V 



YELLOW-RUMP WARBLER 



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mains with us three or four weeks, and is very numerous wherever 

 there are trees of the red cedar covered with berries. He leaves 

 us for the south, and spends the winter season among the myrtle 

 swamps of Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia. The berries of 

 the Myrica cerifera, both the large and dwarf kind, are his parti- 

 cular favorites. On those of the latter I found him feeding, in great 

 numbers, near the sea shore, in the district of Maine, in October; 

 and thro the whole of the lower parts of the Carolinas, wherever 

 the myrtles grew, these birds were numerous, skipping about with 

 hanging wings, among the bushes. In those parts of the country 

 they are generally known by the name of Myrtle-birds. Round 

 Savannah, and beyond it as far as the Alatamaha, I found him 

 equally numerous, as late as the middle of March, when his change 

 of color had considerably progressed to the slate hue. Mr. Abbot, 

 who is well acquainted with this change, assured me, that they at- 

 tain this rich slate color fully before their departure from thence, 

 which is about the last of March, and to the tenth of April. About 

 the middle or twentieth of the same month they appear in Penn- 

 sylvania, in full dress, as represented in the plate; and after con- 

 tinuing to be seen, for a week or ten days, skipping among the 

 high branches and tops of the trees, after those larvae that feed on 

 the opening buds, they disappear until the next October. Whether 

 they retire to the north, or to the high ranges of our mountains to 

 breed, like many other of our passengers, is yet uncertain. They 

 are a very numerous species, and always associate together in con- 

 siderable numbers, both in spring, winter and Fall. 



This species is five inches and a half long, and eight inches 

 broad; whole back, tail coverts, and hind head, a fine slate color, 

 streaked with black; crown, sides of the breast, and rump, rich 

 yellow; wings and tail black, the former crossed with two bars of 

 white, the three exterior feathers of the latter spotted with white; 

 cheeks and front black; chin, line over and under the eye, white; 

 breast light slate, streaked with black extending under the wings ; 



