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THE BLACKTHROATED BLUE WARBLER. 



Sylvia canadensis, Lath. 



PLATE CLV. Male. 



I HAVE met with this species in every portion of the Southern and 

 Western States, where, however, it is seen only in the early part of spring 

 and in autumn, on its passage to and from its summer residence. In 

 South Carolina it arrives about the 25th of March, and becomes more 

 abundant in April ; but it has left that country by the 10th of May. 

 During its stay there, it keeps in deep woods, where it may be seen pass- 

 ing among the boughs, at a height of from ten to twenty feet from the 

 ground. 



Proceeding eastward, we find it more numerous, but residing only in 

 the depth of the morasses and swampy thickets. I saw many individuals 

 of the species in the Great Pine Forest of Pennsylvania, after which I 

 traced it through the upper parts of the State of New York into Maine, 

 the British Provinces, and the Magdaleine Islands, in the Bay of St Law- 

 rence. In Newfoundland I saw none, and in Labrador only a dead one, 

 dry and shrivelled, deposited like a mummy in the fissure of a rock, 

 where the poor bird had fallen a victim to the severity of the climate, 

 from which it had vainly endeavoured to shelter itself. 



I am indebted to the generous and most hospitable Professor MacCui.- 

 LOCH of Pictou for the nest and eggs of this Warbler, which had been 

 found by his sons, who are keen observers of birds. The nest is usually 

 placed on the horizontal branch of a fir-tree, at a height of seven or eight 

 feet from the ground. It is composed of slips of bark, mosses, and fibrous 

 roots, and is lined with fine grass, on which is laid a warm bed of feathers. 

 The eggs, four or five in number, are of a rosy tint, and, like those of 

 most other Sylviae, scantily sprinkled with reddish-brown at the larger 

 end. Only one brood is raised in a season. The young, when fully 

 fledged, resemble their parents in the colours of their plumage, which, 

 however, is mixed with duUer tints, the differences indicative of the sex 

 being already observable. 



The Black-throated Blue Warbler is an expert catcher of flies, pursues 

 insects to a considerable distance in all directions, and in seizing them 



