l68 SINGING BIRDS. 



WILSON'S WARBLER. 



WILSON'S BLACK CAP. 



Sylvania pusilla. 



Char. Above, olive ; crown black ; forehead, cheeks, and entire 

 under parts yellow. Female and young duller, and black cap often 

 obscure, sometimes lacking. Length, 4^ to 5 inches. 



Nest. On the ground, in a bushy swamp, or on branch of low bush ; 

 of twigs and vegetable fibre lined with moss or fine grass. 



Eggs. 4-6 ; white spotted with brown and lavender ; 0.60 X 0.50. 



This remarkable species of sylvan Flycatcher was first ob- 

 serv'ed by Wilson in New Jersey and Delaware as a transitory 

 bird of passage. i\udubon has noticed it in I>abrador and 

 Newfoundland, where it was breeding, and it is not uncommon 

 in the State of Maine. He also saw it in his way to Texas 

 early in x\pril. It begins to migrate from Newfoundland about 

 the middle of August, and is seen in Maine in October. Mr. 

 Townsend and myself had the pleasure of observing the arrival 

 of the little cheerful songsters in the wilds of Oregon about the 

 first week of May, where these birds commonly take up their 

 summer residence, and seem almost the counterpart of our 

 brilliant and cheerful Yellow Birds {Sylvia cEstiva), tuning 

 their lay to the same brief and lively ditty, like ^tsh Ush 'tsh 

 tshea, or something similar ; their call, however, is more brief 



