176 YELLOW-THROAT WARBLER. 



and whitish below ; nostril oblong ; eye light hazel. The female wants 

 the points of white on the wing coverts. The food of this bird is 

 derived from that great magazine of so many of the feathered race, 

 inseots and their larvae, particularly such as inhabit watery places, roots 

 of bushes, and. piles of old timber. 



It were much to be wished that the summer residence, nest and eggs, 

 of this bird were precisely ascertained, which would enable us to deter- 

 mine whether it be, what I strongly suspect it is, the same species as the 

 common domestic Wren of Britain. 



Species II. SYLVIA FLAVICOLLIS. 



YELLOW-THROAT WARBLER. 



[Plate XII. Tig. 6.] 



Yellow-throat Warbler, Arct. Zool. p. 400, No. 286.— Catesb. i., 62.— Lath, ii., 44L 

 — LaMesange grised gorge jaune, Buff, v., 454. — La gorge Jaune de St. Domingue, 

 PI. Enl. 68&, &g. 1.* 



The habits of this beautiful species, like those of the preceding, are 

 not consistent with the shape and constructioa of its bill ; the former 

 would rank it with the Titmouse, or with the Creepers, the latter is 

 decisively that of the Warbler. The first opportunity I had of examin- 

 ing a living specimen of this bird was in the southern parts of Georgia, 

 in the month of February. Its notes which were pretty loud and spir- 

 ited, very much resembled those of the Indigo-bird. It continued a 

 considerable time on the same pine tree, creeping around the branches 

 and among the twigs, in the manner of the Titmouse, uttering its song 

 every three or four minutes. On flying to another tree it frequently 

 alighted on the body, and ran nimbly up or down, spirally and perpen- 

 dicularly, in search of insects. I had afterwards many opportunities 

 of seeing others of the same species, and found them all to correspond 

 in these particulars. This was about the 24th of February, and the 

 first of their appearance there that spring, for they leave the United 

 States about three months during winter, and consequently go to no 

 great distance. I had been previously informed that they also pass the 

 summer in Virginia and in the southern parts of Maryland ; but they 

 very rarely proceed as far north as Pennsylvania. 



This species is five inches and a half in length, and eight and a half 



* Motacilla pensilis, Gmel. i., p. 960. — Motacilla JlavicolUs, Gmel. St/st. i.. 959. 

 — Sylvia pensilis, Lath. Ind. Orn. n., p. 520. — Vieill, Ois. de V Am. Sept. pi. 72. 



