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 from 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-hirn- 

 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," 



