194 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



leaves, dry grasses, and fibrous roots. Dr. Gerliardt informed me that these 

 birds usually build on or near the ground, under tussocks of grass, in clumps 

 of bushes, or pine-brush, and that they lay from four to five eggs, from the 

 6th to the 15th of May. 



The eggs of this species are of a beautiful, clear crystal-white, with a few 

 bright reddish-brown spots around the larger end. Eggs from Eacine, Wis., 

 and from Northern Georgia, differ greatly in their relative size. The for- 

 mer measure .70 of an inch in length and .53 in breadth ; the latter, .63 

 by .49. 



A single specimen of this species was obtained by Mr. Salvin, at Choctum, 

 in Guatemala. 



Helminthophaga bachmani, Caban. 



BACHMAN'S WARBLER. 



Sylvia backmani, AuD. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 48-3, pi. clxxxiii. Sylvicola h. EicH. Vcrmi- 

 vora h. Bon. Helinaia b. AuD. Syn. Birds Am. II, 1841, 93, pi. cviii. — Lembeye, 

 Av. Cuba, 1850, 36, pi. vi. lig. 1. Hehnitherits b. Bon. Helminth(rphaga b. Cab. 

 Jour, ill, 1855, 475 (Cuba, in winter). — Baiud, Birds N. Am. 1858, 255; Eev. 175. 

 — GUNDLACH, Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba, rare) ; Repert. 65, 232. 



Sp. Char. Above olive-green, as also are the sides of the head and neck. Hind 

 head tinged with ash. A broad patch on the forehead, bordered behind by black ; chin, 

 stripe from this along the side of the throat, and the entire under parts, deep yellow. 

 Throat and forepart of breast black. A patch on the inner we6 of the outer two tail- 

 feathers near the end white. Length, 4..50 ; wing, 2.35; tail, 2.05. Feviale \viih. merely 

 a patch of dusky on the jugulum, and with the black bar on vertex obsolete. 



Hab. Coast of South Carolina and Georgia ; Cuba in winter. 



Habits. Bachman's Warbler is a comparatively new and but little known 

 species of this interesting group. It was first discovered, July, 1833, by llev. 

 Dr. John Bachman, a few miles from Charleston, S. C, and in the same vi- 

 cinity he afterwards discovered a few^ others of both sexes. He described it 

 as a lively, active bird, gliding among the branches of the thick bushes, occa- 

 sionally mounting on the wing and seizing insects in the air, in the manner 

 of a Flycatcher. The individual first obtained was an old female Mdiich 

 had, to all appearances, just reared a brood of young. With this partial ex- 

 ception, nothing is known in relation to. its habits. As all the species of this 

 genus, without any at present known exception, construct their nests upon 

 the ground, it is a natural inference that it probably nests in a similar situa- 

 tion. 



The Smithsonian Institution possesses but a single specimen of this bird, 

 obtained near Charleston, S. C. It was not observed by any naturalist of 

 the several governmental exploring expeditions, and, so far as we are at 

 present informed, its only known places of abode are South Carolina and 

 Cuba, where it is extremely rare. Its nest and eggs still remain unknown. 



