448 AUTUMNAL WARBLER. 



has left, in zigzag lines, as if it were afraid to venture out of the thickets 

 which it inhabits. 



No sooner have these birds reared their young than they assemble in 

 laro-e loose parties of fifty or more, and return towards the south, throw- 

 ing themselves amongst the Willows and Birch-trees that margin the 

 streams, as well as into orchards and the scattered trees in cultivated 

 fields. Its common note is a simple tweet, but the male, in spring and 

 during the period of incubation, repeats at short intervals a soft and 

 pleasing variety of notes, scarcely, however, deserving the name of song. 



These birds are so plentiful, and so easily found, from the middle of 

 September to that of October, that while in the Great Pine Forest I 

 sometimes shot more than a dozen in a day. I have never observed them 

 in the Southern States at that season. 



I have represented a pair of these plain-looking Warblers on a twig 

 of the Canoe Birch, a tree too well known, from the use to which its bark 

 is applied by the Indians in the construction of their light and beautiful 

 boats, to require any particular description here. 



Sylvia autumnalis, Ch. Bonaparte^ Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 7*- 

 Autumnal Warbler, Sylvia autumnalis, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. iii. p. 65. 

 PI. 23. fig. 4. 



Adult Male. Plate LXXXVIII. Fig. 1. 



Bill of ordinary length, nearly straight, slender, tapering, acute. 

 Nostrils basal, lateral, elliptical, half-closed above by a membrane. 

 Head and neck of ordinary size. Body slender. Feet longish, slender ; 

 tarsus longer than the middle toe, covered anteriorly with a few scuteUa, 

 the uppermost long ; toes scutellate above, the inner free, the hind toe of 

 moderate size ; claws slender, compressed, acute, arched. 



Plumage loose, blended. Short bristly feathers at the base of the bill. 

 Wings rather short, the first quill longest. Tail even. 



Bill brown, the lower mandible yellowish towards the base. Iris 

 hazel. Feet dusky. The general colour of the upper parts is hght olive- 

 green. The tail-coverts greyish. A pale line over the eye, which is en- 

 circled by a narrow line of whitish. Fore neck dull yellow ; under parts 

 generally yellowish-white. Quills and larger coverts dusky on their in- 

 ner webs, the former margined, the latter tipped with white, so as to pre- 

 sent two bands of that colour across the wing. Tail dusky, margined 



