FEMALE CAPE MAY WARBLER. 
105 
it is solitary and silent, gleaning* amongst the branches 
of trees, and creeping much after the manner of the 
titmouse, with its head frequently downwards, in pursuit 
of larvae and insects, which constitute exclusively the 
food of this species. 
Wilson was impressed with the opinion, that the 
shape of the hill would justify the formation of a distinct 
subgenus, which would include this bird, the Sylvia 
vermivora , and some other species. In this opinion 
Cuvier has coincided, by forming his subgenus Dacnis , 
which he places under his extensive genus Cassicus , 
remarking that they form the passage to Motacilla . 
This subgenus we shall adopt, but we differ from Cuvier 
by arranging it under Sylvia; it will then form the 
transition to the more slender-billed Icteri . Temminck 
and Yieillot have arranged them also under Sylvia; 
the latter author, in the (French) New Dictionary of 
Natural History , gives them the name of pitpits ; and 
it is most probably from want of examination, that he 
has not considered the present bird as belonging to 
that section. 
22. SYLVIA MARI TIM A, BONAP. FEMALE CAPE MAY WARBLER. 
BONAPARTE, PLATE III. FIG. III. 
I was so fortunate as to obtain this undescribed little 
warbler in a small wood near Bordentown, New Jersey, 
on the 14th of May, at which season ornithologists 
would do well to be on the alert to detect the passenger 
warblers, whose stay in this vicinity is frequently 
limited to a very few days. 
Judging by the analogical rules of our science, this 
bird is no other than the female of Wilson’s Cape May 
warbler. Its appearance is so different from the male 
he described, that the specific identity is not recog- 
nized at first sight ; but, by carefully comparing the 
two specimens, a correspondence in the least variable 
characters may readily be perceived, especially in the 
remarkable slenderness of the bill, which distinguishes 
