286 FEMALE CG@RULEAN WARBLER. 
and decreases gradually until it becomes inconspicuous on the 
two middle ones. 
The description of the male need not here be repeated, 
having been given already with sufficient accuracy by Wilson, 
to whose work the reader is referred. Ona comparison of the 
description and figures, he will find that the chief difference 
between the sexes consists in the female being green instead 
of blue, in her wanting the black streaks, and in being tinged 
with yellow beneath. 
We have to regret our inability to add much to Wilson’s 
short and imperfect account of the species. It is by no means 
more common at this time than it was when he wrote, which 
may account for the difficulty of ascertaining the period of its 
migrations, and for the circumstance of our having never met 
with the nest, and our want of acquaintance with its habits. 
We can only add to its history, that it is found in the trans- 
Mississippian territory, for the Sylvia bifasciata of Say, accu- 
rately described in Long’s first expedition, is no other than the 
male. We have examined the specimen shot at Hngineer 
Cantonment. 
Although the undisputed merit of first making known this 
species belongs to Wilson, yet the scientific name that he ap- 
plied to it cannot be retained, inasmuch as it is preoccupied 
by the blue-grey warbler, a Linnean species, which Wilson 
placed in MWuscicapa, but which we consider a Sylvia, notwith- 
standing that it does in some degree aberrate from the typical 
species of that genus.* Under such circumstances, we cannot 
hesitate in adopting the name substituted by Mr Stephens, the 
continuator of Shaw’s compilation. 
* See my “Observations on the Nomenclature of Wilson’s Ornithology.” 
v to} 
