168 MARYLAND YELLOW-THROAT. 



■which also covers the upper part of the neck, but approaches to cinere- 

 ous on the crown ; the eyes are inserted in a band of black, which passes 

 from the front, on both sides, reaching half way down the neck ; this is 

 bounded above by another band of white deepening into light blue ; 

 throat, breast, and vent brilliant yellow ; belly a fainter tinge of the 

 same color ; inside coverts of the wings also yellow ; tips and inner 

 vanes of the wings dusky brown ; tail cuneiform, dusky, edged with 

 olive-green ; bill black, straight, slender, of the true Motacilla form ; 

 though the bird itself was considered as a species of Thrush by Lin- 

 naeus, but very properly removed to the genus Motacilla by Gmelin ; 

 legs flesh colored ; iris of the eye dark hazel. The female wants the 

 black band through the eye, has the bill brown, and the throat of a 

 much paler yellow. This last, I have good reason to suspect, has been 

 described by Europeans as a separate species ; and that from Louisiana, 

 referred to in the synonymes, appears evidently the same as the former, 

 the chief difi"erence, according to Buffon, being in its wedged tail, which 

 is likewise the true form of our own species ; so that this error cor- 

 rected will abridge the European nomenclature of two species. Many 

 Qjore examples of this kind will occur in the course of our descriptions. 



SYLVIA MARILANDICA. 



MARYLAND YELLOW-THROAT. 



[Plate XVIII. Fig. 4, Female.] 



The male of this species having been represented in Plate VL, fig. 1, 

 accompanied by a particular detail of its manners, I have little farther 

 to add here relative to this bird. I found several of them round Wil- 

 mington, North Carolina, in the month of January, along the margin 

 of the river, and by the Cypress swamp, on the opposite side. The 

 individual, from which the figure in the plate was taken, was the actual 

 nurse of the young Cowpen Bunting, which it is represented in the act 

 of feeding. 



It is five inches long, and seven in extent ; the whole upper parts 

 green olive, something brownish on the neck, tips of the wings and 

 head ; the lower parts yellow, brightest on the throat and vent ; legs 

 flesh colored. The chief difi"erence between this and the male in the 

 markings of their plumage, is, that the female is destitute of the black 

 bar through the eyes, and the bordering one of pale bluish white. 



