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THE PRAIRIE WARBLER. 



Sylvia discolor. Vieill. 



PLATE XIV. Male and Female. 



This little bird has no song, at least I never heard any from it, ex- 

 cepting a delicate soft whirr, ejaculated whilst it stands erect on the top 

 of some rank weed or low bush. Its nest, which forms by far the most 

 interesting part of its history, is uncommonly small and deUcate. Its 

 eggs I have uniformly found to be four in number, and of a wliite colour, 

 with a few brownish spots near the larger end. The nest is sometimes 

 attached to three or four blades of tall grass, or hangs between two small 

 sprigs of a slender twig. At first sight, it seems to be formed like that of 

 the Humming Bird, the external parts being composed of delicate grey 

 lichens and other substances, and skins of black caterpillars, and the in- 

 terior finished with the finest fibres of dried vines. Two broods are rear- 

 ed each season. 



In Louisiana I found this bird amongst our cotton fields, where it 

 easily procures the small insects and flies of which its food is entirely 

 composed. It is also found in the prairies along the skirts of the wood- 

 lands. I have shot several within a few miles of Philadelphia, in the 

 Jerseys, in a large opening where the woods had been cut down, and were 

 beginning to spring up again. Its flight is light and short, it making 

 an effort to rise to the height of eight or ten yards, and immediately sink- 

 ing down to the grass or bushes. Whilst on the ground, where it re- 

 mains a good deal, it searches amongst the leaves slowly and carefully, 

 differing in this respect from all the true warblers with which I am ac- 

 quainted. They go singly, and far apart, scarcely more than three or 

 four being ever seen on an extent of twenty or thirty acres. It is one of 

 the first birds that arrives in spring in Louisiana, and one of the first to 

 depart, being rarely found after the first week of September. I never 

 saw it farther east than on the ridges of the Broad Mountain, about 

 twelve miles from Mauch Chunk ; but I have seen it on the Arkansas 

 River, and high up on the Mississippi, as well as along the southern bor- 

 ders of Lake Erie. The young are apt to leave the nest if discovered 

 when unable to fly, and follow their parents through the grass to be fed. 



