378 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 



I had first heard him a fortnight before. This simple, 

 rather drawling, and somewhat plaintive song, uttered at 

 short intervals, resembled the syllables, He de teritscd, 

 sometimes te derisca, pronounced pretty loud and slow, 

 and the tones proceeded from high to low. In the inter- 

 vals he was perpetually busied in catching small cynips, 

 and other kinds of flies, keeping up a smart snapping of 

 his bill, almost similar to the noise made by knocking 

 pebbles together. This quaint and indolent ditty I have 

 often heard before in the dark and solitary woods of 

 West Pennsylvania ; and here, as there, it affords an 

 agreeable relief in the dreary silence and gloom of the 

 thick forest. This note is very much like the call of the 

 Chicadee, and at times both are heard amidst the reign- 

 ing silence of the summer noon. In the whole district of 

 this extensive hill or mountain, in Milton, there appeared 

 to exist no other pair of these lonely warblers but the 

 present. Another pair, however, had probably a nest in 

 the vicinity of the woods of Mount Auburn in Cam- 

 bridge ; and in the spring of the present year (1831) 

 several pair of these birds were seen for a transient 

 period. 



This species is about 5 inches in length*, and 7^ to 8 in alar extent. 

 Chin and throat, to the breast, black ; sides under the wings spotted 

 with the same ; breast and belly white, tinged with very pale yellow ; 

 vent white. Wings dusky , with 2 white bars. The 3 exterior tail-feath- 

 ers spotted on their inner webs with white ; the spots on the 2 outer 

 tail-feathers very extensive. Bill black. Legs and feet brownish- 

 yellow. 



Nearly related to the present species, apparently, is the Yelloio- 

 Fronted Warbler of Latham and Pennant, said to be a spring pas- 

 sage bird through Pennsylvania. — In this the forehead and crown 

 are of a bright yellow ; from the bill extends through the eyes a 

 band of black, bounded on each side with white. The chin, throat, 

 and lower side of the neck are black. Breast and belly Avhite. The 

 upper part of the neck, back, rump, and lesser coverts of the wings 



