BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLER. 2 6l 



sylvania on its way to the north to breed. It has much of 

 the flycatcher in its manners, though the form of its bill is 

 decisively that of the warbler. These birds are occasionally 

 seen for about a week or ten days, viz., from the 25th of April 

 to the end of the first week in May. I sought for them in 

 the southern States in winter, but in vain. It is highly pro- 

 bable that they breed in Canada ; but the summer residents 

 among the feathered race on that part of the continent are 

 little known or attended to. The habits of the bear, the deer, and 

 beaver are much more interesting to those people, and for a 

 good substantial reason too, because more lucrative ; and un- 

 less there should arrive an order from England for a cargo 

 of skins of warblers and flycatchers, sufficient to make them 

 an object worth speculation, we are likely to know as little of 

 them hereafter as at present. 



This species is five inches long, and seven and a half broad, 

 and is wholly of a fine light slate colour above ; the throat, 

 cheeks, front and upper part of the breast, are black ; wings 

 and tail, dusky black, the primaries marked with a spot of 

 white immediately below their coverts ; tail, edged with blue; 

 belly and vent, white ; legs and feet, dirty yellow ; bill, black, 

 and beset with bristles at the base. The female is more of 

 a dusky ash on the breast, and, in some specimens, nearly 

 white. 



They, no doubt, pass this way on their return in autumn, 

 for I have myself shot several in that season; but as the 

 woods are then still thick with leaves, they are much more 

 difficult to be seen, and make a shorter stay than they do in 

 spring. 



