46 PARULA AMERICANA, BLUE YELLOW-BACKED WARBLEK. 



nest "niched, in the shelving of a rock, on the surftice of the ground." 

 Dr. Brewer states, that so far as he knows, it always builds on the 

 ground, and mentions a nest found in the drain of a house. The eggs 

 are described as being from three to seven in number, four and one half 

 eighths to six-eighths long, by one-half an inch to nine-sixteenths broad ; 

 oval, nearly equal at both ends, white, speckled with brownish red and 

 purplish dots, chiefly at the larger end. A nest described by Dr. Brewer 

 was comi)Osed externally of coarse hay, and compactly lined with horse- 

 hair ; Mr. Nuttairs was of coarse strips of inner hemlock bark, mixed 

 with old leaves and grass, and lined with hair. Dr. Brewer's measured 

 three and one-half inches across outside, by one inch internal depth. 



The home of this little bird is one often invaded by the Cowbird; on 

 several different occasions, of which I am informed, as many as three 

 or four of the alien eggs having been found in it. Its low situation 

 probably favors the Gow-bird in this respect. This Warbler surpasses 

 all others iti the agility and ease with which it scrambles in every direc- 

 tion and in every attitude, up, down, and around the trunks or branches 

 of trees, its habits being as strongly pronounced as those of a Creeper 

 itself, an<l correspondingly different from those of its allies among the 

 true Warblers. It is very abundant throughout the wooded portions of 

 the Eastern United States, and in "spring is as noisy as it is active, con- 

 tinually uttering its queer, sereeping song in the springtime, during its 

 . busy search for insects. 



1 ^'^'"YAliVLA AMElilCAXA, (Linn.) Bp. ,? - 

 Blue Yellow-bacljcd Warbler. 



Parus amcricainis, LiNX., Syst. Nat. i, 1758, 190. 



MulnciUa (unericana, Gm., Syst. Nat. i, 17H8, 9t)0. 



Sylvia amcricaiui, Lath., Iiid. Orii. ii, 1790, .'520. — Arri., Orn. Biog. i, 1832, 78, pi. 1.'. 

 ■Sylvicola amerieana, AuD., B. Am. ii, 1841, .57, pi. 91. — Woodh., Sitgr. Rep. 180:5, 71 

 (breediug in ludian Tenitory). 



Parula amerieana, Bp., Comp. and Gtoj;-, List, 18:58, 20. — Go.s.ke, B. .Jam. 1847, l.")4. — Bd., 

 B. N. A. 1858, 2:38; Rev. 18(i4, 169.— JFayd., Rep. 1862, 159.— Lawj:., Ann. Lye. 

 ix, 1869. 200 (Yucatan).- Allex, Bull. M. C. Z. ii, 1871, 267 (Florida, winter- 

 in-); iii, 1872, 124, 175.— AlKEN, Pr. Bust. Soc. 1872, 196 (Black Hills).- Scott, 

 ibiil. (West Virginia, in snmmer). — COUES, Key, 1872, 92. — Tmppe, Pr, Boat. 

 Soc. XV, 1872, 2:34 (Iowa). — Sxow, B. Kaus. 187:3, 4. — And of late writers 

 generalIJ^ 



Compi^ollibijiii amerieana, Cab., Mus. Hein. 18.50, 20; J. f. 0. iii, 1855, 476. 



Ficediilu liidoriciana, Bni.ss., Orn. iii, 1760, 500, pi. 26. 



Motarilla litdovieiana, Gm., Syst. Nat. i, 1788, 98.!. 



Motacilla eqnes, BoDDyERT, Planches Enlum., 178:3, pi. 7.31, f. 1; pi. 709, f. 1. 



Sylvia iurqiiata, Vieill., Ois. Am. Sept. ii, 1807, ;;8, pi. 99. 



Thryolhorns lorqiiatus, Steph., Shaw's Gen. Zool. xiv, 1826, 94. 



Sylvia imsiUa, WlLS., Am. Orn. iv, 1811, 17, pi. 28. 



Sylvieola puxilla, Sw., ZooJ. Jouru. iii, 1827, 169. 



Hah. — Eastern North America. North to Nova Scotia. West to the Mi.ssouri, as far ' ;,-j 

 at least as the Platte; to the Black Hills {Jihni). Mexico (Xalapa, Scl., P. Z. S. 18.57, 

 202). South to Guatemala (Ibis, 18.59, 10). West Indies (Cuba, Cab., J. f. O. iii, 47(i; ..^V, 

 Santa Cruz, Kmi., Ibis, i, 143; St. Thomas, Cass., Pr. Phila. Acad. 1861, :370; Jamaica.JLif if 

 Gosse, B. Jam. 154). Greenland (ReinJi., Ibis, 1861, 6). Winters from Southern Florida i.i'f 

 southward. | t f ^ 



Lieuteiiaiit Warren's Expedition. — 4671, mouth of Platte. 9rUi'- 



Not obtained hy Captain Haynolds' Expedition, or by the later ones. 



This elegant little species, one of the most prettily marked of the 

 wbole group, withdraws almost entirely from the United States in win- 

 ter, though Mr. Allen has noted its occasional occurrence at that season 

 in Florida, and proceeds as far south as Guatemala. On the vernal mi- 

 gration it reaches the Middle States late in April, and is very abundant 

 daring the iir.'st half o©/J|SfeM16yriAi^3BXSB)(/KE) The greater number pro- 



