326 
MARYLAND YELLOW-THROAT. 
or last week, of April, and begins to build its nest about the 
middle of May: this is fixed on the ground, among the dried 
leaves, in the very depth of a thicket of briars, sometimes 
arched over, and a small hole left for entrance; the materials are 
dry leaves and fine grass, lined with coarse hair; the eggs are 
five, white, or semi-transparent, marked with specks of reddish 
brown. The young leave the nest about the twenty-second of 
June; and a second brood is often raised in the same season. 
Early in September they leave us, returning to the south. 
This pretty little species is four inches and three quarters 
long, and six inches and a quarter in extent; back, wings, and 
tail, green olive, which also covers the upper part of the neck, 
but approaches to cinereous on the crown; the eyes are inserted 
in a band of black, which passes from the front, on both sides, 
reaching half way down the neck; this is bounded above by an- 
other band of white deepening into light blue; throat, breast, and 
vent brilliant yellow; belly a fainter tinge of the same colour; 
inside coverts of the wings also yellow; tips and inner vanes of 
the wings dusky brown; tail cuneiform, dusky, edged with 
olive-green; bill black, straight, slender, of the true Motacilla 
form; though the bird itself was considered as a species of 
Thrush by Linnaeus, but very properly removed to the genus 
Motacilla by Gmelin; legs flesh coloured; iris of the eye dark 
hazel. The female wants the black band through the eye, has 
the bill brown, and the throat of a much paler yellow. This 
last, I have good reason to suspect, has been described by Eu- 
ropeans as a separate species; and that from Louisiana, referred 
to in the synonymes, appears evidently the same as the former, 
the chief difference, according to Buffbn, being in its wedged 
tail, which is likewise the true form of our own species; so that 
this error corrected will abridge the European nomenclature of 
two species. Many more examples of this kind will occur in 
the course of our descriptions. 
