CERULEAN WARBLER. 
247 
particularly abundant in Louisiana, and not uncommon in Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee, and from thence inhabiting throughout 
the country to the estuaries of the Mississippi. It frequents 
low, damp woods and the desolate borders of the lagoons, 
cane-brakes, and swamps near the banks of the great rivers. 
It arrives in Kentucky about the middle of April, but enters 
the southern extremity of the Union from Mexico by the same 
time in March, and by the middle of September retires south 
of the United States. The males are very pugnacious in the 
pairing season of spring, and utter some loud notes, in threes, 
resembling the sound of 'tweedle tweedle tweedlc, 1 he nest is 
often attached to stems of stout weeds, or placed in a tuft of 
grass. It is made of the dry bark of herbaceous plants, mixed 
with downy substances, and lined with the cotton of the seed 
of the wild poplar. The species is scarcely known to the east 
of North Carolina. 
In the A. O. U. checklist the habitat of this species is given as 
“ Eastern United States, west to the Plains, and north to southern 
New England and southern Michigan. In winter, West Indies 
and Central America.” It is most abundant along the Mississippi 
valley, and has been seen but rarely east of the Alleghanies. 
There isonlyone record of its occurrence in New England, — apair 
taken in 1876, at Suffield, Conn. Mr. John Neilson reports that a 
pair were frequently seen by him near the city of Quebec during 
the early part of July, 1879. 
Those who have heard the song pronounce it an attractive 
melody, the tones being loud and clear and the theme pleasing. 
Mr. Wm. Brewster ranks it among the best of the Sylvicoline per- 
formances. 
CERULEAN WARBLER. 
BLUE WARBLER. 
Dendroica c^rulea. 
Char. Above, bright azure blue; back streaked with black; line of 
dusky blue through the eyes; wings with two white bars; all tail- 
feathers but inner pair spotted with white ; beneath, white ; breast and 
sides streaked with dusky blue. Length 4^4 to 5 inches. 
Nest. In open woodland, on horizontal bough 30 to 50 feet from the 
