184 YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER 
’ 
YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER.—SYLVIA CORONATA 
Fie. 80. 
Motacilla maculosa, Gmel. Syst. i. p. 984.— Motacilla coronata, Linn. Syst. i. p. 
332, No. 31. Le Figuier a téte cendrée, Buff. v. p. 291.— Le Figuier couronné 
Wor, Id. v. p. 312. — Yellow-Rump Flycatcher, dw. t. 255,— Golden-crowned 
Flycatcher, Id. t. 298. —Yellow-Rump Warbler, Arct. Zool. ii. No. 288. — Golden- 
crowned Warbler, Jd. ii. No. 294.— Lath. Syn. iv. 5; 481, No. 104. Id. Supp. p. 
182, Id. Syn. iv. p. 486, No. 11.— Turton, p. 599, Id. 606. — Parus cedrus uro- 
ygio flavo. — ‘The Yellow Rump, Bartram, p. 292.— Parus aurio vertice. — 
he Golden-Crown Flycatcher, Jd. 292. — Peale’s Museum, No. 7134. 
SYLVICOLA CORONATA. —Swaiwson. 
Sylvia coronata, Bonap. Synop. p..77, (summer plumage.*) — Sylvicola coronata 
Q : North. Zool. i. p. S16. Y 
In this beautiful little species we have another instance of the mis- 
takes occasioned by the change of color to which many of our birds 
are subject. In the present case this. change is both progressive and 
periodical. The young birds of the first season are of a brown olive 
above, which continues until the month of February and March; 
about which time it gradually changes into a fine slate color, as in Fig. 
80. About the middle of April this change is completed. I have 
shot them in all their gradations of changé. While in their brown 
olive dress, the yellow on the sides of the breast and crown is scarcely 
observable, unless the feathers be parted with the hand; but that on 
the rump is still vivid; the spots of black on the cheek are then also 
obscured. The difference of appearance, however, is so great, that 
we need scarcely wonder that foreigners, who have no opportunity of 
examining the progress of these variations, should ‘have concluded 
them to be two distinct species, and designated them as in the above 
synonymes. : 
This bird is also a passenger through Pennsylvania. Early in Oc- 
tober he arrives from the north, in his olive dress, and frequents the 
cedar-trees, devouring the berries with great avidity. He remains 
with us three or four weeks, and is very numerous wherever there are 
trees of the red cedar covered with berries. He leaves us for the 
south, and spends the winter season among the myrtle swamps of Vir- 
ginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. . The berries of the Myrica cerifera, 
both the large and dwarf kind, are his particular favorites. On those 
of the latter I found them feeding, in great numbers, near the sea- 
shore, in the District of Maine, in October; and through the whole of 
the lower parts of the Carolinas, wherever the myrtles grew, these 
birds were numerous, skipping about, with hanging wings, among the 
bushes. In those parts of the country, they are generally known by 
the name of Myrtle Birds. Round Savannah, and bevond it as far as 
the Altamaha, I fourid him equally numerous, as late as the middle of 
March, when his change of color had considerably progressed to the 
slate hue. Mr. Abbot, who is well acquainted with this change, assured 
me, that they attain this rich slate color fully before their departure 
J 
* Winter plumage, Fig. 187. 
