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THE HEMLOCK WARBLER. 



Sylvia parus, Wils. 



PLATE CXXXIV. Male and Female. 



It is to the persevering industry of Wilson that we are indebted for 

 the discovery of this bird. He has briefly described the male, of which 

 he had obtained but a single specimen. Never having met with it until 

 I visited the Great Pine Forest, where that ardent ornithologist found it, 

 I followed his track in my rambles there, and had not spent a week among 

 the gigantic hemlocks which ornament that interesting part of our coun- 

 try, before I procured upwards of twenty specimens. I had therefore a 

 fair opportunity of observing its habits, which I shall now attempt to de- 

 scribe. 



The tallest of the hemlock pines are the favourite haunts of this spe- 

 cies. It appears first among the highest branches early in May, breeds 

 there, and departs in the beginning of September. Like the Blue Yel- 

 low-back Warbler, its station is ever amidst the thickest foliage of the 

 trees, and with as much agility as its diminutive relative, it seeks its food 

 by ascending from one branch to another, examining most carefully the 

 under parts of each leaf as it proceeds. Every insect that escapes is fol- 

 lowed on wing, and quickly secured. It now and then, as if for variety 

 or sport, makes a downward flight, alights on a smaller tree, surveys it 

 for a while, and again ascends to a higher station. During the early part 

 of autumn it frequents, with its young, the margins of rivulets, where 

 insects are then more abundant. 



Its notes are sweet and mellow, and although not numerous, are easily 

 distinguished from those of any other Warbler. Like a true Sylvia, it is 

 often seen hanging at the end of a branch, searching for insects. It never 

 alights on the trunk of a tree, and in this particular differs from every 

 other species of its genus. Its food is altogether of insects. 



To the inimitable skill of the worthy Jediah Irish in the use of the 

 rifle, I am indebted for the possession of a nest of this bird. On discover- 

 ing one of the birds, we together watched it for hours, and at last had the 

 good fortune to see itself and its mate repeatedly enter a thick cluster of 

 leaves, where we concluded their nest must be placed. The huntsman's 



