372 WORM-EATING WARBLER. 



at the tip; the breast is most strongly tinged with the orange 

 buff; vent waved with dusky olive; bill blackish above, flesh 

 coloured below; legs and feet a pale clay colour; eye dark hazel. 

 The female differs very little in colour from the male. 



On this species Mr. Pennant makes the following remarks. 

 " Does not appear in Pennsylvania till July in its passage 

 " northward. Does not return the same way; but is supposed 

 " to go beyond the mountains which lie to the west. This seems 

 " to be the case with all the transient vernal visitants of Penn- 

 " sylvania."* That a small bird should permit the whole spring 

 and half of the summer to pass away before it thought of " pass- 

 ing to the north to breed," is a circumstance one should think 

 would have excited the suspicion of so discerning a naturalist 

 as the author of Arctic Zoology, as to its truth. I do not know 

 that this bird breeds to the northward of the United States. As 

 to their returning home by "the country beyond the moun- 

 tains," this must doubtless be for the purpose of finishing the 

 education of their striplings here, as is done in Europe, by 

 making the grand tour. This by the by would be a much more 

 convenient retrograde route for the ducks and geese; as, like 

 the Kentuckians, they could take advantage of the current of 

 the Ohio and Mississippi, to float down to the southward. Un- 

 fortunately however for this pretty theory, all our vernal visi- 

 tants with which I am acquainted, are contented to plod home 

 by the same regions through which they advanced; not even 

 excepting the geese. 



* Arct. Zool. p. 406. 



