180 BLUE-WINGED YELLOW WARBLER. 



some resemblance, viz., Motacilla mitrata, or Mitred Warbler, and M. 

 cucullata, or Hooded Warbler, both birds of the United States, or more 

 properly a single bird ; for they are the same species twice described, 

 namely, the Hooded Warbler. The difference, however, between that 

 and the present is so striking, as to determine this at once to be a very 

 distinct species. The singular appearance of the head, neck and breast, 

 suggested the name. 



The Mourning Warbler is five inches long, and seven in extent ; the 

 whole back, wings and tail, are of a deep greenish olive, the tips of the 

 wings and the centre of the tail feathers excepted, which are brownish ; 

 the whole head is of a dull slate color ; the breast is ornamented with a 

 singular crescent of alternate transverse lines of pure glossy white, and 

 very deep black ; all the rest of the lower parts are of a hrilliant yellow ; 

 the tail is rounded at the end ; legs and feet a pale flesh color ; bill deep 

 brownish black above, lighter below ; eye hazel. 



Species XI. SYLVIA SOLITARIA. 



BLUE-WINGED YELLOW WARBLER. 



[Plate XV. Fig. 4.] 



Parus aureus alls cceruUis, Bartram, p. 292. — Edw. pi. 277, upper figure, — 

 Pine Warbler, Arct. Zool. p. 412, No. 318. 



This bird has been mistaken for the Pine Creeper of Catesby. It is 

 a very different species. It comes to us early in May from the south ; 

 haunts thickets and shrubberies, searching the branches for insects ; is 

 fond of visiting gardens, orchards and willow trees ; of gleaning among 

 blossoms, and currant bushes ; and is frequently found in very seques- 

 tered woods, where it generally builds its nest. This is fixed in a thick 

 bunch or tussock of long grass, sometimes sheltered by a briar bush. 

 It is built in the form of an inverted cone, or funnel, the bottom thickly 

 bedded with dry beech' leaves, the sides formed of the dry bark of 

 strong weeds, lined within with fine dry grass. These materials are not 

 placed in the usual manner circularly, but shelving downwards on all sides 

 from the top ; the mouth being wide, the bottom very narrow, filled 

 with leaves, and the eggs or young occupying the middle. The female 

 lays five eggs, pure white, with a few very faint dots of reddish near 

 the great end ; the young appear the first week in June. I am not 

 certain whether they raise a second brood in the same season. 



I have met with several of these nests, always in a retired though 

 open part of the woods, and very similar to each other. 



