382 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 



a triangular patch of black beneath the eye and connected with the 

 lores ; hind-head grey and black ; feathers of the back and rump 

 black, edged with greenish yellow. Wings dusky, the primaries edg- 

 ed with whitish ; the 1st and' 2d row of coverts broadly tipt with 

 pale 3^ellow ; the secondaries edged with greenish yellow. Tail 

 forked, dusky exteriorly, edged with ash or with greenish-grey. 

 Sides from the black beneath the eye to the thighs, furnished with a 

 broad stripe of bright chesnut, the rest of the parts below pure white. 

 Legs and feet dusky. Bill black. Iris hazel. 



BAY-BREASTED WARBLER. 



{Sylvia castanea, Wilson, ii, p. 97. pi. 14. fig. 4. Audubon, pL 69. 

 Orn. Biog. i. p. 358. Phil. Museum, No. 731 1.) 



Sp. Charact. — Forehead and cheeks black; crown, throat, and 

 sides under the wings, bay ; the wings with 2 white bars ; 3 lat- 

 eral tail-feathers marked with white. — The female with less and 

 paler bay on the breast, and less black on the head. 



This is a still rarer and more transient visitor than the 

 last. It arrives in Pennsylvania from the South some time 

 in April, or about the beginning of May, and towards the 

 12th or 15th of the same month it visits Massachusetts, 

 but seldom stays more than a week or ten ten days, and 

 is very rarely seen on its return in autumn. Audubon 

 once observed these birds in Louisiana late in June, so 

 that they probably sometimes breed in very secluded 

 places, without regularly proceeding to the Northern 

 regions. It is an active insect-hunter, and keeps much 

 towards the tops of the highest trees, where it darts 

 about with great activity and hangs from the twigs with 

 fluttering wings. One of these birds, which was wound- 

 ed in the wing, soon became reconciled to confinement, 

 and greedily caught at and devoured the flies which I 

 off'ered him ; but from the extent of the injury, he did 

 not long survive. In habits and manners, as well as 

 markings, this species greatly resembles the preced- 

 ing. 



