YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER. 
281 
wonder that foreigners, who have no opportunity of examining 
the progress of these variations, should have concluded them 
to be two distinct species, and designated them as in the above 
synonyms. 
This bird is also a passenger through Pennsylvania. Early 
in October he arrives from the north, in his olive dress, and 
frequents the cedar trees, devouring the berries with great 
avidity. He remains with us three or four weeks, and is very 
numerous wherever there are trees of the red cedar covered 
with berries. He leaves us for the south, and spends the winter 
season among the myrtle swamps of Virginia, the Carolinas, 
and Georgia. The berries of the Myrica cerifera , both the 
large and dwarf kind, are his particular favourites. On those 
of the latter I found them feeding, in great numbers, near the 
sea shore, in the district of Maine, in October ; and through 
the whole of the lower parts of the Carolinas, wherever the 
myrtles grew, these birds were numerous, skipping about, 
with hanging wings, among the bushes. In those parts of the 
country, they are generally known by the name of Myrtle 
Birds. Round Savannah, and beyond it as far as the Alata- 
maha, I found him equally numerous, as late as the middle of 
March, when his change of colour had considerably progressed 
to the slate hue. Mr Abbot, who is well acquainted with this 
change, assured me, that they attain this rich slate colour 
fully before their departure from thence, which is about the 
last of March, and to the 10th of April. About the middle 
or 20th of the same month, they appear in Pennsylvania, in 
full dress, as represented in the plate ; and after continuing to 
be seen, for a week or ten days, skipping among the high 
branches and tops of the trees, after those larvse that feed on 
the opening buds, they disappear until the next October. 
Whether they retire to the north, or to the high ranges of 
our mountains to breed, like many other of our passengers, 
is yet uncertain. They are a very numerous species, and 
always associate together in considerable numbers, both in 
spring, winter, and fall. 
