THE MOURNING WARBLER. 207 



Iii the woods, this species is more often found in low 

 thickets in or near wet, swampy localities, and is very sel- 

 dom seen in high, dry, heavily wooded countries. It seems 

 to prefer the neighborhood of human habitations for its 

 home, and its genial disposition and beneficial habits have 

 established it as a great favorite with the farmers. 



As soon as the last brood of young leaves the nest, the 

 old birds become silent ; and, by the middle of September, 

 the whole family leave for the South. 



GEOTHLTPIS PHILADELPHIA. Baird. 

 The Mourning "Warbler. 



Sylvia Philadelphia, Wilson. Am. Orn., II. (1810) 101. Aud. Orn. Biog., V. 

 (1839) 78. Nutt. Man., I. (1832) 404. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Wings but little longer than the tail, reaching but little beyond its base ; head 

 and neck all round, with throat and fore part of breast, ash-gray, paler beneath; the 

 feathers of the chin, throat, and fore breast in reality black, but with narrow ashy 

 margins, more or less concealing the black, except on the breast; lores and region 

 round the eye dusky, without any trace of a pale ring ; upper parts and sides of the 

 body clear olive-green ; the under parts bright-yellow ; tail feathers uniform olive ; 

 first primary, witli the outer half of the outer web, nearly white. Female, with the 

 gray of the crown glossed with olive ; the chin and throat paler centrally, and tinged 

 with fulvous; a dull whitish ring round the eye. 



Length, five and fifty one-hundredths inches ; wing, two and forty-five one-hun- 

 dredths inches ; tail, two and twenty-five one-hundredths inches. 



This bird is very rarely found in New England. It has 

 been taken in all these States, but in such small numbers 

 that it can hardly be called one of our birds. Mr. Allen 

 shot two ; I have taken but one ; and Mr. Verrill gives one 

 or two instances of its being taken in Maine. The specimen 

 that I captured had all the motions and habits of the Mary- 

 land Yellow-throat; and I neglected to shoot it for some 

 time, supposing it to be the female of that bird. Its note 

 was a simple chirp, with a warbling termination like the 

 syllables chirpchreee, chirpchreee, uttered in a soft, pensive 

 tone. Of its breeding habits, nest, and eggs, I am ignorant. 



