BLACK-POLL WARBLER. ; 217 
an eastern species, which reaches only to the edge of the Plains. In his excellent ‘Revised 
Catalogue of the Birds of Kansas,’’ Mr. N. S. Goss does not enumerate this Warbler, 
but it strikes western Missouri and Iowa. 
NAMES: Bay-BREASTED WARBLER, Bay-breast. 
SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Sylvia castanea Wilson (1810). DENDROICA CASTANEA Barrp (1858). 
DESCRIPTION: Male, back, ashy-olive, thickly streaked with black; wing-bars, white; white spots on 
outer tail-feathers; fore-head and sides of head black; crown, throat, and breast, deep chestnut-red; 
rest of under-parts, whitish. Female, similar but chestnut paler and more restricted. 
Length, 5.50 inches; wings, 2.80; tail, 2.25. 
BLACK-POLL WARBLER. 
Dendroica striata Batrp. 
PLATE XII. Fic. 3. 
In Wisconsin and Illinois the BLack-poLL WaRrBLER is very common during the 
latter part of May, and again early in September. With many other species I found it 
common in the latter part of April and in the beginning of May in south-eastern Texas. 
The last stragglers there were seen May 11. In the tropical hammock-woods, near 
Lake Apopka, Fla., I observed it in great abundance in April among palmettos, live- 
oaks, magnolias, and loblolly-bay trees (Gordonia). Like other species, it seems to 
follow the warm spring as it proceeds northward, for in the North we find it when all 
the apple and pear orchards are snowy with blossoms. These birds always linger a week 
or even a few weeks, before they depart for the high northern latitudes, arriving there 
when nature has assumed her most festive garb. “Thus, in all their long passage from 
the far South to their summer home, they revel amid bursting buds and the fragrance 
of a continuous spring.” Although more robust than other species of the genus, the 
Black-polls are the last to appear from their winter-quarters. Like other Warblers they 
vary greatly in numbers from year to year, being exceedingly common in one spring 
and very rare in another. They indifferently search for inseéts among both the higher 
and lower branches of trees, and occasionally seize their prey in the air. Evergreens 
are always preferred, even during their migration. They are usually seen in pairs or in 
small companies of from four to five. It is possible that some of the Black-polls may be 
found breeding in northern Wisconsin and Michigan, but the majority passes farther to 
the North. The Arctic regions around Fort Anderson, Fort Yukon, and Fort Good 
Hope, the Hudson Bay country, Labrador, are the true summer home of this species. 
They affect exclusively the heavy timbered forests and woods which consist entirely of 
a great many evergreens. Their winter-quarters are almost under the tropics in Central 
and northern South America. During the migration they are found from the Atlantic 
to the Rocky Mountains. In September they are very common in our northern woods, 
being now on their way to the South. According to Mr. Maynard, it is difficult to 
believe that the little green birds, which come drooping in by thousands, are the same 
which passed us in the bright spring time; then the low lisping songs of the males were 
constantly heard; now they flit silently and hurriedly through the changing foliage 
which too shortly precedes the season of desolation. 
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