109 



BLUE-WINGED YELLOW WARBLER. 

 SYLVIA SOLITARIA. 

 [Plate XV.— Fig. 4.] 



J^arus aureus alts ceruleis^ Bar tram, p. 292. — Edw. pi. 277, upper figure. — Pine Warhlei\ 

 Arct. ZooL p. 412, No. 318. — Peale's Museum, JVo. 7307. 



THIS bird has been mistaken for the Pine Creeper of Catesby* 

 It is a very different species. It comes to us early in May from 

 the south ; haunts thici^ets and shrubberies^ searching the branches 

 for insects ; is fond of visiting gardens, orchards, and willow trees^ 

 of gleaning among blossoms, and currant bushes; and is frequently 

 found in very sequestered woods, where it generally builds its nest; 

 This is fixed in a thick bunch or tussock of long grass, sometimes 

 sheltered by a briar bush. It is built in the form of an inverted 

 cone, or funnel, the bottom thickly bedded with dry beech leaves, 

 the sides formed of the dry bark of strong weeds, lined within with 

 fine dry grass. These materials are not placed in the usual man- 

 ner circularly, but shelving downwards on all sides from the top; 

 the mouth being wide, the bottom very narrow, filled with leaves, 

 and the eggs or young occupying the middle. The female lays 

 five eggs, pure white, with a few very faint dots of reddish near 

 the great end; the young appear the first week in June. I am not 

 certain whether they raise a second brood in the same season. 



I have met with several of these nests, always in a retired tho 

 open part of the woods, and very similar to each other. 



The first specimen of this bird taken notice of by European 

 writers was transmitted, with many others, by Mr. William Bar- 

 tram to Mr. Edwards, by whom it was drawn and etched in the 

 277th plate of his Ornithology. In his remarks on this bird he 



VOL. II. E e 



