622 



HOODED WARDLEH, 



^-^^ 



Fig. 101. Hcadnml I'Utur 

 tailfeather of adult male lIomkMl 

 Warbler in spring. 



SYLVANIA MiTRATA. 



Hooded Warbler 



DESCRIPTION. 



Size, medium. Tail feathers sr"'ttcd with white. Coum. Adult male. Almvc olive green. Fine- 

 head, sides of head, and lower parts, including under tail cov'ert.s, gamhnge yellow, '[\q^ nf head to Lack cf 

 neck, extending down to throat and upper breast, black. Wings, brown with the feathers greenish edged. 

 tail brown, with the feathers greenish, edged with a white spot on inner web of outer, iccupying two thirds of- 



its terminal length, extending along vein e.xce]iting for a small S])ace 

 to tip. A spot on the second feather is of a similar form but shorter 

 and the third is also similar but still shorter. Fen>ales similar but 

 jialer and with the black markings less extended or occasionally ab- 

 sent. Young, similar to the female, but are usually without the 

 black on the head. Autumnal adults do not differ gi-eatly from the 

 spring dress but the black feathers of the throatare tijipcd with yel- 

 low, 



OBSEllVATlOMS. 

 Adults may be at once distinguished by the black hood. The 

 young without this may be known from the Canadian Warblers of 

 the same age by the yellow, not white under tail coverts and white- 

 spots on the tail Breeds from Southern Connecticut through New- 

 York, west to Iowa and southward. Winters in Eastern Mexico and 

 Southern Central America; accidental in CuT)a and Jamaica. 



DIMENSIONS. 

 Length, from -j.iio to .J.-J5 ; strx^ch, Z.'JO to 8.25 ; wing, 2..50to 2.O.") ; tail, O.oO to 2.oij; bill,.;]« to .40 ;, 

 tarsus, .75 to .78. 



DESCRIPTION OF NESTS AND EGGS. 

 Nests, placed in low bushes usually in swamps. Composed of leaves, fine bark of plants and vines and 

 grasses, lined with finer material. Eoas. usually four, occasionally three or five in number, oval in form., 

 white in color, spotted and sprinkled around the larger end with reddish brown and pale lilac. Dimensions, 

 .70 by .50, to .35 by .75. 



HABITS. 

 Tills l^eautiful Ijinl is always associated in the minds of all collectors who have seew 

 it, with the mountain laural. for wherever this shrub grows, naturally the Hooded War- 

 bler is found, from Southern Connecticut, south and west. It appeared at Wilhamsport, 

 Pennsylvania, on May 11th, 187B, and iustantly attracted my attention by its loud, clear 

 sonw which it utters constantly all day long, aud which reminded me somewhat of the 

 song of the Water Thrush. The alarm note is a sharp, low chirp. The birds were always- 

 found in swampy thickets of laural along the mountain valleys. 



In the autumn of the previous year I found them more scattered, but always iu 

 swampy thickets at Watsmitown, where I procured specimens from Septeml)er (1th until 

 the 18th. All members of this genus ( Sylvania ) in migrating appear to avoid tlie South 

 Eastern section of the United States, but pass west to their winters home in Mexico and 

 southward, hence are very commonly observed in Florida and the West Indies. It 

 has occurred to me that the migration of birds, which is often different in dillereiit genera,, 

 may, if carefully studied, furnish a clew to the origin of species. 



