224 
SINGING BIRDS. 
MAGNOLIA WARBLER. 
BLACK-AND-YELLOW WARBLER. 
Dendroica maculosa. 
Char. Male : back black, the feathers edged with olive ; rump yel- 
low ; crown ash, bordered by black and white ; beneath, rich yellow, 
thickly spotted on breast and sides with black ; wing-bars and tail-patches 
white. Female : similar, but colors duller, and back sometimes entirely 
olive. 
Ni:st. On a horizontal branch of spruce or fir, usually 3 to 6 feet from 
the ground, but sometimes higher ; made of twigs and grass, lined with 
fine black roots. 
Ef;gs. 4-5 ; creamy white, spotted with lilac and several shades of 
brown ; 0.60 X 0.50. 
This rare and beautiful species is occasionally seen in very 
small numbers in the Southern, Middle, and Northern States, in 
the spring season, on its way to its Northern breeding-places. 
In Massachusetts I have seen it in this vicinity about the mid- 
dle of May. Its return to the South is probably made through 
the western interior, — a route so generally travelled by most of 
our birds of passage at this season ; in consequence of which 
they are not met with, or but very rarely, in the Atlantic States 
in autumn. In this season they have been seen at sea off the 
island of Jamaica, and have been met with also in Hispaniola, 
whither they retire to pass the winter. Like all the rest of the 
genus, stimulated by the unquiet propensity to migrate, they 
pass only a few days with us, and appear perpetually employed 
in pursuing or searching out their active insect prey or larvae ; 
and while thus engaged, utter only a few chirping notes. 1'he 
Magnolia has a shrill song, more than usually protracted on the 
approach of wet w'eather, so that the Indians bestow upon it 
the name of Rain Bird. According to Audubon, many of 
these birds breed in Maine and the British Provinces, as well 
as in Labrador, and extend their summer residence to the 
banks of the Saskatchewan. They have also a clear and sweetly 
modulated song. 
Although rare in the United States, it appears, according to 
Richardson, that this elegant species is a common bird on the 
