588 inST(fRY OF THE 



Sylvania pusilla (Wils.). 



WILSON'S WARBLER. 

 PLATE XXXIII. 



Migratory; common. Arrive the last of April to the first of 

 May; begin to return the last of August; leave in September. 



B. 213. E. 125. C. 147. G. 61, 301. U. 685. 



Habitat. Eastern and northern North America; north to 

 Hudson's Bay Territory and Alaska; west to and including the 

 Rocky Mountains (replaced on the Pacific coast north to south- 

 ern Alaska by 8. pusilla pileolata); breeding from the northern 

 United States, and in the higher Rocky Mountains south, north- 

 ward to the Arctic coast; south in winter, through eastern Mex- 

 ico, into southern Central America. 



Sp. Char. "Forehead, line over and around the eye, and under parts gener- 

 ally, bright yellow. Upper parts olive green; a square patch on the crown lus- 

 trous black. Sides of body aud cheeks tinged with olive. No white on wings 

 or tall. Female similar, the black of the crown replaced by olive green." 



Young: In first autumn, without the black on crown; other- 

 wise similar. 



Iris dark brown; bill — upper dusky, under pale; legs, feet 

 and claws pale brown; bottoms of feet greenish yellow. 



This little black-capped beauty frequents the thickets and 

 undergrowths in open woods, preferring for its haunts the wil- 

 lows and small cotton woods fringing the streams, where it hops 

 restlessly about among the branches, not in the prying, peeping 

 manner of the worm-eating Warblers, but rather upon the look- 

 out for winged insects, which it catches largely upon the wing. 

 darting off to snap a beetle from a leaf or to chase a fly; a 

 pretty, graceful bird, that in its movements hops and glides 

 about with scarcely any of the usual fussy, jerky motions of its 

 genus. In their northward flights, the males enliven the air with 

 their short, soft, pleasing song, which Nuttall says resembles 

 "'Tsh-'tsh-'tsh-'tshea;" to my ear it sounds more hke "Zee- 

 zee-zee-zee-e. " But it is impossible to convey in words or notes 

 the life-like, thrilling melody of song. I care not how low or 



