YELLOW-CROWNED WARBLER, OR MYRTLE-BIRD. 361 



it is rendered, at times, doubtful to which of these several genera they 

 ought to be referred. They principally inhabit forests or thickets 

 and some affect watery situations or reed marshes. Many are remark- 

 able for the melody of their song, and the sprightliness of the airs, 

 which in the period of incubation they almost incessantly pour forth. 

 The Nightingale, so celebrated for his powerful, varied, and pathetic 

 lay, as well as the humble, but tuneful Robin Red-breast, belong to 

 this highly vocal genus ; and though many species seek out the arc- 

 tic solitudes in which to waste their melody, or sooth alone their 

 mates, yet other species may be numbered among the more familiar 

 tenants of our gardens, groves, and orchards. Living almost exclu- 

 sively on the winged insects of summer, which they dexterously 

 catch in the air, or pick from off the leaves, they migrate to the south 

 in autumn, and pass the winter in the warm or tropical regions. 

 Some exist, more or less generally, on berries in the latter end of 

 the year, and consequently find means thus to winter in the milder 

 climates which are exempt from severe extremes. Among many of 

 the species, the more active and vigorous male, intent on the object 

 of his migration, precedes the arrival of the female. 



Subgenus. — Sylvia, (or True Warblers.) 

 With the upper mandible slightly curved, and notched near the tip. 



YELLOW-CROWNED WARBLER, or MYRTLE- 

 BIRD. 



{Sylvia cor onata, Latham. Wilson, ii. p. 138. pi. 17. fig. 4. [sum- 

 mer plumage] and 5. p. 121. pi. 45. fig. 3. [young]. Philad. Muse- 

 um, No. 7134.) 



Sp. Charact. — Blackish slate-color, streaked with black ; beneath 

 white ; breast spotted with black; crown, sides of the breast, and 

 rump yellow ; wings bifasciate with white, and with the tail 

 black ; three lateral tail-feathers spotted with white. — Winter 

 plumage edged with brownish-olive, the yellow of the crown 

 partly concealed by a margin of the same olivaceous color ; no 

 black on the head or face. — Young more brown, with the yel- 

 low much paler, and nearly without black 



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