THE BLUE-WINGED YELLOW WARBLER. 213 



Description. 



Upper parts and cheeks olive-green, brightest on the rump; the wings, tail, and 

 upper tail coverts, in part, bluish-gray; an intensely black patch fi-om the blue- 

 black bill to the eye, continued a short distance behind it; crown, except behind, 

 and the under parts generally, rich orange-yellow ; the inner wing and under tail 

 coverts white; eyelids, and a short line above and behind the eye, brighter yellow; 

 wing with two white bands ; two outer tail feathers with most of the inner web, 

 third one with a spot at the end white. Female and young similar, duller, with 

 more olivaceous on the crown. 



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

 dredths inches ; tail, two and ten one-hundredths inches. 



This species is also very rare in New England. In 1857, 

 in the month of May, about the 12th or 15th, I found a 

 small flock in a swamp in Dedham, Mass. They were 

 actively employed in catching flying insects, and were so 

 little mistrustful, that they permitted me to approach quite 

 near, and observe their motions. I noticed nothing pecu- 

 liar in them ; but they had all the activity and industry of 

 the true arboreal Warblers. I know nothing of their breed- 

 ing habits, and will give the description by Wilson of the 

 nest and eggs. He says, — 



" This bird has been mistaken for the Pine Creeper of Catesby. 

 It is a very different species. It comes to us early in May from 

 the South ; haunts thickets and shrubberies, searching the branches 

 for insects ; is fond of visiting gardens, orchards, and willow-trees, 

 of gleaning among blossoms and currant-bushes ; and is frequently 

 found in very sequestered woods, where it generally builds its nest. 

 This is fixed in a thick bunch or tussock of long grass, sometimes 

 sheltered by a brier bush. It is built in the form of an inverted 

 cone or funnel, the bottom thickly bedded with dry beech-leaves, 

 the sides formed of the dry bark of strong weeds lined within with 

 fine, dry grass. These materials are not placed in the usual 

 manner, circularly, but shelving downwards on all sides from the 

 top ; the mouth being wide, the bottom very narrow, filled with 

 leaves, and the eggs or young occupying the middle. The female 

 lays five eggs, pure-white, with a few very faint dots of reddish 

 near the great end ; the young appear the first week in June. I 

 am not certain whether they raise a second brood in the same 

 season. 



" I have met with several of these nests, always in a retired 

 though open part of the woods, and very similar to each other," 



