58 THE BLUE YELLOW-BACKED WOOD-WARBLER. 



manner, and returns suddenly to nearly the same place, as if afraid to 

 encounter the dangers of a prolonged excursion. I do not think it ever flies 

 to the ground. It hops sidewise as well as straight forward, hangs like a 

 Titmouse, and searches the cups of even the smallest flowers for its favourite 

 insects. 



I am inclined to think that it raises two broods in a season, having seen 

 and shot the young on the trees, in Louisiana, early in May, and again in 

 the beginning of July. The nest is small, formed of lichens, beautifully 

 arranged on the outside, and lined with the cottony substances found on the 

 edges of different mosses. It is placed in the fork of a small twig, and so far 

 towards the extremity of the branches as to have forced me to cut them ten 

 or fifteen feet from it, to procure one. On drawing in the branch carefully 

 to secure the nest, the male and female always flew towards me, exhibiting 

 all the rage and animosity befitting the occasion. The eggs are pure white, 

 with a few reddish dots at the larger end, and were in two instances four in 

 number. It was several years before I discovered one of these nests, so 

 small are they, and so difficult to be seen from the ground. 



This species is found throughout the United States, and may be considered 

 as one of the most beautiful of the birds of our country. It has no song, but 

 merely a soft, greatly prolonged twitter, repeated at short intervals. It re- 

 turns southward, out of the Union, in the beginning of October. 



Blue Yellow-back Warbler, Sylvia pusilla, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. iv\ p. 17. 



Sylvia Americana, Bonap. Syn.. p. 33. 



Blue Yellow- backed Warbler. Sylvia Americana, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. i. p. 78. 



Bill much attenuated; outer three quills nearly equal, first or second long- 

 est; tail almost even, with the feathers pointed. Male with the upper parts 

 light blue, the fore part of the back yellowish-green; two broad bands of 

 white on the wing, formed by the tips of the secondary coverts, and first row 

 of small coverts; quills and tail-feathers dusky, margined with blue; a white 

 spot on the outer three of the latter; loral space black; both eyelids with a 

 white spot; throat yellow, with whitish patches, a lunular band of blackish 

 on the fore neck; breast yellow, spotted with dull orange, the rest of the 

 lower parts yellowish, fading into white; the sides pale greyish-blue. Fe- 

 male similar but paler; the loral band wanting; throat, fore neck/ and breast 

 yellow, without the black lunule. 



Although the bill of this species is much attenuated, it is not essentially 

 different in form from that of S. Blackburnise, and others of this genus; the 

 wings are similar to those of the rest, and there seems no reason for setting 

 it apart to form a genus, as has been done by Bonaparte. 



Male, 4i, %\. 



