196 
TENNESSEE WARBLER. 
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 southward. 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 excepting the geese. 
Species XXIV. SYLVIA PEREGRINA. 
TENNESSEE WARBLER, 
[Plate XXV. Fig. 2.] 
Tins plain little bird has hitherto remained unknown. I first found 
it on the banks of Cumberland river, in the state of Tennessee, and sup- 
posed it to be a rare species, having since met with only two individuals 
of the same species. It was hunting nimbly among the young leaves, 
and like all the rest of the family of Worm-eaters, to which by its bill 
it evidently belongs, seemed to partake a good deal of the habits of the 
Titmouse. Its notes were few and weak ; and its stomach on dissection 
contained small green caterpillars, and a few winged insects. 
As this species is so very rare in the United States, it is most proba- 
bly a native of a more southerly climate, where it may be equally nu- 
merous with any of the rest of its genus. The small Cerulean War- 
bler (Plate XVII., fig. 5), which in Pennsylvania, and almost all over 
the Atlantic States, is extremely rare, I found the most numerous of its 
tribe in Tennessee and West Florida ; and the Carolina Wren (Plate 
XII., fig. 5), which is also scarce to the northward of Maryland, is 
abundant through the whole extent of country from Pittsburgh to New 
Orleans. 
Particular species of birds, like different nations of men, have their 
congenial climes and favorite countries ; but wanderers are common to 
both ; some in search of better fare ; some of adventures ; others led by 
curiosity ; and many driven by storms and accident. 
