378 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Ava. 



along the Mississippi river, it is likewise said to 

 be very common. It builds a compact nest in 

 low bushes, laying therein about five grayish white 

 eggs, marked with reddish spots near the greater 

 end. 



This species is five and a half inches in length, 

 and eight in alar extent. Forehead, cheeks and 

 chin, yellow ; head, neck, and upper part of the 

 breast, black ; rest of the lower parts, yellow 5 

 back and tail, yellow olive. In the female, the 

 black is of less extent, and not of so deep a tint. 



The Green Black-Cafped Warbler, (Wil- 

 sonia j^nsiUa, Bonap.,) was discovered by Wilson 

 in the Southern States, and in the swamps of 

 that section it sometimes spends the summer. It 

 is an exceedingly active species, its habits being 

 similar to those of the birds above described ; its 

 nest and eggs considerably resemble those of the 

 Hooded Warbler. It passes through New Eng- 

 land about the 15th of May on its way to the 

 North, and proceeding to high boreal latitudes to 

 incubate, has been observed to arrive at Labra- 

 dor in June, and its nests have been found as 

 high as the fifty-second parallel. On its return 

 to tropical America to its winter quarters, it 

 passes through our borders, and, as in its spring 

 transit, makes but a short tarry with us. 



The length of this beautiful species is four 

 inches and a half; alar expanse, six and a half. 

 A pair of these birds obtained the present sea- 

 son exhibit the following markings. Male, above 

 green olive ; crown, deep glossy black ; forehead, 

 space round the eyes, throat and lower parts, yel- 

 low, tinged with olive on the sides ; wings and 

 tail dusky tinged with olive. The female has the 

 black patch on the head smaller, and quite indis- 

 tinct, being skirtsd with olive, but otherwise does 

 not essentially differ in color from the male. 



The Blue Gray Flycatciiing Warbler, 

 {Culicivora cceinilea, Swain.,) or Blue Gray Qnat- 

 catcher of some writers, winters in Mexico, and 

 countries south of the United States ; it is found 

 in Louisiana at the middle of March, arrives in 

 Pennsylvania about the middle of April, reaches 

 New York and New England early in May, and 

 has been observed as far north as the seventy- 

 sixth parallel. It is not a numerous species, and 

 in New England appears to be quite rare ; it ex- 

 tends over the Western States, where it is not 

 uncommonly met with. It is one of the least of 

 our birds in size, but is exceeded by none in ac- 

 tivity, being perpetually on the wing, seizing the 

 minute winged insects that constitute its food, 

 and is found to take large numbers of mosquitoes, 

 and of various kinds of gnats. Wilson observes, 

 "it darts about from one tree to another, with 

 hanging wings and erect tail, making a feeble 

 chirping tsee, tsee, no louder than a mouse. 

 Though so small in itself, it is ambitious of hunt- 

 ing on the highest branches, and is seldom seen 

 among the humbler thickets." It constructs its 

 tiny nest of such perishable materials as the 

 husks of buds, stems of old leaves, and down 

 from the stalks of ferns, outwardly covered with 

 gray lichen, and lined with a few horse hairs, the 

 structure being often placed among the twigs of 

 the tallest trees, sometimes fifty feet from the 

 ground. Its eggs are pure white, with a few 

 reddish brown dots at the larger end. 



The length of this bird is four and a half 

 inches ; extent six and a half; color above, light 



bluish gray, bluest on the head ; below, bluish 

 white; tail, longer than the body, black, the ex- 

 terior feathers nearly white. 



Corrections. — Wood Thrush — Yellow- 

 Bellied Pewee. — In the article preceding the 

 present, No. 13,) for Croio Blackbirds read Cow 

 Blackbirds ; in the number next preceding, for 

 tree thrushes read true Thrushes. 



In the first article on the Thrushes (No. 11,) a 

 Thrush was mentioned that took up its residence 

 in the most business part of the city, during the 

 summer of 1860, whose wild woodland music 

 rose above the sound of rattling vehicles and the 

 noise of business — a welcome and refreshing 

 strain to many a weary ear, suggesting to the lis- 

 tener secluded groves and woody solitudes, the 

 natural haunts of that solitary, yet delightful mu- 

 sician, our favorite Wood Thrush. Remote 

 from his accustomed haunts, this singular bird 

 took up his retreat in the trees that adorn the 

 public square, within a stone's throw of the City 

 Mall and other public buildings of the city, sur- 

 rounded by pavements and walls of brick, with 

 scores of citizens passing and repassing continu- 

 ally beneath the trees from which he sung, and 

 passed the season apparently happy and content- 

 ed, wholly self-secluded from intercourse with his 

 own species, and wholly unmolested by our good 

 citizens. The present year he has again returned, 

 occupying again the same trees and situations he 

 frequented last summer, and is heartily welcomed 

 by our people, as without fear of harm fi"om man 

 he pours out daily his melodious lays, and gath- 

 ers his food from and near the walks where citi- 

 zens pass continually. The "hospitalities of the 

 city," as a friend has observed, are fully guaran- 

 tied to him, and accordingly a tyrannical Crow 

 Blackbird that built her nest in one of the wide- 

 spreading elms of the square, in May, was shot, 

 by permission of the mayor, because she persisted 

 in driving the musical, harmless Thrush from his 

 favorite retreat. Such a strange departure of any 

 bird from the general habits of its species, seems 

 particularly deserving of notice ; and especially in 

 this case, where a bird, naturally remarkably shy 

 of man, and selecting the most retired woody re- 

 treats for its home, voluntarily secludes himself 

 entirely from his kind, courts intimacy with man, 

 and leaves the quiet, umbrageous woodlands for 

 opposite situations in the noisy city. 



Not having the opportunity of seeing this 

 Thrush last season, and judging in part from the 

 representations of others, it was hinted in the for- 

 mer notice of this bird, that it might be the 

 Olive-backed Thrush {Tardus oUvacea, of Gi- 

 raud,) a species that seems to be but little known. 

 It proves, however, to be the genuine Wood 

 Thrush {Turdus mustelinus.) The Olive-backed 

 Thrush I have observed in considerable numbers 

 in May ; it seems to be the least suspicious of 

 our four woodland Thrushes, occasionally fre- 

 quenting gardens and orchards, and is often 

 found in plowed fields that lie adjacent to wood- 

 land, searching for the larva of insects. Its song 

 resembles considerably that of the common 

 Veery, {Turdus Wilsouii,) but it is less loud, and 

 I think it inferior to the song of that admirable 

 minstrel. 



In describing the Flycatcher, some time since, 

 one species found in New England, but very little 



