BLACK-POLL WARBLER. 287 
itself on the lesser wing-coverts of the males, at first pale, inclinirg to 
orange, and partially disposed. The brown continues to skirt the 
black plurnage for a year or two, so that it is rare to find an old male 
altogether destitute of some remains of it; but the red is generally 
“complete in breadth and brilliancy by the succeeding spring. The 
females are entirely destitute of that ornament. 
The flesh of these birds is but little esteemed, being, in general, 
black, dry, and tough. Strings of them are, however, frequently seen 
exposed for sale in our markets. 
sae ee 
BLACK-POLL WARBLER.—SYLVIA STRIATA. — Fre. 138. 
Lath. ii. 460. — Arct. Zool. 401. — Turton, 600.— Peale’s Museum, No. 1054. 
SYLVICOLA STRIATA* — Swarnson. 
Sylvia striata, Bonap. Synop. p. 81.—Sylvicola striata, North. Zool. : p. 218. 
Tas species has considerable affinity to the Flycatchers in its 
habits. It is chiefly confined to the woods, and even there, to the tops 
of the tallest trees, where it is descried skipping from branch to 
branch, in pursuit of winged insects. Its note is a single screep, 
scarcely audible from below. It arrives in Pennsylvania about the 
20th of April, and is first seen on the tops of the highest maples, dart- 
ing about among the blossoms. As the woods thicken with leaves, it 
may be found pretty generally, being none of the least numerous of 
our summer birds. It is, however, most partial to woods in the im- 
mediate neighborhood of creeks, swamps, or morasses, probably from 
the greater number of its favorite insects frequenting such places. 
It is also pretty generally diffused over the United States, having my- 
self met with it in most quarters of the Union; though its nest has 
hitherto defied all my researches. 
This bird may be considered as occupying an intermediate station 
between the Flycatchers and the Warblers, having the manners of the 
former, and the bill, partially, of the latter. The nice gradations by 
which nature passes from one species to another, even in this depart- 
ment of the great chain of beings, will forever baffle all the artificial 
rules and systems of man. And this truth every fresh discovery 
must impress more forcibly on the mind of the observing ‘naturalist. 
These birds leave us early in September. 
The Black-Poll Warbler is five and a half inches long, and eight 
and’ a -half in extent; crown and hind head, black; cheeks, pure 
white ; from each lower mandible runs a streak of small black. spots, 
those on the side, larger; the rest of the lower parts, white ; primaries, 
black, edged with yellow; rest of the wing, black, edged with ash; 
the first and second row of coverts, broadly tipped with white ; back, 
* This is an aberrant Sylvicola, approaching Setophaga in the form and bristling 
of the bill, and also in the manners of the Flycatchers. —Ep. 
