362 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 



The history of this rather common Warbler remains 

 very imperfect. In the Middle and Northern States, it 

 is a bird of passage, arriving from the South about the 

 close of April or beginning of May, and proceeding, as is 

 supposed, north to pass the summer season in the cares of 

 breeding and rearing their young. As early as the 30th 

 of August, or after an absence of little more than three 

 months, they again appear ; and being a hardy species, 

 passing parties continue with us in gardens and woods 

 till about the close of Novembei', feeding now almost ex- 

 clusively on the myrtle-wax berries [Myrica cerifera), or 

 on those of the Virginian juniper. These, other late 

 and persisting berries, and occasional insects, constitute 

 their winter food in the Southern States, where, in con- 

 siderable numbers, in the swamps and sheltered groves 

 of the sea-coast, they pass the cold season. In fine 

 weather, in the early part of October, they may be seen, 

 at times, collecting grasshoppers and moths from the 

 meadows and pastures, and like the Blue-bird, they often 

 watch for the appearance of their prey from a neighbour- 

 ing stake, low bough, or fence rail ; and at this time are 

 so familiar and unsuspicious, particularly the young, as 

 fearlessly to approach almost within the reach of the si- 

 lent spectator. At the period of migration, they appear 

 in an altered and less brilliant dress ; the bright yellow 

 spot on the crown is now edged with brownish-olive, so 

 that the prevailing color of this beautiful mark is only 

 seen on shedding the feathers with the hand ; a brownish 

 tint is also added to the whole plumage ; but Wilson's 

 figure of this supposed autumnal change only represents 

 the young bird. The old is, in fact, but little less brilliant 

 than in summer, and I have a well-founded suspicion, 

 that the wearing of the edges of the feathers, or some 

 other secondary cause, alone produces this change in the 



