+; 
236 PROTHONOTARY WARBLER. ' 
on the back and rump, and also the red, in detached spots, on the 
throat and lower parts. All these colors are completed-in the fourth 
season, except, sometimes, that the green still continues on the tail. 
On the fourth and fifth season, the bird has attained his complete colors, 
and appears then as represented in the plate, (Fig. 110.) No depen- 
dence, however, can be placed on the regularity of this change in birds 
confined in a cage, as the want of proper food, sunshine, and variety 
of climate, all conspire against the regular operations of nature. 
The Nonpareil is five inches and t:ree quarters long, wand eight 
inches and three quarters in extent; head, neck ‘above, and sides of 
the same, a rich purplish blue; eyelid, chin, and whole: lower parts, 
vermilion; back and scapulars, glossy yellow, stained with rich green, 
and in old birds with red; lesser wing-coverts, purple; larger, green; 
wings, dusky red, sometimes edged wh green; lower part of the 
back, rump, and tail-coverts, deep glossy red, inclining to carmine ; 
tail, slightly forked, purplish brown, (generally green;) legs and feet, 
leaden gray; bill, black above, pale blue below; iris of the eye, hazel: 
The female (Fig. 111) is five and a half inches long, and eight inches 
in extent; ‘upper parts, green olive, brightest on the rump; lower 
paits, a dusky Naples yellow, brightest on the belly, and tinged con- 
siderably on the breast with dull green, or olive; cheeks, or ear- 
feathers, marked with lighter touches ; bill, wholly a pale lead color, 
lightest below ; legs and feet, the same. 
The food of these birds consists of rice, insects, and various kinds 
of seeds that grow luxuriantly in their native haunts, I also observed 
them eating the seeds or internal grains of ripe figs. They frequent 
gardens, building within a few paces of the. house; are particularly 
attached to orangeries; and chant occasionally during the whole 
summer. Early in October they retire to more southern climates, 
being extremely susceptible of cold. ; 
—~-—_— 
PROTHONOTARY WARBLER.—SYLVIA PROTONOTARIUS. 
— Fie. 112. 7 
Arct. Zool. p. 410.— Buff. v. 316.— Lath. ii. 494. Pl. ent. '704.— Peale’s 
Museum, No. 7020. 
VERMIVORA? PROTONOTARIUS. — Janninz. 
Sylvia (sub-genus Dacnis, Cuv.) protonotarius, Bonap. Synop. p. 86.— The 
Prothonotary Warbler, Aud. pl. 3, male and female ; Orn. Biog. i. p. 22. 
Tas is an inhabitant of the same country as the preceding species, 
and also a passenger from the south, with this difference, that the bird 
now before us seldom approaches the house or garden, but keeps 
among the retired, deep, and dark, swampy woods, through which it 
flits nimbly in search of small caterpiltars, #tering. every now and 
then a few screaking notes, scarcely worthy of notice. They are 
