HOODED WARBLER. 
« 
SVLVANIA MITRATA. 
Char. Male : above, yellow olive ; beneath, rich yellow ; sides shaded 
with pale olive ; head and neck black, enclosing a wide band of yellow 
across forehead and through eyes; tail with patch of white on two or 
three outer tail-feathers. Bill black, feet flesh-color. Female : similar to 
male, but sometimes lacking the black, in which specimens the crown is- 
olive and the throat yellow. 
Aif.rA In a low bush; made of leaves and vegetable fibre, lined with 
grass or horse-hair. 
4-5 ; creamy white, spotted chiefly around the larger end with 
brown and lilac ; 0.70 x 0.53. 
This beautiful and singularly marked summer species, com- 
mon in the South, is rarely seen to the north of the State 
of Maryland. It retires to Mexico or the West Indies proba- 
bly to pass the winter. At Savannah, in Georgia, it arrives 
from the South about the 20th of March, according to Wilson. 
It is partial to low and shady situations darkened with under- 
wood, is frequent among the cane-brakes of Tennessee and 
Mississippi, and is exceedingly active, and almost perpetually 
engaged in the pursuit of winged insects. While thus em- 
ployed, it now and then utters three loud, and not unmusical, 
very lively notes, resembling the words, twee twee ’twiitske. 
In its simple song and general habits it therefore much resem- 
bles the summer Yellow Bird. Its neat and compact nest 
is generally fixed in the fork of a small bush, formed outwardly 
of moss and flax, lined with hair, and sometimes feathers ; the 
