BAY-BREASTED WARBLER. I77 



broad ; the whole back, hind head and rump is a fine light slate color ; 

 the tail is somewhat forked, black, and edged with light slate ; the wings 

 are also black, the three shortest secondaries broadly edged with light 

 blue ; all the wing quills are slightly edged with the same ; the first row 

 of wing coverts are tipped and edged with white, the second wholly 

 white, or nearly so ; the frontlet, ear feathers, lores, and above the tem- 

 ple, are black ; the line between the eye and nostril, whole throat and 

 middle of the breast brilliant golden yellow ; the lower eyelid, line 

 over the eye, and spot hehind the ear feathers, as well as the whole 

 lower parts, are pure white; the yellow on the throat is bordered 

 with touches of black, which also extend along the sides under the 

 wings ; the bill is black, and faithfully represented in the figure ; the 

 legs and feet yellowish brown ; the claws extremely fine pointed ; the 

 tongue rather cartilaginous, and lacerated at the end. The female has 

 the wings of a dingy brown, and the whole colors, particularly the yel- 

 low on the throat, much duller ; the young birds of the first season are 

 without the yellow. 



Species VIII. SYLVIA CASTANEA. 



BAY-BREASTED WARBLER. 



[Plate XIV. Fig. 4.] 

 Parus per egr inns, the little Chocolate-breasted Titmouse, Bartram, p. 292. 



This very rare species passes through Pennsylvania about the begin- 

 ning of May, and soon disappears. It has many of the habits of the 

 Titmouse, and all their activity ; hanging among the extremity of the 

 twigs, and darting about from place to place, with restless diligence, in 

 search of various kinds of the larvae of insects. It is never seen here 

 in summer, and very rarely on its return, owing, no doubt, to the 

 greater abundance of foliage at that time, and to the silence and 

 real scarcity of the species. Of its nest and eggs we are altogether 

 uninformed. 



The length of this bird is five inches, breadth eleven ; throat, breast, 

 and sides under the wings, pale chestnut or bay ; forehead, cheeks, line 

 over, and strip through the eye, black ; crown deep chestnut ; lower 

 parts dull yellowish white ; hind head and back streaked with black on a 

 grayish buff ground ; wings brownish black, crossed with two bars of white ; 

 tail forked, brownish black, edged with ash, the three exterior feathers 

 marked with a spot of white on their inner edges ; behind the eye is a 

 broad oblong spot of yellowish white. The female has much less of 



Vol. II.— 12 



