SYLVICOLID^ — THE WARBLERS. 207 



of a reddish-brown, and a few of a purplish-slate. They are of an oblong- 

 oval shape, and measure .68 by .50 of an inch. 



A nest from near Springfield, Mass., obtained by Professor Horsford, the 

 parent bird having been secured, was built in a low clump of bushes, just 

 above the ground. It is well made, woven of fine hempen fibres of vege- 

 tables, slender stems of grass, delicate mosses, and other like materials, and 

 very thoroughly lined with hair. It measures two and three fourths inches 

 in diameter and two in height. The cavity is two inches wide and one and 

 three fourths deep. The eggs measure .60 by .50 of an inch, are oblong- 

 oval in shape, their ground-color a pearly wliite, marked in a corona, about 

 the larger end, with brown and purplish-brown spots. 



Genus PARULA, Bonap. 



Chloris, BoiE, Isis, 1826, 972 (not of Moehring, 1752). (Type, Parus americanus .) 

 Sylvicola, Swainsox, Zool. Journ. Ill, July, 1827, 169. (Not of Humphrey, Mus. Calon- 



nianum, 1797, 60 ; genus of land mollusks.) (Same type.) 

 Panda, Bonap. Geog. & Comp. List, 1838. (Same type.) 

 Compsothlypis, Cabanis, Mus. Hein. 1850, 1851, 20. (Same type.) 



Gen. Char. In the species of this genus the bill is conical and acute ; the culmen 

 very gently curved from the base; the commissure shghtly concave. The notch when 

 visible is further from the tip than in Dendroica, but usually is either obsolete or entirely 

 v^'anting. Bristles weak. The tarsi are longer than the middle toe. The tail is nearly 

 even, and considerably shorter than the wing. Color, blue above, with a triangular patch 

 of green on the back ; anterior lower parts yellow. 



Two species — one with three varieties — of this genus, as lately restricted, 

 are known in America, only one, however, has as yet been detected within 

 the limits of the United States. They may be distinguished as follows : — 



P. americana. Eyelids white. Yellow beneath restricted to anterior half. 



Two white bands on wing ; a dusky collar across the jugulum. Hah. East- 

 ern Province of United States, south to Guatemala ; Bahamas ; Cuba ; 

 Jamaica; St. Croix ; St. Thomas. 

 P. pitiayunii. Eyelids dusky. Yellow beneath, extending back along sides to 

 the crissum. 



Two white hands on iving. 



Above plumbeous-blue ; lores and eyelids deep black. Abdomen wholly 

 yellow. Wing, 2.20 ; tail, L75. Hah. South America from Bogota to 

 Paraguay .......... \a.\\ pitiay umi }. 



Above ashy-blue ; lores and eyelids scarcely darker. Abdomen wholly 

 white. Wing, 2.35 ; tail, 2.05. Hah. Tres Marias Islands, Western Mex- 

 ico ........... var. insular is r 



1 Sylvia pitiay^imi, Vieill. Nouv. Diet. II, 1816, 276. Panda 2>it. Sclat. Catal. 26, no. 

 165. — Baird, Rev. Am. Birds, I, 1865, 170. 

 ^ Parvla insidaris, Lawk. Ann. N. Y. Lye. X, Feb. 1871. 



