THE BLACK-THROATED BLUE WOOD-WARBLER. 63 



edged with light grey; tail blackish-brown, the two outer feathers on each 

 side almost entirely white, the next with a white patch on the inner web. 



Male 5, wing 2-^. 



Columbia river. Migratory. 



THE BLACK-THROATED BLUE WOOD- WARBLER. 



Sylvicola canadensis, Linn. 

 PLATE XCV Male and Young. 



I have met with this species in every portion of the Southern and Western 

 States, where, however, it is seen only in the early part of spring and in 

 autumn, on its passage to and from its summer residence. In South Carolina 

 it arrives about the 25th of March, and becomes more abundant in April; 

 but it has left that country by the 10th of May. During its stay there, it 

 keeps in deep woods, where it may be seen passing among the boughs, at a 

 height of from ten to twenty feet from the ground. 



Proceeding eastward, we find it more numerous, but residing only in the 

 depths of the morasses and swampy thickets. I saw many individuals of the 

 species in the Great Pine Forest of Pennsylvania, after which I traced it 

 through the upper parts of the State of New York into Maine, the British 

 Provinces, and the Magdeleine Islands, in the Bay of St. Lawrence. In 

 Newfoundland I saw none, and in Labrador only a dead one, dry and 

 shrivelled, deposited like a mummy in the fissure of a rock, where the poor 

 bird had fallen a victim to the severity of the climate, from which it had 

 vainly endeavoured to shelter itself. 



I am indebted to the generous and most hospitable Dr. MacCulloch of 

 Halifax for the nest and eggs of this Warbler, which had been found by his 

 sons, who are keen observers of birds. The nest is usually placed on the 

 horizontal branch of a fir-tree, at a height of seven or eight feet from the 

 ground. It is composed of slips of bark, mosses, and fibrous roots, and is 

 lined with fine grass, on which is laid a warm bed of feathers. The eggs, 

 four or five in number, are of a rosy tint, and, like those of most other Syl- 

 via?, scantily sprinkled with reddish-brown at the larger end. Only one 

 brood is raised in a season. The young, when fully fledged, resemble their 



