PRAIRIE WARBLER. 375 



PRAIRIE WARBLER. {Sylvia minuta.) 



PLATE XXV. -Fig. 4. 



Peale's Museum, No. 7784. 



SYLYIGOLA ? DISCOLOR.— J ardine.* 



Sylvia discolor, Vieill, pi. 98. (auct. Bonap.) — Bonap. Synop. p. 82. 



This pretty little species I first discovered in that singular 

 tract of country in Kentucky, commonly called the Barrens. 

 I shot several afterwards in the open woods of the Chactaw 

 nation, where they were more numerous. They seem to prefer 

 these open plains, and thinly wooded tracts ; and have this 

 singularity in their manners, that they are not easily alarmed ; 

 and search among the leaves trie most leisurely of any of the 

 tribe I have yet met with ; seeming to examine every blade 

 of grass and every leaf ; uttering at short intervals a feeble chirr. 

 I have observed one of these birds to sit on the lower branch 

 of a tree for half an hour at a time, and allow me to come 

 up nearly to the foot of the tree, without seeming to be in the 

 least disturbed, or to discontinue the regularity of its occa- 

 sional note. In activity it is the reverse of the preceding 

 species ; and is rather a scarce bird in the countries where 

 I found it. Its food consists principally of small cater- 

 pillars and winged insects. 



The prairie warbler is four inches and a half long, and 

 six inches and a half in extent ; the upper parts are olive, 

 spotted on the back with reddish chestnut ; from the nostril 

 over and under the eye, yellow ; lores, black ; a broad streak 

 of black also passes beneath the yellow under the eye ; small 

 pointed spots of black reach from a little below that along the 

 side of the neck and under the wings ; throat, breast, and 

 belly, rich yellow ; vent, cream coloured, tinged with yellow ; 



* Bonaparte is of opinion that this is the same with Vieillot's Sylvia 

 discolor. I have not had an opportunity of examining it. — Ed. 



