YELLOW-POLL WARBLER. 477 



med externally of hemp, flax, or woolly substances, and is well lined with 

 different kinds of hair, intermixed with softer materials. It breeds twice 

 during the summer, and returns southward in the beginning of autumn, 

 in small parties, shifting chiefly by night. During the breeding-season, 

 this little bird, when approached, shews great anxiety for the preserva- 

 tion of its eggs or young, and tries, with aU the artifices employed by 

 many other species, to entice the aggressor away from its nest. They 

 are seen, on their return to the south, passing through Louisiana in Oc- 

 tober. 



I made my drawing of this species near Natchez, and having killed 

 the specimen while it was searching for insects among the flowers of a 

 large climbing plant, I have figured part of the latter also. This plant 

 I have never seen, excepting in low, damp or marshy places. It there 

 rvins over decayed trees, spreading in the form of a bower, and hanging 

 in graceful festoons. The long pendulous clusters of pale purple flowers 

 are destitute of odour. 



Sylvia .estiva, Gmel. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 996 — Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 551 



Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 83. 



Yellow-poi-i, Warbleu, Lath. Syn. vol. iv. p. 515. 



Blue-eved Warbler, Sylvia citrikella, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 111. 

 PI. 15. fig. 6. 



Bill about as long as the head, slender, straight, subulate, as deep as 

 broad at the base. Nostrils basal, lateral, elliptical, half closed by a 

 membrane. Head rather small. Neck short. Body ovate, rather slen- 

 der. Feet of ordinary length, slender ; tarsus longer than the middle 

 toe, covered anteriorly with a few scutella, the uppermost long ; toes scu- 

 tellate above, the inner free, the hind toe of moderate size ; claws slender, 

 compressed, acute, arched. 



Plumage soft, blended, tufty, a few bristles at the base of the bill. 

 Wings of ordinary length, acute. Tail longish, slightly forked. 



Bill dark blue, the lower mandible edged with yellow. Iris brown. 

 Feet and claws pale brown. Hind head and upper parts generally pale 

 yellowish-green, the tail-coverts more yellow. The fore part of the head, 

 the cheeks, the throat, and the sides of the neck, pure golden-yellow ; the 

 rest of the lower parts yellow, the breast and sides streaked with brown- 

 ish-red. Quills and alula deep brown, their outer webs yellowish, as are 



