230 PALM WARBLER. 



blance, except in its dull state of plumage, to a similar state of the Red- 

 poll Finch. The name of Bimhele, by which it is known among the 

 negroes of those countries, is derived from the recollection of an Afri- 

 can bird, to which, probably, the resemblance is not more evident. 

 Unfortunately, this propensity of limited minds to refer new objects, 

 however distinct, to those with which they are acquainted, seems to have 

 prevailed throughout the world, and is found exemplified nowhere more 

 absurdly than in the Anglo-American names of plants and animals. 



The food of this little Warbler consists chiefly of fruits and small 

 seeds. Its song is limited to five or six notes ; but though neither bril- 

 liant nor varied, it is highly agreeable, the tones being full, soft, and 

 mellow. While other birds of its kind build in thickets and humble 

 situations, this proud little creature is said always to select the very 

 lofty tree from which it takes its name, the Palmist (a species of Palm), 

 and to place its nest in the top, in the sort of hive formed at the base 

 or insertion of the peduncle which sustains the clusters of fruit. 



Such are the facts we have gathered from authors ; but as the singu- 

 lar description of the nest coincides exactly with the manner of build- 

 ing of the Tanagra dominica, and as moreover the Palm Warbler 

 appears not to be known in its gayer vesture in the West Indies, we 

 cannot easily believe that it breeds elsewhere than where we have stated ; 

 that is, in the temperate, and even colder regions of America, and that 

 what has been mistaken for its nest, in reality belongs to the above 

 named, or some other bird. 



The first accounts of this species were given, as we have already 

 stated, by'Bufibn, . and from him subsequent writers appear to have 

 copied what they relate of it. The bird which he described must have 

 been a very young specimen, as its colors are very dull, much more so 

 than the one figured and described by Vieillot, who supposes, though 

 erroneously, Bu3"on's specimen to have been a female. Even Vieil- 

 lot's, which is certainly our species in its winter dress, is much duller in 

 color than those we received from Florida : and these a^ain are far less 

 brilliant than the bird in our plate, represented as it appears for a few 

 days in the spring in_ Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and is found 

 throughout summer in Maine ; thus exhibiting the several gradations 

 of change which the plumage undergoes. 



Naturalists cannot be too circumspect in receiving reports even from 

 the most respectable sources, their own senses afi"ording the only authen- 

 tic testimony to be relied on. From information derived from Mr. T. 

 Peale, who had no opportunity for making comparisons, we erroneously 

 stated in the first volume of this work, that Sylvia celata, Say, was one 

 of the most common birds in Florida during winter, keeping among the 

 orange-trees, &c. All this statement had reference to the present spe- 

 cies ; and as soon as the specimens brought by Mr. Peale as Sylvia 



