Species XXIX, SYLVIA PUSILLA. 



BLUE YELLOW-BACK WARBLER. 



[Plate XXVIII. Fig. 3.] 



Parus Americanus, Linn. Si/st. 341. — Finch Creeper, Catesb. i., 64. — Latham, ii., 

 558. — Creeping Titmouse, Arct. Zool. 423, No. 326. — Parus varius, Various- 

 colored little Finch Creeper, Bartram, p. 292.* 



Notwithstanding the respectability of the above authorities, I must 

 continue to consider this bird as a species of Warbler. Its habits 

 indeed partake something of the Titmouse ; but the form of its bill is 

 decisively that of the Sylvia genus. It is remarkable for frequenting 

 the tops of the tallest trees, where it feeds on the small v?inged insects 

 and caterpillars that infest the young leaves and blossoms. It has a 

 few feeble chirrupping notes, scarcely loud enough to be heard at the 

 foot of the tree. It visits Pennsylvania from the south, early in May ; 

 is very abundant in the woods of Kentucky ; and is also found in the 

 northern parts of the state of New York. Its nest I have never yet 

 met with. 



This little species is four inches and a half long, and six inches and 

 a half in breadth ; the front, and between the bill and eyes, is black ; 

 the upper part of the head and neck a fine Prussian blue ; upper part 

 of the back brownish yellow, lower and rump pale blue ; wings and tail 

 black, the former crossed with two bars of white, and edged with blue ; 

 the latter marked on the inner webs of the three exterior feathers with 

 white, a circumstance common to a great number of the genus ; imme- 

 diately above and below the eye is a small touch of white ; the upper 

 mandible is black, the lower, as well as the whole throat and breast, 

 rich yellow, deepening about its middle to orange red, and marked on 

 the throat with a small crescent of black ; on the edge of the breast is 

 a slight touch of rufous ; belly and vent white ; legs dark brown ; feet 

 dirty yellow. The female wants both the black and orange on the 

 throat and breast ; the blue on the upper parts is also of a duller tint. 



* Partis Americanus, Linn. Syst. Ed. 10, i., p. 190. — Gmel. Syst. i., p. 1007. — 

 Lath. Ind. Orn. ii., p. 571. — Motacilla americana, Gmel. Syst. i., 960. — Sylvia 

 americana, Ind. Orn. ii., p. 520. — Motacilla ludoviciana, Gmel. Syst. i., p. 983. — 

 Sylvia ludoviciana, Lath. Ind. Orn. ii., p. 535. — Figuier cendr4 de la Caroline^ 

 Buff. PL Enl. 731, f. 1. — Sylvia torquata, Vieill. Ois. de I' Am. Sept. pi. 99. 



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