8YLVIt'ULID.K — THE WARBLERS. I97 



yellow ; the anal region paler ; the sides tinged with olive. A broad yellowish-white 

 ring round the eye ; the lores yellowish ; no siipercdiary stripe. The inner edges of the 

 tail-feathers margined with dull white. Female similar, but duller ; the under parts paler, 

 and with more white ; but little trace of the red of the crown. Length, 4.G.5 ; wing, 2.42 ; 

 tail, 2.05. 



Had. Eastern Province of North America ; rare in the Middle Province (Fort Tejon, 

 Cal., and East Humboldt Mountains, Nev.) ; Greenland (Reinhardt) ; Oaxaca (February 

 and August, Sclater) ; Xalapa and Corilova (Sclater) ; Orizaba (winter, Su.AriCHRAST). 

 Not recorded from West Indies. 



It is an interesting fact, tliat, in this species, we find in the yellow a ten- 

 dency to l3econie more and more restricted as we pass westward. In adult 

 sprino' males from the Atlantic States this color invades the clieeks, and 

 even stains the lores and eyelids. In two adult spring males from (Jhicago 

 it is confined within the maxilhe, the cheeks being clear ash, and the loral 

 streak and orliital ring pure white ; while in an aditlt male (autunmal, how- 

 ever) from the East Humboldt ilountains (Xe\-ada, No. 53,354, U. S. Geol. 

 Expl., 40th par.) the yellow is restricted to a medial strip, even the sides 

 of the throat being ashy ; the asli invades the back too, almost to the rump, 

 while in Eastern specimens it extends no farther back than the nape. A 

 male (No. 10,656, J. Xantus) from Fort Tejon, Cal., is mucli like the Ne- 

 vada specimen, though the peculiar features of the remote Western form are 

 less exaggerated ; it is about intermediate between tlie other sifecimen and 

 the specimens from Chicago. . As tiiere is not, unfortunately, a sufficiently 

 large series of these birds before us, we cannot say to what extent these 

 variations with longitude are constant. 



Habits. The Nashville Warbler apjiears to be a species of somewhat 

 irregular occurrence ; at one time it will be rather abundant, though never 

 very numerous, and at another time comparatively rare. For a long while our 

 older naturalists regarded it as a very rare species, and knew nothing as to 

 its habits or distribution. Wilson, who first met with it in 1811, never foimd 

 more than three specimens, which he procured near Nashville, Tenn. Audu- 

 bon only met with three or four, and these he obtained in Louisiana and 

 Kentucky. These and a few others in Titian Peale's collection, supposed to 

 have beeit obtained in Pennsylvania, were all he ever saw. Mr. Nuttall at 

 first regarded it as very rare, and as a Southern species. In that writer's later 

 edition he speaks of it as a bird luuing a Novtliern distribution as far as 

 Labrador. I )r. Richardson records the occurrence of a single straggler in the 

 fur cotmtry. So far as known, it occurs as a migrant in all the States 

 east of the Missouri, and is a summer resident north of the 40th parallel. 

 It probably breeds in the high ground of Pennsylvania, though this fact is 

 inferred rather than known. It breeds in Connecticut and Massachusetts, 

 and in Maine in the vicinity of Calais, being more alntndant there than any- 

 where else, as far as has been ascertained. 



Two individuals of this species have been taken in Greenland : one at 

 Godbhaab, in 1835 ; and the other at Fiskenajsset, August 31, 1840. 



