63 



BLACK AND YELLOW WARBLER. 

 SYLVIA MAGNOLIA. 

 [Plate XXIIL— Fig. 2.] 



Pe ale's Museum, No. 7783. 



THIS bird I first met with on the banks of the Little Miami, 

 near its junction with the Ohio. I afterwards found it among the 

 magnolias, not far from fort Adams on the Mississippi. These 

 two, both of which happened to be males, are all the individuals I 

 have ever shot of this species; from which I am justified in con- 

 cluding it to be a very scarce bird in the United States. Mr. Peale, 

 however, has the merit of having been the first to discover this ele- 

 gant species, which he informs me he found several years ago not 

 many miles from Philadelphia. No notice has ever been taken of 

 this bird by any European naturalist whose works I have examined. 

 Its notes, or rather chirpings, struck me as very peculiar and cha- 

 racteristic ; but have no claim to the title of song. It kept constant- 

 ly among the higher branches, and was very active and restless. 



Length five inches, extent seven inches and a half; front, lores, 

 and behind the ear, black; over the eye a fine line of white, and 

 another small touch of the same immediately under; back nearly 

 all black; shoulders thinly streaked with olive; rump yellow; tail 

 coverts jet black; inner vanes of the lateral tail feathers white to 

 within half an inch of the tip where they are black; two middle 

 ones wholly black; whole lower parts rich yellow, spotted from 

 the throat downwards with black streaks; vent white; tail slightly 

 forked; wings black, crossed with two broad transverse bars of 

 white; crown fine ash ; legs brown; bill black. Markings of the 

 female not known. 



