AUDUBON'S WARBLER. 53 



ing and rearing his offspring in the shady firs by the borders of the 

 prairie openings, where he could at all times easily obtain a supply of 

 insects or their larvae. On the 8th of June the young of this species, 

 at that time so much like those of the Yellow-Rump, were already out 

 in small roving and busy flocks, solicitously attended and occasionally 

 fed by the still watchful parents. We may notice in this species as a 

 habit, that, unlike many other birds of its tribe, it occasionally frequents 

 trees, particularly the water oaks and the lower branches of those gi- 

 gantic firs, which attain not uncommonly a height of 240 feet. In the 

 branches of the latter, near a cliff, opening on a prairie by the banks 

 of the river Columbia, I have reason to believe that a pair of this fine 

 species had a nest, as great solicitude was expressed when I several 

 times accidentally approached the place." 



I have given figures of the male and female, taken from specimens 

 obtained by Dr Town send on the Columbia. 



Sylvia Auduboni, Audubon's Warbler, Townseiid, Journal of Acad» of Nat. 

 Sciences of Philadelphia, vol. vii. p. 190. 



Adult Male. Plate CCCXCV. Fig. 1. 



Bill short, straight, rather strong, tapering, compressed toward the 

 end ; upper mandible with its dorsal outline slightly convex toward the 

 slightly declinate acute tip, the sides convex, the edges sharp and 

 overlapping with a slight notch near the tip ; lower mandible with 

 the angle rather short and of moderate width, the dorsal line ascend- 

 ing and almost straight, the edges a little inclinate, the tip acute. 

 Gape-line straight ; nostrils basal, oval, operculate, partially concealed 

 by the feathers. 



Head of ordinary size, ovate ; neck short ; body rather slender. 

 Feet of ordinary length, rather slender ; tarsus compressed, covered 

 anteriorly with a few long scutella, sharp behind ; toes slender, free, 

 the outer united as far as the second joint ; the hind toe proportionally 

 large ; claws arched, of moderate length, slender, much compressed, 

 tapering to a fine point. 



Plumage soft, blended, without gloss. Wings rather long, little 

 curved; second and third quills longest, fourth almost equal, and 

 slightly longer than the first, which is scarcely a twelfth of an inch 

 shorter than the second ; outer secondaries slightly emarginate ; inner 

 not elongated. Tail rather long, slightly emarginate, the lateral fea- 

 thers bent outwards. 



