326 MARYLAND YELLOW-THROAT. 



or last week, of April, and begins to build its nest about the 

 middle of May: this is fixed on the ground, among the dried 

 leaves, in the very depth of a thicket of briars, sometimes 

 arched over, and a small hole left for entrance; the materials are 

 dry leaves and fine grass; lined with coarse hair; the eggs are 

 five, white, or semi-transparent, marked with specks of reddish 

 brown. The young leave the nest about the twenty-second of 

 June; and a second brood is often raised in the same season. 

 Early in September they leave us, returning to the south. 



This pretty little species is four inches and three quarters 

 long, and six inches and a quarter in extent; back, wings, and 

 tail, green olive, which also covers the upper part of the neck, 

 but approaches to cinereous on the crown; the eyes are inserted 

 in a band of black, which passes from the front, on both sides, 

 reaching half way down the neck; this is bounded above by an- 

 other band of white deepening into light blue; throat, breast, and 

 vent brilliant yellow; belly a fainter tinge of the same colour; 

 inside coverts of the wings also yellow; tips and inner vanes of 

 the wings dusky brown; tail cuneiform, dusky, edged with 

 olive-green; bill black, straight, slender, of the true Motacilla 

 form; though the bird itself was considered as a species of 

 Thrush by Linnaeus, but very properly removed to the genus 

 Motacilla by Gmelin; legs flesh coloured; iris of the eye dark 

 hazel. The female wants the black band through the eye, has 

 the bill brown, and the throat of a much paler yellow. This 

 last, I have good reason to suspect, has been described by Eu- 

 ropeans as a separate species; and that from Louisiana, referred 

 to in the synonymes, appears evidently the same as the former, 

 the chief difference, according to Buffon, being in its wedged 

 tail, which is likewise the true form of our own species; so that 

 this error corrected will abridge the European nomenclature of 

 two species. Many more examples of this kind will occur in 

 the course of our descriptions. 



