PARULA. 119 
a. Cauda albo maculata. 
1. Parula americana. “a 
Parus americanus, Linn. Syst. Nat. 1. p. 841°. 
Sylvicola americana, Scl. P. Z. 8. 1857, p. 202°. 
Parula americana, Scl. & Salv. Ibis, 1859, p. 10°; Baird, Rev. Am. B. i. p. 169*; Lawr. Ann. Lyc. 
N. Y. ix. p. 200’; Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus. no. 4, p. 15°; Sumichrast, Mem. Bost. Soc. 
N. H.i. p. 5467; Baird, Brew. & Ridgw. N. Am. B.i. p. 208°; Gundl. Orn. Cub. p. 62°; 
Sennett, Bull. U.S. Geol. Surv. iv. p. 11"; Merrill, Pr. U.S. Nat. Mus. i. p. 123"; Coues, 
B. Col. Vall. i. p. 208 ”. 
3 supra cerulescenti-grisea, dorso medio olivaceo, loris nigris, maculis ciliaribus albis, alis albo bifasciatis, 
cauda extus albo notata; subtus gula et abdomine antico flavis, pectore torque ceruleo-nigricante ornato, 
abdomine postico albo; rostri maxilla nigra, mandibula flava; pedibus obscure corylinis. Long. tota 4:5, 
alee 2°35, caudee 1-7, rostri a rictu 0°5, tarsi 0°7. (Descr. maris ex Washington, U.S. Smiths. Inst. no. 
28266. Mus. nostr.) 
Q supra undique olivaceo tincta, torque pectorali nullo. (Descr. feminz ex Progreso, Yucatan. Mus. nostr.) 
Hab. Eastern Norra America’, westwards to the foot of the Rocky Mountains ¥, 
Texas 1° ..—Mexico, Tlacotalpam (Sallé?), Orizaba (Sumichrast’), Santa Efigenia, 
Tehuantepec (Sumichrast °), Merida, Yucatan (Schott ®), Progreso (Gaumer) ; Gua- 
TEMALA 8, Coban (0. S. & F. D. G.).—CuBa® and NorrHEern ANTILLES 4. 
Parula americana is the only strictly migratory species of its genus. It passes the 
breeding-season in the more northern States and Canada, and the winter months in 
Florida !2, Mexico, Guatemala, and the Northern Antilles. In the intervening country 
it is known as a bird of passage during its spring and autumn migrations. In Mexico 
it touches the Pacific coast only in the extreme south, being absent from the western 
coast generally. On the eastern side it appears in the vicinity of Orizaba and in 
Northern Yucatan, and thence passes southwards to Coban in Guatemala, the only 
place in that country where we ever met with it. Here it was not uncommon 
from November onwards through the winter; and specimens used to be brought to us 
by the Indian boys, shot by their blowpipes in the outskirts of the town. Full-plumaged 
males, however, are seldom secured; and the same is the case in Cuba—because, as 
Dr. Gundlach says, they migrate at the period of assuming their breeding-dress. In 
the Antilles, from Cuba to St. Thomas and St. Croix, P. americana is very abundant in 
the winter months; but it does not pass southward of these islands, and is quite 
unknown on the southern continent. 
The chief resort of this species is high woods, where it searches for its food amongst 
the higher branches. Its song, according to some authorities, is barely worthy of the 
name, as its notes are feeble and few; others describe it as consisting of a varied and 
pleasing series of notes’. The nest is sometimes fastened to the trunk of a tree, but 
is more usually suspended from a branch some six or eight feet from the ground and 
