MNIOTILTIDAE 5/3 



nest, made of grass, moss, roots, and fibres, occasionally has a 

 projecting porch, and is 

 frequently lined with down 

 or feathers ; the two to 

 four eggs being white or 

 greenish-blue, with dull-red 

 or yellowish-brown blotches 

 or specks. In the Antilles 

 Certhiola weaves a domed 

 structure of similar mate- 

 rials, hair, and Spiders' FIG. 138. Sugar-bird. Certhwlaftaveola. 

 webs, between the outer- 

 most twigs of bushes. Many nests are built without being used. 



The coloration varies from black, grey, or purplish, relieved 

 by rufous and white, to brilliant blue, purple, or green, with the 

 quills only black, or with further yellow, chestnut, and excep- 

 tionally scarlet, decorations. Uniform black, or olive and brown 

 hues are unusual, save in females, which, however, are often 

 bright green, with the addition of a little blue or yellow. 



Fam. XXXII. Mniotiltidae. The "American Warblers," 

 almost replacing the Sylviinae in the New World, are a somewhat 

 heterogeneous assemblage of rather small birds, of which Grana- 

 tellus is perhaps Tanagrine. They frequent localities of all de- 

 scriptions in North and South America, being commonest in the 

 middle portions. Teretistris is peculiar to Cuba, Leucopeza to St. 

 Lucia and St. Vincent ; Ergaticus occupies the Central American 

 highlands, while two or three species wander to Greenland. 



The bill is usually slender and straight, but varies in length 

 and curvature, that of Setopliaga and Myiodioctes being broad and 

 depressed with bristly gape, that of Icteria (doubtfully referred 

 here) very stout and compressed, and so forth. Other species also 

 exhibit bristles, or have notched beaks. The tongue is frequently 

 bifid and fringed in Dendroeca, and in D. (Perissoglossa) tigrina 

 is semitubular. The metatarsi are naturally longest and strongest 

 in the more terrestrial forms, such as Geothlypis and Siurus; Icteria 

 has partly feathered legs, Mniotilta particularly long toes. The 

 wings may be concave and roundish, as in Leucopeza and Geoth- 

 lypis, or elongated and pointed, as in Protonotaria and Peuce- 

 dramus ; the moderate tail is square, rounded, or emarginate, or, 

 as in Setopliaga, broad and graduated. The general coloration is 



