Islands, in the Gulf 

 of St Lawrence, which I visited in June 1833, I found the Blackburnian 

 Warbler in all the brilliancy of its spring plumage, and had the pleasure 

 of hearing its sweet song, while it was engaged in pursuing its insect prey 

 among the branches of a fir tree, moving along somewhat in the manner 

 of the American Redstart. Its song, which consisted of five or six notes, 

 was so much louder than could have been expected from the size of the 

 bird, that it was not until I had fairly caught it in the act, that I felt satis- 

 fied as to its proceeding from my old acquaintance My endeavours to dis- 

 cover its nest proved fruitless. In Labrador we saw several individuals 

 of both sexes, and on the coast of Newfoundland, on our return west- 

 ward, we again found it. 



To Professor MacCulloch of the Pictou College I am indebted for 

 a nest and three eggs of this bird. While looking at his valuable collec- 

 tion of the Birds of Nova Scotia, my attention was attracted by a case 

 containing nests with eggs, among which was that of the Blackburnian 

 Warbler. It was composed externally of different textures, and lined 

 with silky fibres and thin delicate stripes of fine bark, over which lay a 

 thick bed of feathers and horse-hair. The eggs were small, very conical 

 towards the smaller end, pure white, with a few spots of light red to- 

 wards the larger end. It was found in a small fork of a tree, five or six 

 feet from the ground, near a brook. The Professor informed me that it 



