WZ FEMALE GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER. 
This last essential character also exists in the male, though 
Wilson has not mentioned it. As to the manners and habits 
of the species, he has given us no information, except that it is 
rare, and remains only a few days in Pennsylvania. He says 
nothing of the female, and Vieillot never saw it. 
We regret that we are unacquainted with the form of its 
nest, and the peculiarity of its song. We can only state, that 
during its short stay in Pennsylvania, it is solitary and silent, 
gleaning amongst the branches of trees, and creeping much 
after the manner of the titmouse, with its head frequently 
downwards, in pursuit of larvee and insects, which constitute 
exclusively the food of this species. 
Wilson was impressed with the opinion that the shape of 
the bill would justify the formation of a distinct subgenus, 
which would include this bird, the Sylvia vermivora, and some 
other species. In this opinion Cuvier has coincided, by form- 
ing his subgenus Dacnis, which he places under his extensive 
eenus Cassicus, remarking that they form the passage to Mota- 
cilla. This subgenus we shall adopt, but we differ from 
Cuvier by arranging it under Sylvia ; it will then form the 
transition to the more slender-billed Zcterz. Temminck and 
Vieillot have arranged them also under Sylvia ; the latter 
author, in the (French) “ New Dictionary of Natural History,” 
vives them the name of pztpzts ; and it is most probably from 
want of examination that he has not considered the present 
bird as belonging to that section.* 
* The opinion of Wilson, now mentioned by his continuator, shows 
the accurate perception he had of the generic forms and modifications of 
birds : the subdivision he mentions} has actually been made by various 
ornithologists. Holding different views, we certainly also prefer placing 
it among the Sylviade, but it may lead off in other directions according 
to the ideas of the systematist and the mode of analysis he pursues, 
Vermivora is now retained, on account of, as far as we are aware, the 
more restricted form.—ED. 
