THE WARBLERS. 179 
The Black-polled Warbler (D. striata), is the last of the 
tribe to arrive in spring, seldom appearing before the twen- 
tieth of May. It is a familiar species, being found, while 
with us, in gardens, orchards, and in the vicinity of houses, 
as well as in the woods. It is extremely active, and, when 
seen, is always darting in and out among the branches, so 
rapidly as almost to pain the eye in endeavoring to follow it. 
In the full it returns very early, along with the blue yellow- 
backed warbler, in the middle of September, from which 
time until the end of the first week in October, it is very 
abundant. The young are then so much more numerous 
than the adults, that one sees twenty in the immature plu- 
mage, to one in the mature. As before stated, the young of 
this bird very closely resemble those of the bay-breasted war- 
bler; so closely, in fact, that naturalists are puzzled to 
decide which of the two is the autumnal warbler of Wilson 
and Nuttall, the descriptions applying nearly as well to the 
one as to the other. It is probable, however, that Wilson 
did not distinguish between them, or else considered them 
merely: as varieties of the same species. His detailed de- 
scription of Sylvia autumnalis will certainly apply more 
nearly to the bay-breast ; but when he comes to speak of its 
habits, his remarks apply to the D. striata, rather than to 
the D. castanea. All the ornithologists who wrote of the 
autumnal warbler, mention it as exceedingly abundant in the 
fall. The black-poll is then very common, as well as in 
the spring, while the bay-breast is never so. Audubon, and 
some other authors, find the S. autumnalis in the young of 
the Hemlock Warbler (Sylvicola parus) ; but their view must 
be incorrect, if the 9. parus is, as Professor Baird asserts, 
merely the young of the Blackburnian warbler. During 
spring, the black-poll has a faint lisping song, of four or five 
syllables ; in the fall, only a faint chirp. 
The Blackburnian Warbler (D. Blackburnie) is one of 
the most beautiful of all the warblers, for none can show 
More pleasing colors than the orange of its throat and breast. 

