FEMALE CCERULEAN WARBLER. 237 



a distance. It utters a sharp piercing cry, which is often repeated, 

 especially when on the wing, though Mr. Peale assures us, that our 

 individual uttered no cry. Like its closely related species, it does not 

 attack small birds, except for the purpose of driving them from its favor- 

 ite food, which consists of hemipterous insects, chiefly of the Ciryllus 

 and 3Iantis genera, as well as other insects, and some reptiles. In the 

 stomach of our specimen, however, Mr. Peale found, besides the usual 

 food, fragments of an Arvicola hisjndus, and one or two feathers appa- 

 rently of a Sparrow : but it is not a cowardly bird, as might be sus- 

 pected from its affinity to the Kites, and from its insignificant prey, 

 since it successfully attacks Crows, Shrikes, and even the more timid 

 birds of its own genus, compelling them to quit its favorite haunts, 

 which it guards with a vigilant eye. They build in the bifurcation of 

 U'ees. The nest is broad and shallow, lined internally with moss and 

 feathers. The female is stated to lay four or five eggs ; the nestlings 

 at first are covered with down of a reddish-gray color. 



The African species is said to diffuse a musky odor, which is retained 

 even after the skin is prepared for the Museum : but we are inclined to 

 believe, that it is in the latter state only that it possesses this quality. 

 Mr, Peale did not observe any such odor in the bird he shot, but being 

 obliged, for want of better food, to make his dinner of it in the woods, 

 found it not unpalatable. 



SYLVIA AZURE A. 



FEMALE CCERULEAN WARBLER.* 



[Plate XI. Fig. 2.] 



Sylvia azurea, Stephens, cont. Siiaa^^'s Zool. x., p. 653. Nob. Obs. Jour. Ac. Nat. 

 Sc. Ph. IV., p. 193, Male. — Si/lvia bifasciaia, Say, in Long'^s Exp. to the Rocky 

 Mountains, i., p. 170, Male. 



The merit of having discovered this bird, is entirely due to the Peale 

 family, whose exertions have contributed so largely to extend the limits 

 of Natural History. The male, which he has accurately described, and 

 figured, was made known to Wilson by the late venerable Charles Wil- 

 son Peale, who alone, and unaided, accomplished an enterprise, in the 

 formation of the Philadelphia Museum, that could hardly have been 

 exceeded under the fostering hand of the most powerful government. 



* See Wilson's American Ornithology^ Coerulean Warbler, Sylvia coerulea, Vol. 

 II., p. 189, PI. 17, fig. 5, for the Male. 



