The Black-throated Green Warbler 



to an observer great difficulties. Once he espied an especially desirable 

 tidbit on the under side of a needle-beset branch. The bird leaned over 

 and peered beneath, until he quite lost his balance and turned a somersault 

 in the air. But he returned to the charge again and again, now creeping 

 cautiously around to the under side, now clinging to the pine needles 

 themselves and again fluttering bravely in the midst, until he succeeded 

 in exhausting the little pocket of provender, whatever it was. 



The song of the townsendi I find to be more variable both in quality 

 and cadence than that of any other western member of its group. It 

 sometimes reminds one of the lisping squeak of Dendroica virens, an 

 own cousin in the East. Sometimes it will have the drowsy obstructed 

 quality of our own Black-throated Grays. If I had not known that I 

 was bestriding the Forth-Sixth Parallel of longitude, and had not seen 

 the Townsendine mandibles keeping time at fifteen feet, I should have 

 ascribed a certain song, Swuss swuss swuss tsuss tsss, to the Blackburnian 

 Warbler (D. blackbiirnia) of the East. Again, near Victoria, B. C, 

 I have listened to a high-pitched clear-cut song which had in it something 

 of the light quality and crispness of the Fox Sparrow's notes, although 

 not, of course, so "large" a sound: Heo teo teeoo teeoo chee chee wee chu. 

 But it is in competition with the Hermit Warbler that our hero becomes 

 most alluring and most confusing. Lilly lilly lilly leeoolee, says the 

 Hermit; and if you are a quarter of a mile away, you catch only the 

 exquisite lilt at the end. Oozi woozi lee oo lee, says the Townsend; 

 and if you hear him, too, at a distance, you do not know which bird 

 has spoken, — Shibboleth or sibboleth? A very pretty wreath of bay 

 awaits the birdologist who will satisfy us on this little point of Mniotiltine 

 philology. 



No. 90 



Black-throated Green Warbler 



A. O. U. No. 667. Dendroica virens (Gmelin). 



Description. — Adult male in spring: Above bright warbler green (yellow with 

 a dash of black in it), changing on sides of head and neck to pure yellow, where also 

 interrupted by postocular streak, or patch, of olive-green; longer upper tail-coverts 

 chiefly ashy gray, or with a greenish gloss; two prominent white bars on wing formed by 

 tips of middle and greater coverts; three outermost pairs of tail-feathers chiefly white 

 on inner webs, the fourth pair broadly edged with white on inner web near tip; chin, 

 throat, chest, and sides of breast, black, continued narrowly, posteriorly, until break- 

 ing into streaks; the black usually very slightly veiled by whitish tips; remaining under- 

 pays palest yellow, or palest buffy white, clearing to pure white on under tail-coverts; 

 the flanks touched with yellow. Bill and feet dark brown. In autumn: Scarcely 



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