334 THE GENUS SETOPHAGA 



The bird thus introduced by Mr. Heushaw with some partic- 

 ularity to American ornithologists as one of their newest acqui- 

 sitions, is left as found to my readers, some one of whom, 

 perhaps, may hereafter have his own story to tell of its nest, 

 its eggs, and its nuptial song. 



Genus SETOPHAGA Swainson 



Setophaga, Sw. Zool. Joura. iii. Deo. 1827, 360. (Type Muscicapa ruticilla L.) Bd. BNA. 



1858, 297. Bd. Rev. AB. 1865, 253. 

 Cetophaga, "Less. 1828 ",fide Gray. 

 Erythrosoma, Sw. 182-, fide Gray. 

 Sylvania, Nutt. Man. Orn. i. Isted. 1832, 290. (Type Muscicapa ruticitta L., but includes 



species of Myiodioctes and Polioptila.) 



Euthlypis, Cab. MH. i. 1850, 18. (Type Sylvia lachrymosa Licht.) 

 Myioborus, Bd. Rev. AB. 1865, 237, 257. (Separate subgenus.) 



CHARS. Bill thoroughly Muscicapine in its depression and 

 breadth at base, where it is wider than high, the straightness 

 of both superior and lateral outlines, and the development of 

 the rictal bristles, which reach far beyond the nostrils. Wings 

 pointed, not shorter than the tail, the 2d, 3d, and 4th quills 

 nearly equal and longest, the 1st intermediate between the 4th 

 and 5th. Tail rather long and fan-shaped, with broad flat 

 feathers, widening at their ends. Feet slender, with long tarsi 

 indistinctly scutellate externally, and short toes, the middle one 

 without its claw being about half as long as the tarsus. Col- 

 oration indeterminate. Habits arboricole and Muscicapine. 



The genus Setophaga, based by Swainson, in 1827, on Musci- 

 capa ruticilla, has been made to cover considerable variety in 

 form among the numerous species of Flycatching Warblers of 

 subtropical and tropical America, where the genus is best rep- 

 resented. The foregoing diagnosis is drawn up from 8. ruti- 

 cilla, and may require some little modification in order to its 

 applicability even to 8. picta. All the extralimital species, as 

 pointed out by Baird, differ in the shorter and more rounded 

 wing and other characters ; and he has combined them all into 

 a separate subgenus, Myioborus, excepting 8. lachrymosa, for 

 which Cabanis had already proposed the name Euthlypis. 



8. ruticilla is the only species in which the sexes are decidedly 

 dissimilar in color ; even in S. picta, the nearest ally, the sexes 

 are substantially alike ; and in all the rest of the group, in which 

 the coloration is very various, there is no substantial difference 

 between the sexes. Species of Setophaga (including Myioborus 

 and Euthlypis), to the number of twelve or more, are recognized 

 by late authors. S. ruticilla is the only one that is generally 



