BIRDS—SYLVICOLIDAE-DENDROICA BLACKBURNIAE. 
275 
Sp. Ch. —Upper parts nearly uniform black, with a whitish scapular stripe and a large white patch in the middle of the wing 
coverts. An oblong patch in the middle of the crown, and the entire side of the head and neck, (including a superciliary stripe 
from the nostrils,) the chin, throat, and fore part of the breast, bright orange red. A black stripe from the commissure passing 
over the lower half of the eye, and including the ear coverts ; with, however, an orange crescent in it, just below the eye, the 
extreme lid being black. Rest of under parts white, strongly tinged with yellowish orange on the breast and belly, and streaked 
with black on the sides. Outer three tail feathers white, the shafts and tips dark brown; the fourth and fifth spotted much with 
white; the other tail feathers and quills almost black. Female similar; the colors duller; the feathers of the upper parts with 
olivaceous edges. Length, 5.50; wing, 2.83; tail, 2.25. 
Hab .—Eastern North America to the Missouri. South to Guatemala. 
This is, perhaps, the most beautiful of the American warblers ; none certainly can show any 
color to compare with the delicate orange of the throat. The precise shade of this, however, 
varies a good deal in dilferent specimens. 
The black ear patch sends a short branch down on the side of the throat, so as to connect 
with the series of short black stripes on the sides. The under tail coverts are pure white. 
The female exhibits a much more striated appearance above, and the orange is much more 
yellowish ; the black of the cheeks is replaced by grayish. An autumnal male is like the 
female, the single white band on the wing replaced by two ; the black stripes on the sides 
much larger and more conspicuous ; the upper parts glossed with yellowish ; the throat orange 
yellow, passing insensibly into purer yellow behind. In this condition it is much like an 
autumnal D. townsendii, the top and sides of the head being exactly the same, except the yellow 
patch on the crown of the former. The throat, however, is more orange, and with no trace of the 
black. The pure white bases of the outer tail feathers are a strong distinctive mark of D. 
llackburniae. It is this plumage that I consider to be tbe Sylviaparus of Wilson and Audubon, 
their descriptions agreeing exactly with specimens before me of summer D. llackburniae. 
A specimen from Calcasieu, La., (4305,) is considerably smaller, though otherwise similar, 
the wing measuring only 2.50 inches, instead of 2.80. 
List of specimens. 
Catal. 
No. 
Sex. 
Locality. 
When collected. 
Whence obtained. 
Orig. 
No. 
Collected by— 
Length. 
Stretch 
of wings. 
Wing. 
1693 
- 3 
Carlisle, Pa_ 
Aug. 30, 1844 
S. F. Baird. 
5. 33 
8.50 
2. 75 
944 
Q 
-do- 
May 6, 1843 
4. 75 
2. 58 
740 
Sept. 21, 1842 
4. 91 
8 41 
2 75 
1160 
Aug. 16, 1843 
5.08 
8. 33 
2.83 
7350 
Cleveland, Ohio._ 
J. P. Kirtland_ 
3793 
Racine, Wis_... 
Dr. Hoy.-.._ 
Q 
West North field, Ill.. 
May 3, 1855 
R. Kennicott. > . _ 
6972 
3 
St. Louis, Mo_ 
May 12, 1857 
Lt. Bryan_ 
62 
W. S. Wood_ 
6973 
3 
May 8, 1857 
89 
4305 
3 
Calcasieu pass, La. .. 
1854. 
G. Wurdemann.. 
8008 
Guatemala_ 
J. Gould_ 
