igol] Kells — Two Warblers New. 233 



.49. These are of a white colour, thickly spotted with lilac, 

 purple, and brown. 



In general appearance the plumag-e of both sexes of the 

 Prairie Warbler is much alike, and the colour of the young differs 

 chiefly in being of a duller hue. In length it is nearly five inches, 

 and the extent across the wings about seven inches. The plumage 

 on the upper parts is of a yellow olive hue, with dottings of brick- 

 red on the back, the forehead, and a line on the head ; two wing- 

 bars and the whole under parts are a fine yellow. On each side 

 of the head is a three-pointed black mark, with marks of the same 

 hue on the neck and other parts of the body. The places where it 

 is found in the greatest abundance are the middle and southern 

 States, and it passes the winter season on the borders of the Gulf 

 of Mexico and the West India Islands. From this region it begins 

 to move northward in February, and reaches the borders of tire 

 Great Lakes in the fir?t week of May. Its general haunts and 

 home is in the sparse low woods, cedar thickets, and old fields 

 grown up with scrub pine. It is remarkable for its peculiar and 

 curious song, and is an expert fly catcher, being constantly in 

 hunt of winged insects after the manner of the redstart and all 

 proper fly-catchers. 



The Prairie Warbler was tolerably well known in the time of 

 Audubon, and Alexander Wilson, in his "American Ornithology," 

 thus records his first impressions regarding the species : — " This 

 pretty little species I first discovered in that singular tract of 

 country in Kentucky, commonly called Barrens. I shot several 

 afterwards in the open woods of the Chactaw-nation, where they 

 were more numerous. They seem to prefer these open plains and 

 thinly wooded tracts, and have this singularity in their manners, 

 that they are not easily alarmed ; and they search among the 

 leaves, the most leisurely of any of the tribe I have yet met 

 with, seeming to examine every blade of grass and every leaf, 

 uttering at short intervals a feeble chirr. I have observed one of 

 these birds to sit on the lower branch of a tree for half an hour 

 at a time, and allow me to come up nearly to the foot of the tree 

 without seeming to be in the least disturbed, or to discontinue the 

 regularity of its occasional note. It is slow in its movements and 



