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THE CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER. 



Sylvia icTEROCEPHALA, Lath. 



PLATE LIX. Malk and Female. 



\X In the beginning of May 1808, I shot five of these birds, on a very 

 cold morning, near Potts-grove, in the State of Pennsylvania. There was 

 a slight fall of snow at the time, although the Peach and Apple trees were 

 already in full bloom. I have never met with a single individual of this 

 species since. They all had their wings drooping, as if suffering severely 

 from the sudden change of the weather, and had betaken themselves to the 

 lower rails of a fence, where they were engaged in searching after insects, 

 particularly spiders. I procured every one of those which I met with 

 that morning, and which were five in number, two of them males, and the 

 rest females. 



Where this species goes to breed I am unable to say, for to my in- 

 quiries on this subject I never received any answers which might have 

 led me to the districts resorted to by it. I can only suppose, that if it 

 is at all plentiful in any portion of the United States, it must be far to 

 the northward, as I ransacked the borders of Lake Ontario, and those of 

 Lakes Erie and Michigan, without meeting with it. I do not know of 

 any naturahst who lias been more fortunate, otherwise I should here quote 

 his observations. 



The females had the ovaries furnished with numerous eggs, about the 

 size of the head of a common pin. The stomach of all the birds which I 

 killed contained some grass seeds of the preceding year, and a few small 

 black spiders ; but the birds appeared half-starved. Having procured 

 them near the ground, I have placed them on a plant which grows about 

 the fields, and flowers in the beginning of May. 



Sylvia ictebocephala, Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 538. — Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. 



of Birds of the United States, p. 80. 

 Motacilla icterocephala, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 334. 

 Quebec Warbler, Lath. Synops. vol. iv. p. 484 

 Chestnut-sided A\''arbleb, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. i. p. 99. PI. 14. fig. 5. 



Adult Male. Plate LIX. Fig. 1. 



