21 8 SINGING BIRDS. 



the period of migration, they appear in an altered and less 

 brilliant dress. The bright yellow spot on the crown is now 

 edged with brownish olive, so that the prevailing color of this 

 beautiful mark is only seen on shedding the feathers with the 

 hand ; a brownish tint is also added to the whole plumage. But 

 Wilson's figure of this supposed autumnal change only repre- 

 sents the young bird. The old is, in fact, but little less brilliant 

 than in summer, and I have a well-founded suspicion that the 

 wearing of the edges of the feathers, or some other secondary 

 cause, alone produces this change in the livery of spring, par- 

 ticularly as it is not any sexual distinction. 



While feeding they are very active, in the manner of Fly- 

 catchers, hovering among the cedars and myrtles with hanging 

 wings, and only rest when satisfied with gleaning food. In 

 spring they are still more timid, busy, and restless. According 

 to Audubon, the nest and eggs are scarcely to be distinguished 

 from those of Sylvia astiva ; one which he examined from 

 Nova Scotia was made in the extremity of the branch of a low 

 fir-tree, about five feet from the ground. When approached, 

 or while feeding, they only utter a feeble, plaintive tship of 

 alarm. This beautiful species arrives here about the 7th or 

 8th of May, and now chiefly frequents the orchards, uttering 

 at short intervals, in the morning, a sweet and varied, rather 

 plaintive warble, resembling in part the song of the Summer 

 Yellow Bird, but much more the farewell, solitary autumnal 

 notes of the Robin Redbreast of Europe. The tones at times 

 are also so ventriloquial and variable in elevation that it is not 

 always easy to ascertain the spot whence they proceed. While 

 thus engaged in quest of small caterpillars, the Myrtle seems 

 almost insensible to obtrusion, and familiarly searches for its 

 prey, however near we may approach. 



The " Yellow-rump " — by which name this species is best known 

 — breeds regularly from northern New England northward and 

 west to Manitoba ; also on the Berkshire hills in Massachusetts. 

 It is an abundant summer resident of the Maritime Provinces, but 

 elsewhere, in the settled portions of Canada, occurs as a migrant 

 only. It winters regularly in Massachusetts and central Qhio, and 

 thence southward as far as Central America. 



