WARBLERS: ALASKA YELLOW WARBLER 
615 
this form that was found arriving May 13, 1889, at Cooney (Barrell).—W. W. 
Cooke. 
General Habits. —From Mesilla Park Professor Merrill writes 
that the Sonora Yellow Warblers “may be seen ... in the 
thickets along the river and in patches of big sunflowers.” In the 
thickets they were quite numerous in 1913, and on July 21 he found 
two nests in the small willows, two to three feet from the ground. One 
nest had four eggs, but the other one had been despoiled, having only 
one egg and it with a hole pecked in one side. The stomach of a speci¬ 
men taken showed many plant lice and small caterpillars (MS). 
ALASKA YELLOW WARBLER: Dendroica aestiva rubigindsa (Pallas) 
Description. — Male: Length (skins) 4-4.4 inches, wing 2.4-2.5. Female: 
Length (skins) 3.9-4.3 inches, wing 2.2-2.4. Adult male: Upperparts almost uniform 
olive-green, making yellow eye-ring and stripe over eye more distinct; tail and wings 
dark olive-brown, tail feathers with inner webs lemon-yellow; wing edgings narrow, 
mostly greenish yellow, underparts pure gamboge-yellow, streaked with brick-red. 
Adult female: Darker and duller olive-green above, duller yellow below. 
Range. —Breeds mainly in Canadian Zone throughout most of Alaska, and west¬ 
ern Canada, east to Hudson Bay and south to Vancouver Island; winters from 
Mexico to Nicaragua. 
State Records. —Breeding in Alaska and wintering south of the United States, 
the Alaska Yellow Warbler crosses New Mexico in fall migration, at least, and was 
taken at 8,000 feet on Arroyo Hondo, August 13, 1904 (Gaut); and in the Playas 
Valley, at Walnut Creek, Grant County, 4,800 feet, August 20, 1908 (Goldman). 
These dates show T how’ very early it starts on its fall migration, for these birds w r ere 
already more than a thousand miles south of w’here they had nested.—W. W. Cooke. 
BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLER: Dendroica caerulescens caerulescens 
(Gmelin) 
Description. — Male: Length (skins) 4.3-4.7 inches, wing 2.4-2.0; tail 1.9—2.1; 
bill .3-.4; tarsus .7-8. Adult male in sprmg and summer; Upperparts mainly dark 
grayish blue, tail and wings black edged with blue, tail with white patches near tip of 
inner w r eb on three outer feathers; wing with white patch at base of primaries; sides of 
head, throat , and sides black; rest of underparts while. Adult male in fall and winter: 
Only slightly different but feathers of back narrowly tipped with greenish, of throat 
and sides with w'hite. Adult female: Upperparts dusky olive-green , with bluish tinge 
strongest on crown and upper tail coverts, tail usually with w r hite patches, wing with 
white patch at base of primaries; superciliary narrow, whitish; underparts pale yel¬ 
lowish or w T hitish, the sides darker. 
Range. —Breeds in Canadian and Transition Zones from northeastern Min¬ 
nesota, central Ontario, and northeastern Quebec south to Connecticut,Pennsylvania, 
southern Ontario, and central Minnesota; winters from Florida to West Indies. 
Accidental in Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, and California. 
State Records. —A Black-throated Blue Warbler was taken on October 8, 1904, 
at 8,000 feet, in the Gallinas Mountains (Gaut); and is now in the collection of the 
Biological Survey. It was, of course, a straggler that had wandered a thousand 
miles from its normal route. Doctor Henry says of this species: “A few observed on 
the Mimbres and one along the Rio Grande near Fort Thorn in May,” but it may be 
that he w r as mistaken in his identification.—W. W. Cooke. 
