YELLOW-THROAT WARBLER. 
215 
and ran nimbly up or down, spirally and perpendicularly, in 
search of insects. I had afterwards many opportunities of 
seeing others of the same species, and found them all to 
correspond in these particulars. This was about the 24th of 
February, and the first of their appearance there that spring, 
for they leave the United States about three months during 
winter, and, consequently, go to no great distance. I had 
been previously informed, that they also pass the summer 
in Virginia, and in the southern parts of Maryland ; but they 
very rarely proceed as far north as Pennsylvania. 
This species is five inches and a half in length, and eight 
and a half broad ; the whole back, hind head, and rump, are a 
fine light slate colour ; the tail is somewhat forked, black, and 
edged with light slate ; the wings are also black, the three 
shortest secondaries, broadly edged with light blue ; all the 
wing-quills are slightly edged with the same ; the first row of 
wing-coverts are tipt and edged with white, the second, 
wholly white, or nearly so ; the frontlet, ear-feathers, lores, 
and above the temple, are black ; the line between the eye 
and nostril, whole throat, and middle of the breast, brilliant 
golden yellow ; the lower eyelid, line over the eye, and spot 
behind the ear-feathers, as well as the whole lower parts, are 
pure white ; the yellow on the throat is bordered with touches 
of black, which also extend along the sides, under the wings ; 
the bill is black, and faithfully represented in the figure ; the 
legs and feet, yellowish brown ; the claws, extremely fine 
pointed ; the tongue, rather cartilaginous, and lacerated at 
the end. The female has the wings of a dingy brown, and 
the whole colours, particularly the yellow on the throat, much 
duller; the young birds of the first season are without the 
yellow. 
