60 
DENDRCECA DOMINICA. 
weeds and strips of bark; internally, of a soft coating of yellow down from some wild plant, and lined with 
extremely fine, dry grass. Horse hairs are, I think, never used.” 
Eggs, from three to five in number; the usual number is four, but Mr. Brewster has frequently found five. 
They are white in color, spotted and blotched irregularly with reddish-brown and lilac. Those which I have before 
me are oval in form and quite large for the size of the bird. Dimensions, •60x , 50 to '65x-55. 
HABITS. 
The Prairie Warblers were very abundant in the dense thickets on the island of Key West 
during the autumn and early winter of 1870. They frequented the drier portions of the Key 
but did not sing. A little later, in February, I found them common in the mangrove swamps 
along the coast of the mainland. The mangroves always grow in submerged districts and 
frequently occupy a vast area of country, yet in these gloomy retreats, the chosen resorts of 
Cormorants, Herons, and other aquatic birds, these little Warblers were numerous, being often 
found miles from any dry land. I have heard the males singing their peculiar songs in such 
places in May, and they were evidently breeding there. 
Although these birds are found in localities of this description in Southern Florida, those 
which migrate northward pass over the drier portions of the state, and I found them associating 
with other Warblers in the thickly wooded hummocks on Indian Kiver. In Massachusetts, 
however, they prefer an entirely different kind of country, for they are always found in dry 
fields which have partly grown up to bushes. Here they build their nests, in June, commonly 
placing them in a bush but a few feet from the ground. The song of the Prairie Warbler is 
singular, and quite unlike that of any other member of the family, for the birds trill a species 
of musical scale, commencing low down and ascending rapidly. The notes are indescribable, 
but if once heard will not easily be forgotten. This lay has a pleasing effect when heard on 
sunny days in early summer and always forcibly reminds me of the pleasant open valleys amid 
the green hills of New England, so that when I heard these birds carolling in the gloomy 
swamps of Southern Florida I could scarcely persuade myself that they were the same species, 
for it seemed impossible that Prairie Warblers could live in such places. Those birds which 
go north migrate in April, arriving in Massachusetts about the middle of May, and depart early 
in September. 
DEE DECECA DOMINICA. 
Yellow-throated. Warbler. 
Dendrceca dominica Baird, Review of American Birds, 1865, 205. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Sp. Ch. Eorm, quite stout. Size, rather large. Bill, long, rather slender, with the upper mandible slightly- 
curved. Wings, somewhat long and pointed. Tail, very slightly I'ounded. Eeet, small. Sternum, rather stoutly 
built. Keel, low, not exceeding in height one-lialf the width of the sternum. Tongue, long, thin, horny and 
acuminate, with the end cleft and divided into rather coarse cilia which extend along the sides for one-third of the 
terminal length, but they are shorter on these parts than on the tip. 
Color. Adult. Above, uniform slaty-blue with the top of the head black on the front part. The feathers 
of the back part of the crown are also black but this color is more or less obscured with slaty. Dark spots 
occasionally appear on the back. Wings, dark brown, with the outer webs edged with slaty, and the inner with 
white; both rows of wing coverts are tipped with white, forming bars. Tail, dark brown, edged on the outer webs 
with slaty, all the feathers excepting the two middle are spotted terminally on the inner webs with white; these 
spots are very small on the inner feathers but become gradually larger towards the outer, and occupy nearly one-half 
of the length of first feathers. Line from the eye to the base of the bill, chin, throat, and upper part of the breast, 
bright yellow; remainder of under parts, including under wing and tail coverts, superciliary stripe, spot on the 
under eyelid, patch on the side of neck, white. Lores, sides of head, streaks on the sides and flanks, black. There 
is an indication of a white median stripe starting at the base of the bill. 
Young, similar, but glossed with greenish above. The yellow of the throat is not as bright and the black and 
white markings are not as extended or as conspicuous. Sexes alike. Irides, feet and bill, brown, with the base of 
the under mandible lighter in young birds. 
