BLUE-BIRD. 37 
rump, and tail, ferruginous, the first streaked with black; wings, 
deep dusky, edged with a light clay color; lesser coverts and whole 
shoulder of the wing, bright bay; belly and vent, dull white; bill, 
light blue, dusky above, strong and powerful for breaking seeds; legs 
and feet, brown; iris of the eye, hazel. The female differs from the 
male in having little or no black on the breast, nor streak of yellow 
over the eye; beneath the eye she has a dusky streak, running in the 
direction of the jaw. In all those I opened, the stomach was filled 
with various seeds, gravel, eggs of insects, and sometimes a slimy 
kind of earth or clay. 
This bird has been figured by Latham, Pennant, and several others. 
The former speaks of a bird which he thinks is either the same, or 
nearly resembling it, that resides in summer in the country about 
Hudson’s Bay, and is often seen associating in flights with the Geese.* 
This habit, however, makes me suspect that it must be a different spe- 
cies; for, while with us here, the Black-throated Bunting is never 
gregarious, but is almost always seen singly, or in pairs, or, at most, 
the individuals of one family together. 
BLUE-BIRD.—SYLVIA SIALIS. —Fie. 10. 
Le rouge gorge bleu, De Buffon, v. 212. Pl. enl. 390. — Blue Warbler, Lath. ii. 
446. — Catesb. i. 47. — Motacilla Sialis, Linn. Syst. 336.— Bartram, p. 291.— 
Peale’s Museum, No. 7188. 
SIALIA WILSONIL — Swatinson.f 
The Blue Redbreast. Edw. pl. 24.— Saxicola sialis, Bonap. Synop. p. 89.—Ery- 
* thaca (Siala) Wilsonii, North. Zool. ii. p- 210. . - 
Tue pleasing manners ‘and sociable disposition of this little bird 
entitle him to particular notice. As one of the first messengers of 
spring, bringing the charming tidings to our very doors, he bears his 
* Latuam, Synopsis, Supplement, p. 158. : 
+ This beautiful species, interesting both as regards its domestic economy and 
the intimate link which it fills up in the natural system, has been dedicated, by Mr. 
Swainson, to our author. It remained a solitary individual, until the discovery of 
a Mexican species by that gentleman, described under the title of S. Mexicana; 
and the return of the last over-land Arctic expedition brought forward a third, con- 
firming the views that were before held regerding it. According to these, it will 
Hes among the Saxicolince, whence it had been previously removed from Sylvia 
by Vieillot and Bonaparte, and it will hold the place, in North and South America, 
of the Robin of Europe, and the Stonechats of that country and Africa ; while, in 
New Holland, the Muscicapa multicolor, now bearing the generic title of Petroica, 
with ‘some allied species, will represent it. The old species ranges extensively over 
North America and the northern parts of the south continent, extending also to 
some of the islands : the newly-discovered one appears confined to a more northern 
latitude. It has been described in the second volume of the Northern Zoology, 
under the name of S. Aretica, and I now add the information contained in thes 
valuable work : — : 
“Color of the dorsal aspect, ultramarine blue ; the webs of the tertiaries, and the 
