406 BLUE GREEN WARBLER. 



brown ; whole upper parts, mottled transversely with black, 

 reddish brown, and white ; tail short, very much rounded, 

 and of a plain brownish soot colour ; throat, elegantly marked 

 with touches of reddish brown, white, and black ; lower part 

 of the breast and belly, pale brown, marked transversely with 

 white ; legs, covered to the toes with hairy down of a dirty 

 drab colour ; feet, dull yellow ; toes, pectinated ; vent, whitish ; 

 bill, brownish horn colour ; eye, reddish hazel. The female 

 is considerably less ; of a lighter colour, destitute of the neck 

 wings, the naked yellow skin on the neck, and the semicircular 

 comb of yellow over the eye. 



On dissecting these birds, the gizzard was found extremely 

 muscular, having almost the hardness of a stone ; the heart 

 remarkably large ; the crop was filled with brier knots, con- 

 taining the larvae of some insect, quantities of a species of green 

 lichen, small hard seeds, and some grains of Indian corn. 



BLUE-GREEN WAEBLER. {Sylvia rara) 



PLATE XXVII. -Fig. 2. 



PeaWs Museum, No. 7788. 



VERMIVORA iL4iL4.— Jardine.* 



Sylvia rara, Bonap. Synop. p. 82. — Aud. pi. 49, male ; Orn. Biog. i. p. 258. 



This new species, the only one of its sort I have yet met with, 

 was shot on the banks of Cumberland River, about the be- 



* This species was discovered by "Wilson, and does not seem to have 

 been again met with by any ornithologist except Mr Audubon, who has 

 figured it, and added somewhat to our knowledge of its maimers. 



"It is rare in the middle districts, and is only found in the dark 

 recesses of the Pine Swamp. On its passage through the States, it ap- 

 pears in Louisiana in April. They are met with in Kentucky, in Ohio, 

 upon the Missouri, and along Lake Erie." Mr Audubon has never seen 

 the nest. In spring the song is soft and mellow, and not heard be- 

 yond the distance of a few paces ; it is performed at intervals, between 

 the times at which the bird secures an insect, which it does with great 

 expertness, either on the wing, or among the leaves of the trees and 

 bushes. "While catching it on the wing, it produces a slight clicking 

 sound with its bill, like Vireo. It also, like them, eats small berries, 



