BLACK-POLL WARBLER 



May 28, 1893 

 May 12, 1894 

 May 7, 1895 

 May 8, 1896 



I NEVER like to see this bird appear 

 because it means that the "warbler 

 season" is nearly over, as it is usually 

 about the last to come. This bird, though 

 striped with black and white, as the black 

 and white creeper is, is far less beautiful. 

 The song is a little like the creeper's, but 

 is more hesitating, and lacks the ease of 

 the creeper's song. It is "saw-filing," 

 though, and unmusical. It sometimes sings 

 so low that it might be mistaken for an 

 insect, but at other times it is quite loud, 

 though never heard at much of a distance. 

 May, 1894. A closer analysis of the 

 song gives it did-did-did, hesitating, un- 

 musical, staccato, not a "saw-filing" in time 

 (that is, one note does not follow another 

 as part of it, as in the song of the creeper 

 and the bay-breasted; each note is sepa- 

 rate). 



May 14, 1904. Seen against the grass 

 what a brilliant bird a spring male is ! 



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