BLUE BIRD.' 55 



covered with a broad, oblong, somewhat heart-shaped patch 

 of black, bordered on each side with white ; back, rump, and 

 tail, ferruginous, the first streaked with black ; wings, deep 

 dusky, edged with a light clay colour; lesser coverts and whole 

 shoulder of the wing, bright bay ; belly and vent, dull white ; 

 bill, light blue, dusky above, strong and powerful for break- 

 ing 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 sus- 

 pect that it must be a different species ; 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 skills.) 



PLATE III.— Fig. 3. 



Le rouge gorge bleu, 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—SvfAlKSOX.f 



The Blue Redbreast, Echo. pi. 24. — Saxicola sialis, Bonap. Synop. p. 89. — Erythaca 

 (Sialia) Wilsonii, North. Zool. ii. p. 210. 



The pleasing manners and sociable disposition of this little 

 bird entitle him to particular notice. As one of the first 



* Latham, Synopsis, Supplement, p. 158. 



t This beautiful species, interesting both as regards its domestic eco- 

 nomy, and the intimate link which it fills up in the natural system, has 



