154 PASSERES. — TURDID.E. 



BLUE YELLOW-BACK WARBLER.* 



Parula Americana. 



Parus AmericatmSy Linn. 



Si/Ivia Americana^ Lath. — Aud. pi. 15. 



Sylvia p usilla, W I L s. 



Parula Americana, Bonap. 



This pretty little species, so mucli in habits and 

 appearance like the European Tits, arrives in 

 Jamaica early in September, and retires late in 

 April, for we last saw it on the 20th. During 

 the autumn and winter it was among the most 

 common of our warblers. In the morasses, espe- 

 cially, they were to be seen in numbers, yet not in 

 company, making the sombre mangrove-woods lively, 

 if not vocal. They are active and restless, hopping 

 perpendicularly up the slender boles, and about the 

 twigs, peeping into the bases of the leaves, and 

 crevices of the bark, for insects. 



The female, identified by dissection, has all the 

 colours paler, but agrees with the male in their 

 variety and distribution. Individuals, however, were 

 found in September, which had the blue plumage 

 of the head and of the rump, tipped with yellow, 

 imparting a green tinge to those parts. 



* Length 4^ inches, expanse 7, flexure 2^, tail 1^, rictus y^, tarsus 

 ^, middle toe ^. 



