PRAIRIE WARBLER. 245 
PRAIRIE WARBLER.—SYLVIA MINUTA.—Fic. 119. 
Peale’s Museum, No. 7784. 
SYLVICOLA? DISCOLOR, —Jarvinz.* 
Sylvia discolor, Vieill. pl. 98, (auct. Bonap.) — Bonap. Synop. p. 82. 
Tus pretty little species I first discovered in that singular tract 
of country in Kentucky, commonly called the Barrens. I shot several 
afterwards in the open woods of the Chactaw nation, where they were 
more numerous. They seem to prefer these open plains and thinly- 
wooded tracts; and have this singularity in their manners, that they 
are not easily alarmed; and search among the leaves the most leisurely 
of any of the tribe I have yet met with; seeming to examine every 
blade of grass and every leaf; uttering at short intervals a feeble 
chirr. I have observed one of these birds to sit on the lower branch 
of atree for half an hour at a time, and allow me to come up nearly to the 
foot of the tree, without seeming to be in the least disturbed, or to dis- 
continue the regularity of its occasional note. In activity it is the re- 
verse of the preceding species; and is rather a scarce bird in the 
countries where I found it. Its food consists principally of small 
caterpillars and winged insects. i 
The Prairie Warbler is four inches and a half long, and six inches 
and a half in extent; the upper parts are olive, spotted on the back 
with reddish chestnut ; from the nostril over and under the eye, yellow ; 
lores, black; a broad streak of black also passes beneath the yellow 
under the eye; small pointed spots of black reach from a little below 
that along the side of the neck and under the wings; throat, breast, 
and belly, rich yellow ; vent, cream colored, tinged with yellow ; wings, 
dark dusky olive; primaries and greater coverts, edged and tipped 
with pale yellow; second row of coverts, wholly yellow; lesser, olive ; 
tail, deep brownish black, ligher on the edges; the three exterior 
feathers, broadly spotted with white. 
The female is destitute of the black mark under the eye; has a 
few slight touches of blackish along the sides of the neck; and some 
faint shades of brownish red on the back. ; 
The nest of this species is of very neat and delicate workman- 
ship, being pensile, and generally hung on the fork of a low bush or 
thicket; it is formed outwardly of green moss, intermixed with rotten 
bits of wood and caterpillar’s silk; the inside is lined with extremely 
fine fibres of grape-vine bark; and the whole would scarcely weigh a 
quarter of an ounce. The eggs are white, with a few brown spots at 
the greatend. These birds are migratory, departing for, the south in 
October. : 
* Bonaparte is of opinion that this is the same with Vieillot’s Sylvia discolor. 1 
have not had an ed of examining it. — Ep. 
