198 
PRAIRIE WARBLER. 
tenants of the grove ; who experience all the ardency of those passions 
no less than their lord and sovereign man. 
The Kentucky Warbler is five inches and a half long, and eight 
inches in extent ; the upper parts are an olive green ; line over the 
eye and partly under it, and whole lower parts, rich brilliant } r ellow ; 
head slightly crested, the crown deep black, towards the hind part 
spotted with light ash ; lores, and spot curving down the neck, also 
black ; tail nearly even at the end, and of a rich olive green ; interior 
vanes of that and the wings dusky ; legs an almost transparent pale 
flesh color. 
The female wants the black under the eye, and the greater part of 
that on the crown, having those parts yellowish. This bird is very 
abundant in the moist woods along the Tennessee and Cumberland 
rivers. 
Species XXVI. SYLVIA MINUTA. 
PRAIRIE WARBLER. 
[Plate XXV. Fig. 4.] 
This pretty little species I first discovered in that singular tract of 
country in Kentucky, commonly called the Barrens. I shot several 
afterwards in the open woods of the Choctaw nation, where they were 
more numerous. They seem to prefer these open plains, and thinly 
wooded tracts ; and have this singularity in their manners, 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, without seeming to be in the least disturbed, or to dis- 
continue the regularity of its occasional note. In activity it is the 
reverse of the preceding species ; and is rather a scarce bird in the 
countries where I found it. Its food consists principally of small cater- 
pillars 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 chestnut ; from the nostril over and under the eye, yel- 
low ; 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 colored, tinged with yellow ; 
