APPENCIIX. 343 



clumps of bushes while singing, and is always silent when en- 

 gaged in seeking its food. 



Tolmie's Warbler. 



Sylvia *Tolmiei, (Townsend.) Journal Acad. Nat. Sciences, 

 Vol. 8, part I. Audubon's Birds of America, Vol. IV., pi. 399. 

 Male and female. (S, Philadelphia in the plate.) 



The bill is brownish above, pale flesh-color beneath, darker at 

 the point ; lores and narrow frontlet black ; whole head, neck, 

 and upper part of the breast, dark sooty-ash, the feathers of the 

 latter fringed with white ; upper parts greenish yellow-olive ; the 

 tail brighter, and of a uniform color, without spots ; wings lightish 

 cinereous, the exterior vanes of all the feathers, including the 

 coverts, yellow. Legs and feet flesh-color. Length 5 inches. 

 Extent of wings 6^ inches. 



The female differs from the male, chiefly by having the head 

 and throat light ash-color, without any black, and in being desti- 

 tute of the black frontlet and lores. 



This pretty species, so much resembling the curious S. Phila- 

 delphia of Wilson, is common in spring on the Columbia. It is 

 mostly solitary, and extremely wary, keeping chiefly in the 

 densest and most impenetrable thickets, and gliding through them 

 in a very cautious and suspicious manner. It may, however, 

 sometimes be seen towards mid-day, perched upon a dead twig 

 over its favorite place of concealment, and at such times it war- 

 bles a very sprightly and pleasant little song, raising its head 

 until the bill is almost vertical, and swellins: its throat in the 

 manner of many of its relatives. 



I dedicate the species to my friend W. F. Tolmie, Esq., of Fort 

 Vancouver. 



Western Blue Bird. 



Sialia *occ.identalis, (Townsend,) Journal Acad. Nat. Sciences, 

 Vol. 7, part II., p. 188. Audubon's Birds of America, Vol. IV., 

 pi. 393. Male and female. 



Bill dark horn color, or nearly black; head, upper portion of 

 the back, and throat, of a fine deep mazarine blue, the last some- 

 what paler ; a broad transverse band on the interscapular region, 

 and thewhole of the lower breast and belly, dark rufous bay; wings, 

 back, upper tail-coverts and tail, of the same deep blue as the head ; 

 the inner vanes of all the wing feathers dark fuscous; vent and 



