MARYLAND YELLOW-THROAT. 303 



inches ; the head and neck are of a very deep silky drab; the 

 upper part of the breast a dark changeable violet ; the rest 

 of the bird is black, with a considerable gloss of green when 

 exposed to a good light ; the form of the bill is faithfully 

 represented in the plate — it is evidently that of an Emberiza ; 

 the tail is slightly forked; legs and claws, glossy black, strong 

 and muscular ; iris of the eye, dark hazel. Catesby says of 

 this bird, "It is all over of a brown colour, and something 

 lighter below ; " a description that applies only to the female, 

 and has been repeated, in nearly the same words, by almost all 

 succeeding ornithologists. The young male birds are at first 

 altogether brown, and for a month or more are naked of 

 feathers round the eye and mouth ; the breast is also spotted 

 like that of a thrush with light drab and darker streaks. In 

 about two months after they leave the nest, the black com- 

 mences at the shoulders of the wings, and gradually increases 

 along each side, as the young feathers come out, until the bird 

 appears mottled on the back and breast with deep black and 

 light drab. At three months, the colours of the plumage are 

 complete, and, except in moulting, are subject to no periodical 

 change. 



MARYLAND YELLOW-THEOAT. {Sylvia 



Marilandica.) 



PLATE XVIII.— Fig. 4, Female. 

 TRICHAS PERSONA TZTS— Swainson.— Female. 



The male of this species having already been represented,* 

 accompanied by a particular detail of its manners, I have little 

 further to add here relative to this bird. I found several of 

 them round Wilmington, North Carolina, in the month of 

 January, along the margin of the river, and by the Cypress 

 Swamp, on the opposite side. The individual from which the 



* See Plate VI. fie. 1. 



