SPECIES 26. SYLVM MINUTA. 
PRAIRIE WARBLER. 
[Plate XXV.— Fig. 4.] 
Peale’s Museum, JVb. 7784. 
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 Chactaw na- 
tion, where they were more numerous. They seem to prefer 
these open plains, and thinly wooded tracts; and have this sin- 
gularity 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 dis- 
turbed, or to discontinue 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 caterpillars and winged insects. 
The Prairie Warhler 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, yellow; 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 coloured, tinged with yellow; wings dark dusky olive; 
primaries and greater coverts edged and tipt with pale yellow; 
second row of coverts wholly yellow; lesser, olive; tail deep 
VOL. II. — 3 B 
