404 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 
This species is about 5 inches in length, and 6J to 7 in alar dimen- 
sions. Above yellow-olive, inclining to cinereous on the crown. 
Throat, breast, and vent yellow, fainter on the belly. Wings, and 
unspotted, icedge - shaped tail, dusky brown; the quills of both edged 
with yellow olive. Bill black above, paler beneath. Legs pale flesh- 
color and remarkably delicate. Iris dark hazel. — Sometimes male 
" birds occur with the pale grey line over the eye exalted into white 
as in Buffon’s figure. — The young , at first, resemble the female, 
but the male of the season, before his departure in autumn, exhibits 
the brilliant yellow throat, as well as some appearance of the grey 
and black, which ornament the sides of the face in the adult. 
MOURNING WARBLER. 
{Sylvia Philadelphia, Wilson, ii. p. 101. pi. 14. fig. 6. [female?] 
Sp. Charact. — Dark greenish-olive ; head dark grey; a crescent 
of alternate white and black lines on the breast ; belly yellow ; 
tail cuneiform. 
Wilson, the discoverer of this curious species, never 
met with more than a single individual, which, in its 
habits of frequenting marshy ground, and flitting through 
low bushes in quest of insects, appears very similar to 
the preceding species, of which Prince Bonaparte con- 
jectures it to be only an accidental variety. The dis- 
coverer, however, also distinguished it more importantly 
by the novelty of its sprightly and pleasant warble ; we 
may therefore perhaps consider it as a solitary straggler 
from the main body in the western regions of this vast 
continent. It was shot in the early part of June near 
Philadelphia. 
On the 20th of May (1831) I saw, as I believe, the 
male of this species in the dark shrubbery of the Botanic 
Garden (in Cambridge.) It possessed all the manners 
of the preceding species, was equally busy in search of 
insects in the low bushes, and, at little intervals, warbled 
out some very pleasant notes, which, though they resem* 
