WORiM-EATING WARBLER. 



75 



the side of the mouth; tongue thin, and lacerated at the tip; the 

 breast is most strongly tinged with the orange buff; vent waved 

 with dusky olive ; bill blackish above, flesh colored below ; legs 

 and feet a pale clay color; eye dark hazel. The female differs 

 very little in color from the male. 



On this species Mr. Pennant makes the following remarks. — 

 " Does not appear in Pennsylvania till July in its passage north- 

 ward. Does not return the same way; but is supposed to go be- 

 " yond the mountains which lie to the west. This seems to be the 

 " case with all the transient vernal visitants of Pennsvlvania.'^^ 

 That a small bird should permit the whole spring and half of the 

 summer to pass away before it thought of " passing to the north 

 to breed/^ is a circumstance one should think would have excited 

 the suspicion of so discerning a naturalist as the author of Arctic 

 Zoology, as to its truth. I do not know that this bird breeds to 

 the northward of the United States. As to their returning home 

 by " the country beyond the mountains/^ this must doubtless be for 

 the purpose of finishing the education of their striplings here, as is 

 done in Europe, by making the grand tour. This by the by would 

 be a much more convenient retrograde route for the ducks and 

 geese; as, like the Kentuckians, they could take advantage of the 

 current of the Ohio and Mississippi, to float down to the south- 

 ward. Unfortunately however for this pretty theory, all our vernal 

 visitants with which I am acquainted, are contented to plod home 

 by the same regions through which they advanced; not even ex- 

 cepting the geese. 



* Arct. Zool. p. 406. 



