362 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 
The history of this rather common Warbler remains 
very imperfect. In the Middle and Northern States, it 
is a bird of passage, arriving from the South about the 
close of April or beginning of May, and proceeding, as is 
supposed, north to pass the summer season in the cares of 
breeding and rearing their young. As early as the 30th 
of August, or after an absence of little more than three 
months, they again appear ; and being a hardy species, 
passing parties continue with us in gardens and woods 
till about the close of November, feeding now almost ex- 
clusively on the myrtle-wax berries ( Myrica cerifera ), or 
on those of the Virginian juniper. These, other late 
and persisting berries, and occasional insects, constitute 
their winter food in the Southern States, where, in con- 
siderable numbers, in the swamps and sheltered groves 
of the sea-coast, they pass the cold season. In fine 
weather, in the early part of October, they may be seen, 
at times, collecting grasshoppers and moths from the 
meadows and pastures, and like the Blue-bird, they often 
watch for the appearance of their prey from a neighbour- 
ing stake, low bough, or fence rail ; and at this time are 
so familiar and unsuspicious, particularly the young, as 
fearlessly to approach almost within the reach of the si- 
lent spectator. At the period of migration, they appear 
in an altered and less brilliant dress ; the bright yellow 
spot on the crown is now edged with brownish-olive, so 
that the prevailing color of this beautiful mark is only 
seen on shedding the feathers with the hand ; a brownish 
tint is also added to the whole plumage ; but Wilson’s 
figure of this supposed autumnal change only represents 
the young bird. The old is, in fact, but little less brilliant 
than in summer, and I have a well-founded suspicion, 
that the wearing of the edges of the feathers, or some 
other secondary cause, alone produces this change in the 
