340 S YS TEMA TIC S YNOPSIS. — PA SSERES — OSCIXES. 



WILSO'NIA. (To Alexander Wilson, " father of American Ornithology.") Fly-catching 

 Warblers. Bill Muscicapine, though with lateral outlines a little concave, broad and depressed 

 at base, with many obvious rictal bristles reaching decidedly beyond nostrils ; culmen and 

 commissure nearly straight. Wings pointed, as in most MniotiltidcB, longer than tail ; 1st quill 

 longer than 5th, 3d equalling or exceeding 4th. Tail narrow, even or little rounded. Middle 

 toe without claw about f as long as tarsus. Tail unmarked, or with white blotches as iu I)en- 

 droeca. No red or flame-color; always yellow below. Comprehends three species, well dis- 

 tinguished among Mniotiltidce by development of rictal bristles and depressed shape of bill, 

 though these Muscicapine characters are not pushed to the extreme seen in Setophaga. Nest 

 on the ground, as in the genera Geotlihjpis, Helminthophila, etc. (except in case of mitratra) ; 

 eggs white, marked after the usual fashion of Warblers'. (Genus Myiodioctes Aud., 1839, of 

 most writers, as of all previous eds. of the Key ; Mijioetonus Cab., 1850 ; Wilsonia Bp., 1838 ; 

 not Sylvania Nuttall, 1832, which is a mere synonym of Setophaga, including the Redstart, 

 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, aud several species of the present genus, but untenable for any of 

 these, though misused for them by various authors, and so by the A. 0. U., 1886-95 : see 

 COUES, Auk, Apr. 1897, pp. 223, 224, where the error is exposed, aud Wilsonia shown to 

 be the proper name : see also CouES, Bull. Nutt. Club, 1880, p. 95. Wilsonia was adopted 

 by the A. 0. U. iu its Ninth Suppl. List, Auk, Jan. 1899, p. 123.) 



Analysis of Species. 



Olive and yellow ; tail-feathers white-blotched mitrata 



Olive aud yellow ; tail-feathers plain pusilla 



Ashy-blue and yeUow ; tail-feathers plain canadensis 



Note. — The "small-headed flycatcher, yfuscicnpa minii/a" of Wils., Nutt., Aud., etc. (nee Gm., 17SS), conjec- 

 tured to belong to this genus, continues to be unknown. Its whole record is a tissue of surmises : for the synonj-my, see 

 CouES, Birds Col. Valley, i, 1878, p. 32G, aud add : Sylcania microcephala Ridgw., Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus., viii, 1SS5, p. 354 ; 

 Man., 1887, p. 527; A. O. XJ. Hypothetical List, No. 25. There certainly was such a bird, for Wilson figured it, and he 

 never drew upon his imagination ; but we do not recognize his plate, nor that of Audubon. The mysterious bird has been 

 claimed for New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, and Kentucky. I have long believed it to be the Pine- 

 creepmg Warbler, Dendrceca vigorsi: see Key, orig. ed., 1872, p. 109. 



W. mitra'ta. (Lat. mitrata, wearing a mitre, or other head-dress. Fig. 197.) Hooded 

 Fly-catciiix(i Warbler. Selby's Sylvan Flycatcher. Adult ^: Clear yellow-olive 

 above ; below, rich yellow, shaded with olive along sides ; 

 whole head and neck pure black, enclosing a broad golden 

 (l^^;^^^^^^ mask across forehead and through eyes; wings unmarked, 

 glossed with olive ; tail with large white blotches on 2 or 3 

 outer pairs of feathers, as in Dendrceca ; bill black ; feet flesh- 

 colored. Length 5.00-5.50; extent about 8.50; wing 2.50- 

 2.75 ; tail about 2.25. Adult 9 and young $ : The black re- 

 stricted or interrupted, if not wholly wanting, as it is in the 

 eai-lier stages, when the parts concerned are simply colored 

 Fig. 197. — Hooded Warbler, nat. to correspond with the upper and under surfaces of the bird, 

 size. (Ad. nat. del. E. c.) j^^^j ^.^j^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^ perfected till the 3d year, and to be finally 



acquired, in fulness of its extent if not in purity of the black, l)y the 9 • Eastern N. Am., 

 strictly, W. only to the edge of the PLiins, N. regularly to the Connecticut Valley, some por- 

 tions of New York, southern Ontario, and southern Michigan ; migratory ; breeds at large in 

 its U. S. range ; winters extralimital in some of the West Indies, eastern Mexico, and Central 

 America. A lovely bird, reminding one of the Kentucky Warbler, common in the South in 

 such brakes and bottoms as the Kentucky haunts, rarer northward. Nest in bushes ; eggs 3-4, 

 about 0.70 X 0..50, as usual white, sprinkled with reddish-brown, neutral gray, and sometimes 

 darker spots and dots, chiefly about the larger ends. 



