166 
SYLVIA VERMIVORA. 
a dusky brown ; tail, slightly forked, yet the exterior 
feathers are somewhat shorter than the middle ones ; 
head and whole lower parts, a dirty huff ; the former 
marked with four streaks of black, one passing from 
each nostril, broadening’ as it descends the hind head ; 
and one from the posterior angle of each eye ; the bill 
is stout, straight, pretty thick at the base, roundish, and 
tapering to a tine point ; no bristles at the side of the 
mouth ; tongue, thin, and lacerated at the tip ; the 
breast is most strongly tinged with the orange buff; 
vent, waved with dusky olive ; bill, blackish above, 
flesh coloured below ; legs and feet, a pale clay colour ; 
eye, dark hazel. The female differs very little in 
colour from the male. 
On this species Mr Pennant makes the following 
remarks: — “ Does not appear in Pennsylvania till 
July, in its passage northward. Does not return the 
same way, but is supposed to go beyond the mountains 
which lie to the west. This seems to be the case with 
all the transient vernal visitants of Pennsylvania.” * 
That a small bird should permit the whole spring, and 
half of the summer, to pass away before it thought of 
ft passing to the north to breed,” is a circumstance, one 
should think, would have excited the suspicion of so 
discerning a naturalist as the author of Arctic Zoology , 
as to its truth. I do not know that this bird breeds to 
the northward of the United States. As to their return- 
ing home by “ the country beyond the mountains,” 
this must, doubtless, be for the purpose of finishing the 
education of their striplings here, as is done in Europe, 
by making the grand tour. This, by the by, would be 
a much more convenient retrograde route for the ducks 
and geese ; as, like the Kentuckians, they could take 
advantage of the current of the Ohio and Mississippi, 
to float down to the southward. Unfortunately, how- 
ever, for this pretty theory, all our vernal visitants 
with which I am acquainted, are contented to plod 
home by the same regions through which they advanced, 
not even excepting the geese. 
* Arctic Zoology , p. 406. 
