156 BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



Sendrceca discolor A. & E. Newton, Ibis, 1859, 144.— Codes, Key, 1S72, 1(I3; Check List, 

 1873,No. 86: ad ed. 1S82, No. 127; B. N. W. 1874.63; B. Col. Val. lST8.246.-Kn)GW. Norn. 

 N. Am. B. 1881, No. 114. 



Suhia minuta WlLS. Am. Orn. lii, 1811,87. pi. 85. Hg. 4. 



Hab. Eastern United States, north to Massaehusetts and northern Illinois, west to 

 Kiinsa.s: breeding nearly throughout its range, in suitable localities. Winters in Florida 

 (and other Gulf States?) and in most of the West Indies. 



"Sp. Char. Spring male. Above uniform olive-green, the interscapular region with 

 chestnut-red centres to feathers. Under parts and sides of the head, including a broad 

 superciliary line from the nostrils to a little behind the eye. bright yellow, brightest an- 

 teriorly. A well-dellned narrow stripe from the commissure of the mouth through the 

 eye. and another from the same point curving gently below it. also a series of streaks on 

 each side of the body, extending from the throat to the Hanks, black. Quills and tail- 

 feathers brown, edged with white: the terminal half of the inner web of the first and 

 second tail-feathers white. Two yellowish bands on the wings. Female similar, but 

 duller. The dorsal streaks indistinct. Length, 4.86: wing, 2.25; tail. 2.10. 



"First plumage of the young not seen. 



"Autumnal specimens have the plumage more blended, but the 

 markings not changed. A j'oung male in autumnal dress is wholly 

 bro^Tiish ohve-greeu above, the whole whig unifoim; the forehead 

 ashy, the markings about the head rather obsolete, the chestnut 

 spots on the back and the black ones on the sides nearly concealed." 

 {Hist. N. Am. B.) 



The so-called Prau-ie "Warbler (and a less appropriate name has 

 rarely been bestowed !), is one of the few species which appear to 

 be more numerous eastward of the Alleghanies than to the west- 

 ward of that range. It is abundant along the Atlantic coast, from 

 Florida to Massachusetts, where it frequents open places, such as 

 neglected fields and pastures, more or less gro^ni up to bushes or 

 young trees, its favorite haunts being locahties where young cedars 

 {Junijjerus virginiana) are pretty thickly scattered about. Like all 

 other warblers, it visits the orchards when the trees are in blossom, 

 and it was in a blooming apple tree that the only specimen ever 

 shot by the WTiter at Mount Carmel was killed. 



The nest of this species is thus described by Dr. Brewer, in His- 

 tory of North American Birds (Vol. I., p. 278) : 



"Several nests of this Warbler have been obtained by Mr. Welch 

 in Lynn. One was built on a ^dld rose, only a few feet from the 

 ground. It is a snug, compact, and elaborately woven structure, 

 having a height and a diameter of about two and a half mches. 

 The cavity is two inches wide and one and a half deep. The ma- 

 terials of which the outer parts are woven are chiefly the soft inner 

 bark of small shrubs, mingled with dry rose-leaves, bits of vegeta- 

 bles, wood, woody fibres, decayed stems of plants, spiders' webs, 



