87 



PRAIRIE WARBLER. 

 SYLVIA MINUTA. 

 [Plate XXV.— Fig. 4.] 



Pe ale's Museum, No. 11 



THIS pretty little species I first discovered in that singular 

 tract of country in Kentucky, commonly called the Barrens. I sliot 

 several afterwards in the open woods of the Chactaw nation, where 

 they were more numerous. They seem to prefer these open plains, 

 and thinly wooded tracts ; and have this singularity in their man- 

 ners, that they are not easily alarmed; and search among the 

 leaves the most leisurely of any of the tribe I have yet met with; 

 seeming to examine every blade of grass, and every leaf; uttering 

 at short intervals a feeble chirr. I have observed one of these 

 birds to sit on the lower branch of a tree for half an hour at a 

 time, and allow me to come up nearly to the foot of the tree, with- 

 out seeming to be in the least disturbed, or to discontinue the regu- 

 larity of its occasional note. In activity it is the reverse of the pre- 

 ceding species ; and is rather a scarce bird in the countries where 

 I found it. Its food consists principally of small caterpillars and 

 winged insects. 



The Prairie Warbler is four inches and a half long, and six 

 inches and a half in extent; the upper parts are olive, spotted on 

 the back with reddish chesnut; from the nostril over and under 

 the eye, yellow; lores black; a broad streak of black also passes 

 beneath the yellow under the eye; small pointed spots of black 

 reach from a little below^ that along the side of the neck and under 

 the wings; throat, breast and belly rich yellow; vent cream co- 

 lored, tinged with yellow; wings dark dusky olive; primaries and 



