PARTICOLORED WARBLER, OR FINCH CREEPER. 397 
PARTICOLORED WARBLER, or FINCH 
CREEPER. 
(Sylvia americana , Lath. Audubon, pi. 13. Orn. Biog. i. p. 78. 
S. pusilla , Wilson, iv. p. 17. pi. 28. fig. 3. Phil. Museum, No. 
6910.) 
Sp. Charact. — Dusky blue ; interscapular region brownish yel- 
low olive; throat and lower mandible yellow; belly white; 
wings with 2 white bars ;• lateral tail-feathers marked interiorly 
with white. — Male with a black crescent, and with the breast 
tinged with orange. — Female without the crescent and orange 
color on the breast. — Young , brownish-grey ; beneath muddy 
white. 
This remarkable species visits the Middle and North- 
ern States about the 1st to the 15th of May, and is seen 
again early in October on its way to the West Indies 
(St. Domingo and Porto Rico), whither it retires at the 
approach of winter. A few, according to Catesby, pass 
the whole year in South Carolina. It is very abundant 
in the summer in the woods of Kentucky ; is active and 
restless on its first arrival, and frequents the summits of 
the highest trees, being particularly fond of the small cat- 
erpillars and flies of various kinds, which are, in the early 
part of spring, attracted to the opening blossoms and 
tender shoots. It also possesses in some degree the 
creeping and prying habits of the Titmouse, to which 
genus it was referred by Linnseus and Pennant ; it is, 
however, a true Sylvia. Entering the southern extremi- 
ty of the Union by the first approach of spring, it is now 
seen searching for its insect food on shrubs and plants in 
moist places, by the borders of lakes and streams. In 
this vicinity it is not common ; but as it was singing as 
late as the 22d of May, in the woody solitudes of the 
Blue Hills of Milton, it must undoubtedly breed there. 
The nest, according to Audubon, is placed in the fork of 
34 
