280 
BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
slender very acute ; obsoletely notched near end, and commisure slightly arched or 
curved. 
Male in spring . — Top of head blackish ; back yellowish-olive, with faint dusky 
streaks anteriorly; rump, sides of head and neck and under parts yellow (under 
tail-coverts in two specimens before me are nearly white), ear-patch, chestnut, chin 
and throat often tinged with same ; throat, anterior part of breast and sides with 
rather narrow black streaks ; a yellowish line over eye extends to chestnut ear- 
coverts ; blackish 1 oral line; white wing patch (this is smaller in female); inner 
webs of three outer pairs of tail feathers have white patches on inner webs (these 
patches are small or obscure in female). The female is rather similar to male but 
lacks the conspicuous head markings (the male in fall also has chestnut head mark- 
ings indistinct). 
Habitat . — Eastern North America, north to Hudson’s Bay territory, west to the 
plains, breeas from northern New England northward, and also in Jamaica ; winters 
in the West Indies. 
Rather rare and irregular spring migrant, but some seasons tolerably 
common in the spring. Arrives in Pennsylvania usually about the 
middle of May, when for a few days they are to be found in forests 
(usually in tops of trees) and sometimes in orchards. When migrating 
southward in the fall (September generally) these warblers are much 
more plentiful than in the spring, and they frequently are observed in 
low trees in woods, or in bushes, and occasionally on the ground along 
the roadsides or about the margins of woods. Food — larvae, flies, plant- 
lice, small beetles, etc. 
Dendroica aestiva (Gmel. ). 
Yellow Warbler. 
Description Plate 41 ). 
Length about 5^ inches; extent about 7| ; bill bluish-black; legs and feet pale 
brown. 
Male. — Golden-yelloAv ; back olive-yellow ; chest and sides streaked with brownish- 
red not black or dusky ; wings and tail dusky ; the inner webs of outer tail feathers 
with large blotches of yellow not Avhite. Female and young duller, and the former 
Avith broAvnish-red streaks very obscure or entirely Avanting. 
Habitat . — North America at large, south in Avinter to Central America and north- 
ern South America- 
Abundant summer resident. Arrives the last week in April and re- 
mains until about the middle of September. A common inhabitant of 
shrubbery in gardens, lawns, and parks, and also frequents orchards ; it 
is often seen in groves but is rarely observed in forests. Builds a small 
compact cup-shaped nest of plant-fibers, spiders’ webs, lined with woolly 
plant substances, feathers or hair, in an upright fork of a tree or bush. 
In this locality pear trees and bushes in hedge-rows are favorite breed- 
ing places. This bright and pleasing little songster may frequently be 
observed in trees and bushes or on telegraph wires along the roadsides. 
Whth us the Yellow Warbler, according to my observations, subsists ex- 
clusively on various forms of insect-life, especially small beetles, plant- 
