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THE BLUE-WINGED YELLOW WARBLER. 



Sylvia solitaria, Wils. 



PLATE XX. Male akd Female. 



This pretty little Warbler is migratory, and arrives in Louisiana 

 from the south, in the beginning of spring. It is found in open woods, 

 as well as in the vicinity of ponds overgrown with low bushes and rank 

 weeds. Along with a pair of Blue-winged Yellow Waiblers, I have re- 

 presented a species of Hibiscus, which grows on the edges of these ponds. 

 Its flowers are handsome, but unfortunately have no pleasant odour. 



The species which now occupies our attention is a busy, active bird, 

 and is seen diligently searching among the foliage and grasses for the small 

 insects on which it feeds, mounting now and then towards the tops of the 

 bushes, to utter a few weak notes, which are in no way interesting. 



Its nest, which is singularly constructed, and of an elongated inverse- 

 ly conical form, is attached to several stalks or blades of tall grass by its 

 upper edge. The materials of which it is formed are placed obliquely 

 from its mouth to the bottom. The latter part is composed of dried 

 leaves, and is finished within with fine grass and lichens. The female 

 lays from four to six eggs, of a pure white colour, with a few pale red 

 spots at the larger end. The first brood is out about the middle of May, 

 the second in the middle of July. The young disperse as soon as they 

 are able to provide for themselves, this bird being of solitary habits. 



It leaves Louisiana in the beginning of October. I have never seen 

 the species farther eastward than the State of Jersey, where I killed se- 

 veral within a few miles of Philadelphia, not however until my last visit 

 to that State in 1829. It is frequent in the barrens of Kentucky, and up 

 the Mississippi, as far at least as St Genevieve, where I shot two indivi- 

 duals many years ago. 



Its flight is short, undetermined, and is performed in zig-zag lines, as 

 in most of its tribe. It sometimes ascends twenty or thirty yards in the 

 air, as if with an intention of going to a great distance, but still moving 

 in a zig-zag manner, when it suddenly turns about, and comes down near 

 the place from which it set out. It does not chase insects on wing, but 

 feeds in a great measure on the smaller kinds of spiders, not neglecting. 



