450 ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER. 



consists of insects, partly caught on the wing, but chiefly along the branches 

 and twigs, where the little depredator seeks them out with great activity. 



The flight of this bird is short, rather low, and is performed by gently 

 curved glidings. When ascending, however, it becomes as it were un- 

 certain and angular. 



The Orange-crowned Warbler breeds in the eastern parts of Maine, 

 and in the British provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Its 

 nest is composed of lichens detached from the trunks of trees, intermixed 

 with short bits of fine grass, and is lined with delicate fibrous roots and a 

 proportionally large quantity of featliers. The eggs, which are from 

 four to six, are of a pale green colour, sprinkled with small black spots. 

 The nest is placed not more than from three to five feet from the ground 

 between the smaller forks of some low fir tree. Only one brood is raised 

 in the season, and the birds commence their journey southward from the 

 middle of August to the beginning of September. 



In autumn, it nearly loses the orange spot on its head, there being 

 then merely a dull reddish patch, which is only seen on separating the 

 feathers. In the breeding season, the part in question becomes as bright 

 as you see it in the plate, in which are represented a pair of these birds, 

 on a twig of the great huckleberry, which grows in East Florida. The 

 young do not shew any orange on the head until the following spring. 



Sylvia celata, Sap, in Long's Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, voL L p. 169 — 



Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 88. 

 OaANGE-coLOUHED Warbleh, Sylvia celata, Ch. Bonaparte, Amer. Ornith. vol. i. j 



p. 45, pL 5, fig. 2 Nuttall, Manual, part i. p. 413. 



Adult Male. Plate CLXXVIII. Fig. 1. 



BUI longish, slender, straight, tapering to a very sharp point. Nos- 

 trils basal, oval, feet of ordinary length, slender ; tarsus compressed, co- 

 vered anteriorly with a few long scutella, sharp-edged behind, longer than 

 the middle-toe ; toes scuteUate above, free ; claws arched, slender, com- 

 pressed, acute. 



Plumage blended, the feathers soft and tufty. Wings rather short, 

 the second and third quills longest. Tail slightly emarginate, of ordinary 

 length, the twelve feathers rather narrow, and tapering broadly to a 

 point. 



Bill dusky above, pale greyish-blue beneath. Iris hazel. Feet and 



I 



