158 FEMALE GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER. 



really similar in both sexes ; but in the female the colors are paler, and 

 green prevails on those parts which, in the male, are of a dark slate 

 color. 



The female of the Golden-winged Warbler is four and a half inches 

 long. The bill is blackish, straight, entire, rounded, and gradually 

 tapering to a sharp point. The feet are brownish-ash ; the irides dark- 

 brown. The front is golden-yellow, the top of the head bright olive- 

 yellow ; the back of the head, and superior parts of the neck and body, 

 are of a pale plumbeous hue, the feathers being tipped witK yellow-olive, 

 more particularly on the rump ; the superior tail coverts are pure pale 

 plumbeous. A wide slate-colored stripe passes through the eye from 

 the bill and dilates on the cheeks ; this is margined by a white line 

 above the eye, and by a wider one on each side of the throat. The 

 throat is of a pale slate-color, becoming still paler on the breast. The 

 remaining under parts are whitish, occasionally tinged with yellow, and 

 with slate-color on the flanks. The wings are of the same color as the 

 back, but somewhat darker, and are crossed by two wide bands of bright 

 yellow, formed by the tips of the first and second rows of wing coverts. 

 The primaries are dusky, margined on the exterior web with pale, and 

 on the inner broadly with white. The secondaries are broadly margined 

 with yellow-olive on the outer web, and with white on the inner web. 

 The tail is nearly even at tip, of a dusky plumbeous color ; the three 

 lateral feathers have a large pure white spot on the inner web. 



This last essential character also exists in the male, though Wilson 

 has not mentioned it. As to the manners and habits of the species, 

 he has given us no information, except that it is rare, and remains only 

 a few days in Pennsylvania. He says nothing of the female, and 

 Vieillot never saw it. 



We regret that we are unacquainted with the form of its nest, and the 

 peculiarity of its song. We can only state that, during its short stay 

 in Pennsylvania, it is solitary and silent, gleaning amongst the branches 

 of trees, and creeping much after the manner of the Titmouse, with its 

 head frequently downwards, in pursuit of larvae and insects, which 

 constitute exclusively the food of this species. 



Wilson was impressed with the opinion that the shape of the bill 

 would justify the formation of a distinct sub-genus, which would include 

 this bird, the Sylvia vermivora, and some other species. In this opinion 

 Cuvier has coincided, by forming his sub-genus Bacnis, which he places 

 under his extensive genus Cassicus, remarking that they form the pas- 

 sage to Motacilla. This sub-genus we shall adopt, but we differ from 

 Cuvier by arranging it under Syhna ; it will then form the transition 

 to the more slender-billed Ictei-i. Temminck and Vieillot have arranjred 

 them also under Sylvia ; the latter author, in the (French) New Diction- 

 ary of Natural History, gives them the name of Pitpits ; and it is most 



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