60 HERMIT WOOD-WARBLER. 



Sylvia Townsendi, Townsend's Warbler, Towns., Jour. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philadelphia, 



vol. vii. p. 191. 

 Townsend's Warbler, Sylvia Townsendi, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. v. p. 36. 



Wings of moderate length, rather pointed, with the second and third quills 

 longest, the first and second nearly equal and very little shorter; tail scarcely 

 emarginate. Upper parts light greenish-olive, more yellow behind, all the 

 feathers dusky in the centre; cheeks, ear-coverts, and throat black; a band 

 over the eye, a broader band on the side of the neck, and the fore part of the 

 breast bright yellow; the rest of the lower parts white, but the sides marked 

 with oblong dusky spots; wings blackish-brown; the secondary coverts and 

 first row of small coverts largely tipped with white, the quills margined with 

 light grey; tail-feathers blackish-brown, edged with grey; outer two on each 

 side almost entirely white, the next with a small white spot. 



Male, 4±§, wing 2 T %. 



Columbia river, northward. Migratory. 



HERMIT WOOD-WARBLER. 



- Svlvicola occidentals, Toivnsend. 



PLATE XCIIL— Male and Female. 



Of this species discovered by Mr. Townsend and Mr. Nuttall, in the 

 forests of the Columbia river, all that I know is contained in the following 

 notes from these enterprising naturalists: — "The Hermit Warbler," says 

 Mr. Nuttall, "I have little doubt, breeds in the dark forests of the Colum- 

 bia, where we saw and heard it singing in the month of June. It is a re- 

 markably shy and solitary bird, retiring into the darkest and most silent 

 recesses of the evergreens, where, gaining a glimpse of light by ascending 

 the loftiest branches of the gigantic firs, it occupies in solitude a world of its 

 own, but seldom invaded even by the prying Jay, who also retreats, as a last 

 resort, to the same sad gloom. In consequence of this eremitic predilection, 

 it was with extreme difficulty that we ever got sight of our wily and retiring 

 subject, who, no doubt, breeds and feeds in the tops of these pines. Its song, 

 frequently heard from the same place, at very regular intervals, for an hour 



