BULLETIN 
OF THE 
NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 
Vol. IL JANUARY, 1877. No. i. 
THE BLACK-AND^-YELLOW WARBLER {DENDRCEGA 
MACULOSA), ' 
BY WILLIAM BREWSTER. 
First impressions are apt to be most lasting, and in many cases 
are engraved upon the memory with a vividness that defies the 
effacing influence of time. Thus the Black-and-Yellow Warbler 
was one of my earliest bird acquaintances, and I shall not soon for- 
get our introduction. 
My family was spending a few days in a quiet little country town 
in New Hampshire, when, one hot summer afternoon, finding time 
hang heavily on my hands, I borrowed an old gun, and at the coun- 
try store, where everything was sold from a patent coffee-mill to 
the latest specific for rheumatism, I purchased a supply of am- 
munition, and, thus equipped, took to the woods and searched a 
long time in vain for game. At length, entering a grove of thickly 
growing young spruces, I sat down to rest on a mossy log. I had 
been there but a short time when I became conscious of faint 
sounds in the trees above and around me, — chirpings, twitterings, 
and occasionally a modest little effort at song. Watching atten- 
tively, I soon spied a movement among the branches, and a tiny 
bird hopped out into the light, presenting a bright yellow breast 
and throat for just a moment before flying into the next tree. 
Here was a revelation ! I already knew a few of the most familiar 
birds, — the Robin, the Bluebird, the Sparrow, the Oriole, and some 
others ; but it had never occurred to me that dark forests like 
these might be tenanted by such delicate and beautiful forms. 
