238 FEMALE CCERULEAN WARBLER. 



To the no less zealous researches of Mr. Titian Peale, the discovery of 

 the female is recently owing, who moreover evinced his sagacity by deter- 

 mining its affinities, and pointing out its true place in the system. 

 Although it preserves the principal characters of the male, yet the 

 difference is sufficiently marked to deserve an especial notice in this 

 work. 



The specimen here represented, was procured on the hanks of the 

 Schuylkill, near Mantua village, on the first of August, 1825. It was 

 very active, skipping about on the branches of an oak, attentively 

 searching the leaves, and crevices of the bark, and at intervals taking 

 its food on the wing in the manner of the Flycatchers. It warbled in 

 an under tone, not very unlike that of the Blue-gray Flycatcher of 

 Wilson [Sylvia coerulea, L.), a circumstance that would lead to the sup- 

 position of its being a male in summer dress, but on dissection it proved 

 to be a female. 



The Female Azure Warbler is four and three-quarter inches long, 

 and eight and a quarter in extent.* Bill blackish above, pale bluish 

 beneath ; feet light blue ; irides very dark brown ; head and neck above, 

 and back, rich silky-green, brighter on the head, and passing gradually 

 into dull bluish on the rump ; line from the bill over the eye whitish, 

 above which is the indication of a blue-black line widening behind ; a 

 dusky streak passes through the eye ; cheeks dusky greenish ; beneath 

 entirely whitish, strongly tinged with yellow on the chin ; sides of the 

 neck, breast, flanks, and vent, streaked with dark bluish ; the base 

 of the whole plumage is bluish-white ; inferior tail-coverts pure white ; 

 wings and tail very similar to those of the male, though much less bril- 

 liant ; smaller wing-coverts bluish, tipped with green ; middling and 

 large wing-coverts blackish, widely tipped with white, constituting two 

 very apparent bands across the wings, the white slightly tinged with 

 yellowish at tip ; spurious wing blackish ; quill-feathers blackish, edged 

 externally with green, internally and at tip with whitish, the three near- 

 est the body more widely so ; the inferior wing-coverts white ; tail hardly 

 rounded, feathers dusky slate, slightly tinged with bluish externally, 

 and lined with pure white internally, each with a white spot towards the 

 tip on the inner web. This spot is larger on the outer feathers, and 

 decreases gradually until it becomes inconspicuous on the two middle 

 ones. 



The description of the male need not here be repeated, having been 

 already given with sufficient accuracy by "Wilson, to whose work the 

 reader is referred. On a comparison of the description and figures, he 



* The dimensions given by Wilson of the male must be rather below the standard, 

 as they are inferior to those of the female, whereas all the specimens we examined 

 were larger, as usual. 



