314 YELLOW-BACKED BLUE WARBLER. 



plainer, containing a moderate amount of material, and that 

 of the coarser sort, slightly arched with the plain culms of 

 dried grasses, or with pine needles. The eggs, 4 or 5, about 

 .V8 X -60, and therefore unusually roundish, are white as 

 porcelain, finely specked and spotted with red, brown and 

 lilac, mostly around the larger end, often in a wreath, and 

 are real objects of beauty in the nest so smoothly lined with 

 skeleton-leaves and horse-hairs. They resemble those of 

 the Warblers, too, and not the strongly-marked, bluish- 

 green eggs of the Thrushes. 



Wintering in the extreme Southern States, Mexico, Cen- 

 tral America, and the West India Islands, its breeding hab- 

 itat extends even to the arctic regions, whence it returns 

 in the early autumn. 



YELLOW-BACKED BLUE WARBLER. 



Next thing to shooting bumble-bees is the bringing down 

 our smaller Warblers from the tallest tree-tops. So I feel, 

 as from the highest branches of a great elm, I pick out 

 a Yellow-backed Blue Warbler (Parula americana), the 

 smallest of the family. Only 4.50 long, the upper parts are 

 a delicate blue, slightly tinged with ash, with a bronze- 

 yellow patch on the back; throat and breast yellow, with a 

 collar of black and bronze, often more or less mixed, across 

 the upper breast; under parts, wing-coverts, and spots in 

 outer tail-feathers, white. Though it is by no means brill- 

 iant, I admire it for its plain and modest beauty.' There is 

 something retired and elevated, too, in its manner. Its 

 path is, for the most part, in the very tops of the beeches 

 and maples on uplands and hills. Seldom, indeed, is its 

 nest less than 20 feet from the ground. Often it is much 

 higher. Hopping or flitting from point to point, hanging 

 by the feet, or peering quaintly among the leaves, all its 



