MARYLAND YELLOW-THROAT. 303 
The length of this species is seven inches, breadth eleven 
inches ; the head and neck are of a very deep silky drab ; the 
upper part of the breast a dark changeable violet ; the rest of 
the bird is black, with a considerable gloss of green when 
exposed to a good light; the form of the bill is faithfully 
represented in the plate — it is evidently that of an Emberiza ; 
the tail is slightly forked ; legs and claws, glossy black, strong 
and muscular ; iris of the eye, dark hazel. Catesby says of 
this bird, “ it is all over of a brown colour, and something 
lighter below ; ” a description that applies only to the female, 
and has been repeated, in nearly the same words, by almost 
all succeeding ornithologists. The young male birds are 
at first altogether brown, and for a month, or more, are naked 
of feathers round the eye and mouth ; the breast is also spotted 
like that of a Thrush, with light drab and darker streaks. In 
about two months after they leave the nest, the black com- 
mences at the shoulders of the wings, and gradually increases 
along each side, as the young feathers come out, until the bird 
appears mottled on the back and breast with deep black and 
light drab. At three months, the colours of the plumage are 
complete, and, except in moulting, are subject to no periodical 
change. 
MARYLAND YELLOW-THROAT— SYLVIA MARILANDICA. 
Plate XVIII. Fig. 4. Female. 
TRICHAS PERSONATUS.— Swainson. Female. 
The male of this species having already been represented,* 
accompanied by a particular detail of its manners, I have 
little farther to add here relative to this bird. I found several 
of them round Wilmington, North Carolina, in the month of 
January, along the margin of the river, and by the Cypress 
Swamp, on the opposite side. The individual from which 
See Plate VI. Fig. J. 
