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THE YELLOW-RUMP WARBLER. 



Sylvia coronata, Lath. 



PLATE CLIII. Male and Young. 



This very abundant species I observed in East Florida, on the 1st of 

 March 1831, in full summer plumage. In South Carolina, no improve- 

 ment on its winter dress could be seen on the 18th of the same month. 

 On the 10th of April, many were procured by my friend Bachman and 

 myself, in the neighbourhood of Charleston. They were in moult, espe- 

 cially about the head and neck, where the new feathers were stiU inclosed 

 in their sheath ; but so rapidly did the change take place, that, before a 

 few days had elapsed, they were in full plumage. 



During a winter spent in the Floridas, I saw these birds daily, and 

 so had abundant opportunity of studying their manners. They were 

 very social among themselves, skipped by day along the piazzas, balanced 

 themselves in the air, opposite the sides of the houses, in search of spiders 

 and insects, rambled among the low bushes of the gardens, and often 

 dived among the large cabbage-leaves, where they searched for worms 

 and larvse. At night they roosted on the branches of the orange trees, 

 in the luxuriant groves so abundant in that country. Frequently, in the 

 early part of warm mornings, I saw flocks of them fly off to sea until they 

 were out of sight, and again observed their return to land about an hour 

 after. This circumstance I considered as indicative of their desire to 

 migrate, and as shewing that their journeys are performed by day. 



In the beginning of May, I found them so abundant in Maine, that 

 the skirts of the woods seemed alive with them. They appeared to be 

 merely waiting for warmer weather, that they might resume their journey 

 northwards. As we advanced towards Labrador, I observed them at 

 every place where we happened to land. They were plentiful in the 

 Magdaleine Islands ; and when we landed on the Labrador coast, they 

 were among the first birds observed by our party. 



As Professor MacCulloch of the Pictou University informed me, few 

 breed in the province of Nova Scotia, nor had his sons, who are active 

 collectors, ever found one of their nests in the vicinity of that town. I 



