Mr. Salvin met with both this species and the D. coronata at San Geronimo, November, 1859. They congregated together on the ground, where they principally obtained their food.
Dr. Cooper, in his paper on the fauna of Montana, mentions this Warbler as the only one of the genus seen by him between Fort Benton and Fort
Vancouver. It was very common throughout the mountains, and he found it in every portion of the country west of them, even where scarcely a bush was to be seen.
According to the careful observations of Mr. Robert Ridgway, this Warbler, during the summer months, in the Great Basin, chiefly inhabits the pines of the high mountain ranges, as well as the cedar and piñon woods of the desert mountains. In winter it descends to the lower portions, being then found among the willows, or, in small roving companies, hopping among the tree-tops in the river valleys. In manners it is said by him to resemble the coronata, but in their notes they differ very widely. A nest, containing three young, was found by Mr. Ridgway near the extremity of a horizontal branch of a pine-tree, about ten feet from the ground.
The eggs of the Audubon Warbler do not resemble those of any Dendroica with which I am acquainted, but are most like those of the Hooded Warbler. They measure .70 by .50 of an inch, have a reddish or pinkish white ground, and are sparingly marked with fine brown markings, tinted with a crimson shading.
Dendroica maculosa, Baird.
BLACK AND YELLOW WARBLER.
Motacilla maculosa, Gm. Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 984. Sylvia m. Lath.; Vieill.; Bon.; Nutt.; Aud. Orn. Biog. I, II, V, pl. 1. 123. Sylvicola m. Swains.; Bon.; Aud. Birds Am. II, pl. xcvi. Rhimanphus m. Cab. Jour. III, 1855, 474 (Cuba). Dendroica m. Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 284; Review, 206.—Sclater, P. Z. S. 1859, 363, 373 (Xalapa).—Bryant, Pr. Bost. Soc. VII, 1859 (Bahamas).—Sclater & Salvin, Ibis, 1859, 11 (Guatemala).—Lawrence, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. 1861, 322 (Panama; winter).—Gundlach, Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba; very rare).—Samuels, 238. Sylvia magnolia, Wils. III, pl. xxiii, fig. 3.
Sp. Char. Male, in spring. Bill dark bluish-black, rather lighter beneath. Tail dusky. Top of head light grayish-blue. Front, lore, cheek, and a stripe under the eye, black, running into a large triangular patch on the back between the wings, which is also black. Eyelids and a stripe from the eye along the head white. Upper tail-coverts black, some of the feathers tipped with grayish. Abdomen and lower tail-coverts white. Rump and under parts, except as described, yellow. Lower throat, breast, and sides streaked with black; the streaks closer on the lower throat and fore breast. Lesser wing-coverts, and edges of the wing and tail, bluish-gray, the former spotted with black. Quills and tail almost black; the latter with a square patch of white on the inner webs of all the tail-feathers (but the two inner) beyond the middle of the tail. Two white bands across the wings (sometimes coalesced into one) formed by the middle and secondary coverts. Part of the edge of the inner webs of the quills white. Feathers margining the black patch on the back behind and on the sides tinged with greenish. Length, 5 inches; wing, 2.50; tail, 2.25. Autumnal males differ in absence of black of back, front, sides of head, and to a considerable degree beneath, and in much less white on the wings and head.
Female in spring. Similar, but all the colors duller. Black of the back restricted to a central triangular patch.