BAY-BREASTED WARBLER. 247 



BAY-BKEASTED WAEBLER. {Sylvia castanea) 



PLATE XIV.— Fig. 4. 



Parus peregrinus, The Little Chocolate-breasted Titmouse, Bartram, p. 292. — 

 Peale's Museum, No. 7311. 



SYLVICOLA CASTANEA.— Swainson. 



Sylvia castanea, Bonap. Synop.* p. 81. 



This very rare species passes through Pennsylvania about the 

 beginning of May, and soon disappears. It has many of the 

 habits of the titmouse, and all its activity ; hanging among 

 the extremities of the twigs, and darting about from place to 

 place, with restless diligence, in search of various kinds of the 

 larvae of insects. It is never seen here in summer, and very 

 rarely on its return, owing, no doubt, to the greater abundance 

 of foliage at that time, and to the silence and real scarcity 

 of the species. Of its nest and eggs we are altogether unin- 

 formed. 



The length of this bird is five inches, breadth eleven ; 

 throat, breast, and sides under the wings, pale chestnut, or 

 bay ; forehead, cheeks, line over and strip through the eye, 

 black ; crown, deep chestnut ; lower parts, dull j r ellowish 

 white ; hind head and back, streaked with black, on a grayish 

 buff ground ; wings, brownish black, crossed with two bars of 

 white ; tail, forked, brownish black, edged with ash, the three 

 exterior feathers marked with a spot of white on the inner 

 edges; behind the eye is a broad oblong spot of yellowish 

 white. The female has much less of the bay colour on the 

 breast ; the black on the forehead is also less, and of a 

 brownish tint. The legs and feet, in both, are dark ash, the 

 claws extremely sharp for climbing and hanging ; the bill is 

 black ; irides, hazel. 



The ornithologists of Europe take no notice of this species, 



* According to Bonaparte, discovered and first described by Wil- 

 son. — Ed. 



