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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, JBonap. 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. 
2 
