The Black-and-white Warbler 



feet horn-color with yellowish claws (in life). Adult male in fall and winter: Black of 

 throat reduced or wanting; streaking of chest and sides of neck less sharply denned. 

 Immature male: Like adult male, but throat white and chest more narrowly streaked. 

 Adult female: Similar to adult male, but smaller and duller, the streakings of under- 

 parts wanting or obsolescent, except on sides and flanks, where much reduced; the 

 whites chiefly tinged by buffy brownish, especially in malar region and on flanks. 

 Mandible light-colored, becoming dusky on tip. Young: Like adult female, but 

 lateral head-stripes ill-defined; buffy suffusion more prominent everywhere; sides 

 unstreaked. Length of male 114. 3-139. 7 (4.50-5.50); wing 68.6 (2.70); tail 48 (1.89); 

 bill 11. 4 (.45); tarsus 17 (.67). Length of female 113. 5 (447); wing 66 (2.60); tail 

 46.5 (1.83); bill 11. 4 (.45); tarsus 16.8 (.66). 



Recognition Marks. — Medium Warbler size; black and white in streaks and 

 stripes. Requires careful distinction from Black-throated Gray Warbler (Dendroica 

 nigrescens) , which it superficially resembles, especially from a side view. Note absence 

 of supraloral yellow spot, and the presence of distinctive stripes on crown, and the 

 black-and-white-streaked back. Tree-creeping habits also distinctive. 



Nesting. — Not known to breed in California. Nest: On the ground, usually 

 sheltered by stump, log, or projecting stone; of leaves, bark-strips, and grasses, with a 

 lining of fine rootlets and hairs. Eggs: 4 or 5; white or creamy white, speckled and 

 spotted with chestnut or umber, chiefly in wreath about the larger end. Av. size 

 17 x 14 (.67 x .55). Season: c.June 1st; one brood. 



General Range. — North America, chiefly east of the Rocky Mountains, and 

 northern South America. Breeds from northern portions of the Gulf States north to 

 northern Ontario and central Keewatin, and west, perhaps casually, to Colorado and 

 Wyoming; winters from Florida and the West Indies south to Venezuela and Ecuador; 

 casual on the Pacific Coast and in Bermuda. 



Occurrence in California. — Casual during migrations and in winter (Car- 

 pinteria, Jan. 9, 1920, by Dr. H. C. Henderson) — about a dozen records. McGee 

 Creek, Mono County, June 9, 1921, by H. W. Carriger and W. Leon Dawson, appears 

 to be the latest spring occurrence. 



Authorities. — W. E. Bryant, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., 2nd ser., i., 1888, p. 48 

 (Farallon Ids., May 28, 1887, one spec); Cooke, \]. S. Dept. Agric, Biol. Surv. Bull., 

 no. 18, 1904, p. 18 (distr. and migr.); U. S. Dept. Agric. Bull., no. 185, 1915, p. 25, 

 figs. 15, 16, maps (distr. and migr.); Chapman, Warblers of North America, 1907, 

 p. 38, col. pi. (life hist., biog. ref., etc.); Grinnell, Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 11, 1915, 

 p. 144, ibid., Condor, vol. xxiv., 1922, p. 185 (Calif, occurrences). 



Note. — The following works are especially recommended as source books in 

 the study of the American Wood Warblers. Because of their general pertinence, 

 detailed references are omitted henceforth from the "Authorities": Distribution and 

 Migration of North American Warblers, by Wells W. Cooke, U. S. Dept. of Agric, Div. 

 of Biol. Survey, Bulletin no. 18, Washington, 1904, pp. 1-142. The Warblers of North 

 America, by Frank M. Chapman, New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1907, pp. i.-ix. 

 and 1-306. 



THE NORTH American Wood Warblers fall naturally into two 

 distributional groups, the eastern and the western. So marked is this 

 division, and so important to an understanding of conditions in California, 

 that we may be pardoned if we attempt at the outset a brief reconstruc- 

 tion of Mniotiltine history. Spreading from some center in the South, 



438 



