252 
SINGING BIRDS. 
ing marshy ground, and flitting through low bushes in quest of 
insects, appears very similar to the Maryland Yellow-throat. 
The discoverer, however, also distinguished it more importantly 
by the novelty of its sprightly and pleasant warble ; we may 
therefore perhaps consider it as a solitary straggler from the 
main body in the western regions of this vast continent. It 
was shot in the early part of June near Philadelphia. 
On the 20th of May, 1831, I saw, as I believe, the male of 
this species in the dark shrubbery of the Botanic Garden 
(Cambridge) . It possessed all the manners of the common 
species, was equally busy in search of insects in the low bushes, 
and at little intervals warbled out some very pleasant notes, 
which though they resembled the lively chant of the Maryland 
Yellow-throat, even to the wetitshee, yet they were more agree- 
ably varied, so as to approach in some degree the song of the 
Summer Yellow Bird (Sylvia cBSiiva). This remarkable note, 
indeed, set me in quest of the bird, which I followed for some 
time ; but at last, perceiving himself watched, he left the gar- 
den. As far as I was able to observe this individual, he was 
above of a dark olive-green, very cinereous on the fore part of 
the head, with a band of black through the eyes, which de- 
scended from the side of the neck, where at length it joined 
with a crescent of dusky or black spots upon the breast ; the 
throat was yellow and the under parts paler. 
Mr. Townsend saw a specimen on the shady borders of the 
Schuylkill in the month of May last, and a second individual 
has been obtained by Mr. De Rham in the vicinity of New York. 
Two or three other specimens have also been obtained in the 
vicinity of Philadelphia and in New Jersey. It is, however, 
still a very rare species, and its proper habitation is yet to be 
discovered. 
This is still a rare bird in many localities, and it is among the 
desiderata of most collectors ; yet within the limits of its favorite 
breeding areas, — at the higlier altitudes of the Alleghanies ; on the 
Berkshire Hills; along the northern borders of Vermont and New 
Hampshire; in portioris of New York; and elsewhere between the 
Atlantic coa.st and the Plains where suitable conditions of environ- 
