PINE WARBLER. 
49 
The following is a description of a specimen taken by Mr. Brewster: “A nest which I collected in Cambridge, 
Mass., May 28, 1872, contained four fresh eggs, with one of the Cow Bird, and was placed on a horizontal branch 
of the yellow pine near the extremity, about fifteen feet from the ground and nearly the same distance from the 
main trunk of the tree. It was fastened firmly in the centre of three or four upright clusters of pine needles, and 
is extremely large and bulky for the size of the bird. Coarse weed stalks and dry twigs form the outer nest. Next 
come fine roots, twine, and downy substances of various kinds, and finally, a thick bed of large white feathers from 
the domestic fowl, with a scanty lining of horse hairs. The dimensions are, internal diameter, 2 inches; depth, 1-50.” 
Eggs, usually four in number, oval in form, bluish-white in color, spotted and blotched with brown and umber; 
these spots usually form a ring around the larger end, but some specimens are spotted irregularly. Dimensions 
from -75x-50 to ;67x-48. 
HABITS. 
While walking in the piny woods of Florida one will suddenly observe that the trees over 
his head are tilled with birds, where but a moment before not a living thing was to be seen; 
and his ears will be saluted by a variety of sounds. Besides the loud, harsh notes of the 
Woodpeckers or Nuthatches, and the mellow whistle of the Bluebirds, the slowly giveu trill 
of the Pine Warblers will occasionally be heard. There are hundreds of these little birds in 
every passing flock, yet but few of them ever sing. They are extremely active, now searching 
for insects among the swaying foliage of the pines high overhead, then clinging to the brown 
trunks to peer into the crevices of the bark, or alighting on the ground among the grass. But 
the birds do not remain long in one spot and soon pass on; thus these great avian waves are 
constantly passing over the barrens through the entire winter, and generally more than half the 
birds of which they are composed are Pine Warblers. Of all the thousands of this species 
which spend the colder season in Florida but few remain to breed, and by the middle of March 
the greater portion leave for the North. They arrive in New England in early April, and by the 
first of May begin to construct their nests, which are commonly placed in a fork of the topmost 
limb of a pine tree. They keep close watch of their homes and when any one chances to 
approach them will chirp loudly; but although the collector can thus ascertain when he is in the 
vicinity of a nest, he will find that the birds have been careful to place it in such a position 
that it cannot be seen from below; therefore it is exceedingly difficult to discover. I have 
frequently searched a long time for a nest and then been obliged to abandon the attempt to find 
it although I was confident, by the actions of the birds, that it was near. 
During this season the males have a louder song than when in the South; it consists of 
several short notes which commence low but increase in volume and end abruptly. After 
leaving the nests the young follow their parents and are thus found in small companies until 
after the moult, which takes place in August; then several families will come together and the 
flocks thus formed will increase in size until the first of October, when the Pine Warblers depart 
for the South, arriving in Florida about the middle of November. 
DENDRCECA STRIATA. 
Black-polled Warbler. 
Dendroeca striata Baird, Birds of North America, 1858, 280. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Sr. Ch. Eorm, stout. Size, large. Bill, stout and somewhat conical. Wings, feet and tail, moderate, the 
latter square but not emarginate. Sternum, stoutly built and precisely similar in proportion to that of the preceding 
species. Tongue, rather wide at the base where it is fleshy but becomes thin, horny and quite suddenly acuminate. 
The end is ciliated but not as much as in D. pinus; the fringes not being as long or as much extended along the sides. 
Color. Adult male in spring. Above, slaty, with an olivaceous tinge, and streaked with black. Top of head, 
black, with numerous streaks of white. Wings, dark brown, edged with whitish and olivaceous. Upper wing 
coverts, black, tipped with white, forming two bars. Tail, dark brown, with the six outer feathers spotted 
terminally on the inner webs with white. All the tail-feathers are also more or less edged with white on the inner, 
and with slaty on the outer webs. Sides of head and lower portions of body, including under tail coverts and under 
wing coverts, white, with black maxillary stripes. Sides and flanks, streaked with black. 
BIRDS OF FLORIDA. 
