32 BLACK- POLL WARBLER. 



BLACK-POLL WARBLER. {Sylvia striata) 



PLATE XXX.— Fig. 3. 



Lath. ii. 460.— Arct. Zool. 401.— Turton, 600.— Peale's Museum, No. 7054. 



SYLVICOLA STRIATA.*— Swainson. 



Sylvia striata, Bonap. Synop. p. 81. — Sylvicola striata, North. Zool. ii. p. 218. 



This species has considerable affinity to the flycatchers in its 

 habits. It is chiefly confined to the woods, and even there, 

 to the tops of the tallest trees, where it is descried skipping 

 from branch to branch, in pursuit of winged insects. Its note 

 is a single screep, scarcely audible from below. It arrives in 

 Pennsylvania about the 20th of April, and is first seen on the 

 tops of the highest maples, darting about among the blossoms. 

 As the woods thicken with leaves, it may be found pretty 

 generally, being none of the least numerous of our summer 

 birds. It is, however, most partial to woods in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of creeks, swamps, or morasses, probably from 

 the greater number of its favourite insects frequenting such 

 places. It is also pretty generally diffused over the United 

 States, having myself met with it in most quarters of the 

 Union ; though its nest has hitherto defied all my researches. 



This bird may be considered as occupying an intermediate 

 station between the flycatchers and the warblers, having the 

 manners of the former, and the bill, partially, of the latter. 

 The nice gradations by which nature passes from one species 

 to another, even in this department of the great chain of 

 beings, will for ever baffle all the artificial rules and systems 

 of man. And this truth every fresh discovery must impress 

 more forcibly on the mind of the observing naturalist. These 

 birds leave us early in September. 



The black-poll warbler is five and a half inches long, and 



* This is an aberrant Sylvicola, approaching Setophaga in the form 

 and bristling of the bill, and also in the manners of the flycatchers. — Ed. 



